The Nine Bows
When a pharonic inscription declares the defeat of the 'nine bows,' a remarkably common motif in Egyptian royal texts, what is being stated is that Egypt's many enemies have been vanquished. Protection of the land of the Nile and conquest are secular and divine imperatives of the king - and so we find this declaration in royal and religious contexts. When he defeats the nine bows, an Egyptian king is doing is job right. Ma`at is maintained.
Here the number nine is symbolic of many. It is not a simple plural but a super-superlative plural; the 'many many' enemies of Egypt. It has the sense of the forces of chaos and all the many great dangers to the sacred order of the land of Egypt.
Ayman Waziry, Pedestal of Rameses II from Antinoopolis