The evil arrows of famine - Famine and pestilence are represented as poisoned arrows, inflicting death wherever they wound. The ancients represented them in the same way.
Matthew Henry
Concise Bible Commentary
The sentence passed upon Jerusalem is very dreadful, the manner of expression makes it still more so. Who is able to stand in God's sight when he is angry? Those who live and die impenitent, will perish for ever unpitied; there is a day coming when the Lord will not spare. Let not persons or churches, who change the Lord's statutes, expect to escape the doom of Jerusalem. Let us endeavour to adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things. Sooner or later God's word will prove itself true.
SDA Bible Commentary (limited)
Volume 1-7
16. Famine.Verses 16, 17 recapitulate Jerusalem’s sorrows. God’s judgments are elsewhere represented as arrows (Deut. 32:23; Ps. 7:13; 64:7). Evil beasts were a judgment threatened against the Jews, along with other desolating forces (Lev. 26:22; Deut. 32:24). Wild animals, such as lions and bears, multiplied in the land when it was uninhabited (see 2 Kings 17:25). “Blood” doubtless denotes a violent death.