Harness the horses; and get up, ye horsemen, and stand forth with your helmets; furbish the spears, and put on the brigandines.
Parallel translations
- WEB Harness the horses, and get up, you horsemen, and stand up with your helmets. Polish the spears, put on the coats of mail.
- BSB Harness the horses; mount the steeds; take your positions with helmets on! Polish your spears; put on armor!
- NKJV Harness the horses, And mount up, you horsemen! Stand forth with your helmets, Polish the spears, Put on the armor!
- NASB “Harness the horses, And mount the steeds, Take your stand with helmets on! Polish the spears, Put on the coats of armor!
- NLT Harness the horses, and mount the stallions. Take your positions. Put on your helmets. Sharpen your spears, and prepare your armor.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The poem continues mustering horses, horsemen, helmets, polished spears, and armor for war. Egypt readies its full strength for the fight.
Overview
The detailed call to harness horses and don armor depicts Egypt's confident, well-equipped army preparing for combat. The vivid commands build tension before the sudden reversal that follows. The futility of this elaborate readiness against God's purpose teaches that human strength, however impressive, cannot secure victory apart from the Lord, whose salvation comes through Christ rather than chariots.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Ezek 21:9–11Son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus saith the LORD; Say, A sword, a sword is sharpened, and also furbished:
- Jer 51:3Against him that bendeth let the archer bend his bow, and against him that lifteth himself up in his brigandine: and spare ye not her young men; destroy ye utterly all her host.
- Neh 4:16And it came to pass from that time forth, that the half of my servants wrought in the work, and the other half of them held both the spears, the shields, and the bows, and the habergeons; and the rulers were behind all the house of Judah.
- 2 Chr 26:14And Uzziah prepared for them throughout all the host shields, and spears, and helmets, and habergeons, and bows, and slings to cast stones.
- 1 Sam 17:38And Saul armed David with his armour, and he put an helmet of brass upon his head; also he armed him with a coat of mail.
- 1 Sam 17:5And he had an helmet of brass upon his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail; and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of brass.
- Ezek 21:28And thou, son of man, prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD concerning the Ammonites, and concerning their reproach; even say thou, The sword, the sword is drawn: for the slaughter it is furbished, to consume because of the glittering:
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Against the failure of false shepherds Jeremiah promises the Righteous Branch, 'The LORD our righteousness,' and the new covenant written on the heart and sealed in the blood of Christ.
How Jeremiah 46:4 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.