Horse

The horse appears in Scripture predominantly as a war animal. From Pharaoh's pursuit at the sea to the rider on the white horse in Revelation, the animal is bound up with armies, kings, and the question of whom Israel will trust. The references gather under headings of description, military use, royal prohibition, trade, tackle, and symbolism; the verses move along that arc.

The Horse Described

Yahweh's speech to Job paints the warhorse from the inside: "Have you given the horse [his] might? Have you clothed his neck with the quivering mane? Have you made him to leap as a locust? The grandeur of his snorting is terrible. He paws in the valley, and rejoices in his strength: He goes out to meet the armed men. He mocks at fear, and is not dismayed; Neither does he turn back from the sword ... As often as the trumpet [sounds] he says, Aha! And he smells the battle far off, The thunder of the captains, and the shouting" (Job 39:19-25).

The prophets reach for the same vocabulary. Jeremiah's invader has "horses ... swifter than eagles" (Jer 4:13). Isaiah's army comes with hoofs "accounted as flint, and their wheels as a whirlwind" (Isa 5:28). Jeremiah hears "the snorting of his horses ... from Dan: at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones the whole land trembles" (Jer 8:16).

Yet the same animal is small before Yahweh: "A horse is a vain thing for safety; Neither does he deliver any by his great power" (Ps 33:17). "The horse is prepared against the day of battle; But victory is of Yahweh" (Pr 21:31).

Egypt's War-Horse

Egypt is the paradigm horse-power. Pharaoh's pursuit of Israel was led by "all the horses [and] chariots of Pharaoh, and his horsemen, and his army" (Ex 14:9), and the song of the sea recalls how "the horses of Pharaoh went in with his chariots and with his horsemen into the sea, and Yahweh brought back the waters of the sea on them; but the sons of Israel walked on dry land in the midst of the sea" (Ex 15:19). The motif is fixed in Israel's memory: "Some [trust] in chariots, and some in horses; But we will make mention of the name of Yahweh our God" (Ps 20:7).

Israel's enemies later draw on the same Egyptian arsenal. The Canaanite kings come out against Joshua "with horses and chariots very many" (Jos 11:4); "the Canaanites who dwell in the land of the valley have chariots of iron" (Jos 17:16; Jg 1:19); Sisera musters "nine hundred chariots of iron" (Jg 4:13); the Philistines field "thirty thousand chariots, and six thousand horsemen" against Saul (1 Sa 13:5). Antiochus enters Egypt "with chariots and elephants, and horsemen, and a great number of ships" (1Ma 1:17).

Israelite Cavalry

Israel itself comes to use horses. Joseph rode in Pharaoh's "second chariot" (Gen 41:43) and "made ready his chariot" to meet Jacob (Gen 46:29). Jehoshaphat tells Ahab, "I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses" (1 Ki 22:4). David, in his Syrian campaign, "slew of the Syrians [the men of] seven hundred chariots, and forty thousand horsemen" (2 Sa 10:18); Rehoboam flees "to his chariot" from the stoning of Adoram (1 Ki 12:18); Jehu "rode in a chariot, and went to Jezreel" (2 Ki 9:16). Rabshakeh's taunt assumes Judah cannot mount its own cavalry: "I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them" (2 Ki 18:23).

Outside Israel the cavalry remains the standard instrument of conquest — against Philistia, "the noise of the stamping of the hoofs of his strong ones, ... the rushing of his chariots, ... the rumbling of his wheels" (Jer 47:3) — and the standard target of Yahweh's hammer: "with you I will break in pieces the horse and his rider" (Jer 51:21). Nineveh hears the same word: "I am against you, says Yahweh of hosts, and I will burn your crowd in the smoke" (Na 2:13).

Forbidden to the King

The torah anticipates the temptation. The king of Israel "will not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he may multiply horses; since Yahweh [by his Speech] has said to you⁺, You⁺ will from now on return no more that way" (Deut 17:16).

Hamstringing — hocking — is the practical refusal of cavalry power. Yahweh tells Joshua at the waters of Merom: "you will hock their horses, and burn their chariots with fire" (Jos 11:6), and "Joshua did to them as Yahweh bade him: he hocked their horses, and burned their chariots with fire" (Jos 11:9). David follows the same pattern after defeating Hadadezer: he "hocked all the chariot horses, but reserved of them for a hundred chariots" (2 Sa 8:4).

