“Death arrived” may be an ordinary statement of an event. “Death exerted its effect” speaks of its force in general terms. “Death sank in its claws” gives that irresistible force a concrete pattern of seizure that the listener can imagine.
Rhetorical intensification is not merely the use of a harsh word. A predator's strength is mentally evoked and then expressed through a bodily feature peculiar to predators. An unseen event is thus made vivid through a sensory image.
The surrounding wording matters: the gripping force suggested by “anshabat” and the negation of protection in “lā tanfaʿ” reinforce one another. The image cannot be fully understood by isolating the noun “claws.”