Isaiah 5:28

Whose arrows [are] sharp, and all their bows bent,.... Ready to shoot their arrows upon any occasion; and which being sharp, penetrated deep, and were deadly.

Whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent, their horses' hoofs shall be counted like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind: All their bows bent - ready for battle. Their horses' hoofs ... flint.

Whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent; who are every way furnished and ready for my work, waiting only for my command. Their horses’ hoofs shall be counted like flint, because they shall not be broken or battered by the length or stoutness and ruggedness of the way. Their wheels like a whirlwind; partly for the swiftness of their march, and partly for the force and violence of their chariots in battle.

Isaiah 5:28 Whose arrows [are] sharp, and all their bows bent, their horses’ hoofs shall be counted like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind:Ver. 28. Whose arrows are sharp.] Or, Sharpened, sc., to wound the deeper. Their horses’ hoofs.] Judea was a stony country; but hard to hard will not easily break.

(27-29) None shall be weary . . .—The three verses paint the progress of the invading army. Unresting, unhasting, in perfect order, they march onward. They do not loosen their girdle for repose. The latchet or thong which fastens their sandals is not “broken” or untied. The light-armed troops are there, probably the Medes and Elamites in the Assyrian army (Isaiah 13:18). The chariots of the Assyrians themselves are there, sweeping onward like a tempest. Their unshod hoofs (the practice of shoeing horses was unknown in the ancient East) are hard as flint. Comp. Homer’s epithet of “brazen-footed” (Il. v. 329); and Amos 6:12. The battle-cry is heard far off like the roaring of lions.

Verse 28. Their horses' hoofs shall be counted like flint - "The hoofs of their horses shall be counted as adamant"] The shoeing of horses with iron plates nailed to the hoof is quite a modern practice, and was unknown to the ancients, as appears from the silence of the Greek and Roman writers, especially those that treat of horse medicine, who could not have passed over a matter so obvious and of such importance that now the whole science takes its name from it, being called by us farriery. The horseshoes of leather and iron which are mentioned; the silver and gold shoes with which Nero and Poppaea shod their mules, used occasionally to preserve the hoofs of delicate cattle, or for vanity, were of a very different kind; they enclosed the whole hoof as in a case, or as a shoe does a man's foot, and were bound or tied on. For this reason the strength, firmness and solidity of a horse's hoof was of much greater importance with them than with us, and was esteemed one of the first praises of a fine horse. Xenophon says that a good horse's hoof is hard, hollow, and sounds upon the ground like a cymbal. Hence the χαλκοποδεςιπποι, of Homer, and Virgil's solido graviter sonat ungula cornu. And Xenophon gives directions for hardening the horses' hoofs by making the pavement on which he stands in the stable with roundheaded stones. For want of this artificial defence to the foot which our horses have, Amos, Amos 6:12, speaks of it as a thing as much impracticable to make horses run upon a hard rock as to plough up the same rock with oxen: - "Shall horses run upon a rock? Shall one plough it up with oxen?" These circumstances must be taken into consideration in order to give us a full notion of the propriety and force of the image by which the prophet sets forth the strength and excellence of the Babylonish cavalry, which made a great part of the strength of the Assyrian army. Xenop. Cyrop. lib. ii. Like a whirlwind] כסופה cassuphah, like the stormy blast. Here sense and sound are well connected.

28. bows bent] which was done only for immediate action. his horses’ hoofs … flint] Therefore he will not shrink from riding them on the rocky soil of Palestine, which was extremely unfavourable to the use of horses (Amos 6:12). Similar allusions are frequent in ancient literature (κρατερώνυχεςἵπποι) the shoeing of horses being unknown in antiquity. The bows and arrows, cavalry and chariots, are all characteristic of the Assyrians.

Whose arrows are sharp - Bows and arrows were the common instruments of fighting at a distance.

The foreign invaders summoned to execute judgment, Isaiah 5:26-30.26-30. An ensign — A signal to nations from afar — Assyrians, Babylonians, Parthians, Scythians, perhaps, and finally Romans.