Israel Reproved

The prophets indict the kingdom for keeping what the law forbade. "Their land also is full of horses, neither is there any end of their chariots" (Isa 2:7). Isaiah pronounces woe on "those who go down to Egypt for help, and rely on horses, and trust in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they are very strong, but don't rely on the [Speech] of the Holy One of Israel, neither seek Yahweh!" (Isa 31:1). Ezekiel describes Zedekiah's covenant-breaking embassy "into Egypt, that they might give him horses and many people" (Eze 17:15). The repentant prayer of Hosea undoes that move: "Assyria will not save us; we will not ride on horses; neither will we say anymore to the work of our hands, [You⁺ are] our gods" (Hos 14:3).

Solomon's Trade

Despite the prohibition, Solomon institutionalised the horse trade. "The horses which Solomon had were brought out of Egypt and from Kue. The king's merchants acquired those from Kue for a price. And a chariot came up and went out of Egypt for six hundred [shekels] of silver, and a horse for a hundred and fifty; and so for all the kings of the Hittites, and for the kings of Syria, they would bring them out by their means" (1 Ki 10:28-29). The Chronicler records the matching infrastructure: "Solomon had four thousand stalls for horses and chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen, that he bestowed in the chariot cities, and with the king at Jerusalem ... they brought horses for Solomon out of Egypt, and out of all lands" (2 Ch 9:25, 28). After the exile the horses are counted as part of the household: the returned community had "seven hundred thirty and six" horses (Ezr 2:66). Babylon the great's last cargo manifest still lists "horses and chariots and slaves" (Rev 18:13).

Tackle

Bits, bells, and harness furnish the practical vocabulary. James draws his analogy from the bridle: "if we put the horses' bridles into their mouths that they may obey us, we turn about their whole body also" (Jas 3:3). Jeremiah's oracle against Egypt commands, "Harness the horses, and get up, you⁺ horsemen, and stand forth with your⁺ helmets" (Jer 46:4). Zechariah pictures the day when even the bells will be inscribed: "In that day there will be on the bells of the horses, HOLY TO YAHWEH" (Zec 14:20).

Horses Dedicated to the Sun

Pagan cult had absorbed the horse before Josiah's reform. He "took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entrance of the house of Yahweh, by the chamber of Nathan-melech the chamberlain, which was in the precincts; and he burned the chariots of the sun with fire" (2 Ki 23:11).

The Chariots of God

In the Psalter the horse and chariot are taken up into Yahweh's own retinue: "The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands on thousands; The Lord is among them, [as in] Sinai, in the sanctuary" (Ps 68:17). "Who lays the beams of his chambers in the waters; Who makes the clouds his chariot; Who walks on the wings of the wind" (Ps 104:3). Habakkuk asks of the divine warrior: "Was Yahweh displeased with the rivers? ... That you rode on your horses, On your chariots of salvation?" (Hab 3:8). Isaiah closes the book with the same picture: "Yahweh will come with fire, and his chariots will be like the whirlwind; to render his anger with fierceness, and his rebuke with flames of fire" (Isa 66:15). Sirach picks up the prophetic tradition for Elijah and Ezekiel: "Who in the whirlwind was taken upwards, And with fiery troops to the heavens" (Sir 48:9); "Ezekiel saw a vision, And declared the different beings of the chariot" (Sir 49:8).

Symbolic Horses

The vision-horses gather the whole motif into a single image-set. Zechariah sees "a man riding on a red horse, and he stood among the myrtle-trees that were in the bottom; and behind him there were horses, red, sorrel, and white" (Zec 1:8).

The seal-horses of Revelation render the four agents of judgment: "a white horse, and he who sat on it had a bow ... another [horse] came forth, a red horse: and to him who sat on it, it was given to take peace from the earth ... a black horse; and he who sat on it had a balance in his hand ... a pale horse: and he who sat on him, his name was Death; and Hades followed with him" (Rev 6:2-8). At the sixth trumpet John sees again "the horses ... and the heads of the horses are as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths proceeds fire and smoke and brimstone" (Rev 9:17).

The arc closes on a final cavalry image: "I saw the heaven opened; and look, a white horse, and he who sat on it called Faithful and True; and in righteousness he judges and makes war ... his name is called The Speech of God. And the armies which are in heaven followed him on white horses, clothed in fine linen, white [and] pure ... the rest were killed with the sword of him who sat on the horse, [even the sword] which came forth out of his mouth" (Rev 19:11-21). The horse that the law forbade the king to multiply, that the prophets refused as security against Assyria, becomes in the end the mount of the rider whose name is the Speech of God.