Judges 5:22

Then were the horse-hoofs broken— The word prancings destroys the whole force of this passage. The sacred writer means to inform us of the extreme haste and precipitation with which the vanquished fled. The word דהר dahar is used but once more in Scripture, Nahum 3:2 where, from the words it is joined with, it must mean the clattering of the horse on full speed. The prophetess, denouncing God's judgments, tells the people, that they should themselves be given up a prey to the Chaldeans, whose army God would send against them; and that then they should hear the noise of the charioteer's whip, of the rattling wheels, the clattering horse, and jumping chariot. The rendering of the margin, trampling, or plunging, is better than the text. Perhaps the meaning of it cannot be better expressed than by this celebrated line of Virgil's,

Quadrupedante putrem sonitu quatit ungula campum. AEn. 8: ver. 5:596.

Dr. Waterland, very properly, for of their mighty ones, reads of their mighty horses; an expression which greatly adds to the force of the passage, as they were not common horses, but their best and strongest, whose hoofs were broken on this occasion. See Green on the place, and Bochart Hieroz. p. i. l. ii. c. 6. We should just remark, that anciently it was not the custom to shoe their horses; nay, indeed, at present in Arabia and Tartary they have excellent horses which are never shod. See Tavernier, vol. i. b. ii. c. 5. and Montfaucon, tom. i. p. 79. Houbigant renders this verse, Then were the horse-hoofs broken, their riders flying away with precipitate speed.