Horse

Boyd’s Bible Dictionary:

(neigher). Used chiefly for war (Ex. 14:9-23; 2 Chron. 1:14-17; 9:25; Esther 6:8); for threshing (Isa. 28:28).

Concise Bible Dictionary:

A Thoroughbred Arabian
The horse was used among the Israelites only for war, either in chariots or for what is now called cavalry; but its use betokened failure in confidence on the Lord: (See Hos. 14:3). They had been forbidden to multiply horses (Deut. 17:16); and at first they hamstrung the horses, and burnt the chariots of the Canaanites (Josh. 11:6,9). David, however, after the defeat of Hadadezer, reserved 100 horses for chariots (2 Sam. 8:4). See a description of the war-horse in Job 39:19-25. Solomon had 40,000 stalls of horses for his chariots and 12,000 horsemen (1 Kings 4:26).
Ancient Horse Stable in Megiddo
Symbolically the horse represents careering imperial power, in general providentially controlled. In the early part of Zechariah the prophet had visions of horses of different colors, they are called spirits of the heavens, and as such they acted in the four great Gentile empires described by Daniel. When these are further spoken of, the red horses are not named, for the Chaldean empire had passed away when Zechariah saw the vision (Zech. 1:8; Zech. 6:1-7).
In the Revelation also there are horses and riders thereon, representing the powers engaged in the providential course of God’s dealings (Rev. 6:1-8; Compare Rev. 9:7,9,17). In Revelation 19 the Lord Jesus, the Faithful and True, comes forth on a white horse, to make war in righteousness (Rev. 19:11-21). See REVELATION.

“358. Horses Used for Idolatrous Purposes” From Manners and Customs of the Bible:

2 Kings 23:11. He took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun.
Allusion is here made to a peculiar form of sun-worship. Among the Persians horses were considered sacred to the sun. The king of Persia when be sacrificed offered a white horse to that luminary. The people, when they wished to sacrifice to the sun, mounted their horses in the early morning and rode toward the rising orb as if to salute it, and then offered the noble victims to it in sacrifice. See Gale's Court of the Gentiles, chap. 8, p. 115.
The kings of Judah had evidently heard of this custom, and imitated it; though some commentators doubt that they actually slew the animals, supposing that they simply went in state in the early morning to see the sun rise and to adore it. Some have even imagined that these horses were not real, but merely statues, made of wood, stone or metal, which stood at the entrance of the temple. The mention made of the “chariots of the sun” in the latter part of the verse seems, however, to indicate that living animals were intended, and that they were harnessed to these chariots. Whether they were really sacrificed or not, they were kept and used for idolatrous purposes, and therefore became proper subjects of confiscation.

“607. Horses, Unshod” From Manners and Customs of the Bible:

Amos 6:12. Shall horses run upon the rock?
This question has no pertinence in our times, since, by reason of being shod with iron, our horses do not injure their hoofs by running upon the rock. Horse-shoeing was, however, unknown to the Hebrews, and is of comparatively modern introduction. Bishop Lowth states that the shoes of leather and of iron mentioned by Greek and Roman writers, as well as the silver and the gold shoes with which Nero and Poppea shod their mules, enclosed the whole hoof as in a case, or as a shoe does a man’s foot, and were bound or tied on, and even these were exceptional cases. In ordinary instances no shoes of any kind were used. We can thus see how, with hoofs unprotected; the horses could not be expected to run upon a rock. No doubt Amos had this in mind. Isaiah also, in describing the character of the army that should come with destructive judgments upon Judah, says that “their horses’ hoofs shall be counted like flint” (Isa. 5: 28). A hard hoof must have been a very desirable quality in a horse, when the art of protecting the foot with iron shoes was unknown.

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