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HORSE.—The Israelites must have been acquainted with horses in Egypt (Gen_47:17), and it is evident, too, from the Tell el-Amarna correspondence that horses were familiar animals in Palestine at an early period; but it would appear that the children of Israel were slow in adopting them. Throughout the OT up to the Exile they appear only as war-horses; the ass, the mule, and the camel were the beasts for riding and burden-bearing. Even for warlike purposes horses were only slowly adopted, the mountainous regions held by the Israelites being unsuitable for chariot warfare. David commenced acquiring chariots (2Sa_8:4), and Solomon greatly added to their numbers, obtaining horses for them from Musri [not Mizraim, ‘Egypt’] in N. Syria and Kue, in Cilicia (1Ki_10:28, 2Ch_1:16 [amending the text]). Horses were obtained also from Egypt (Isa_31:1; Isa_31:3, Eze_17:15). Some of the references may be to hired horsemen. The kings of Israel were warned against multiplying horses (Deu_17:16). Trust in horses is put in antithesis to trust in the Lord (Isa_30:16, Psa_20:7; Psa_33:17). Before the reforms of Josiah, horses sacred to the sun were kept in the Temple (2Ki_23:11; cf. 2Ki_11:16). The appearance of the war-horse seems to have made a deep impression (Job_39:19-25, Jer_47:3, Nah_3:2 etc.). After the Exile horses were much more common: the returning Jews brought 736 horses with them (Neh_7:68). Horses were fed on barley and tibn (chopped straw) in Solomon’s time as in Palestine to-day (1Ki_4:28). Although the breeding of horses has become so intimately associated with our ideas of the Arabs, it would seem that during the whole OT period horses were unknown, or at least scarce, in Arabia. The equipment of horses is mentioned in the Bible—the bit and bridle (Psa_32:9, Pro_26:3), bells of the horses (Zec_14:20), and ‘precious clothes for chariots’ (Eze_27:20). In OT times they were apparently unshod (Isa_5:28).
E. W. G. Masterman.