A horse is a vain thing for safety, neither does he deliver any by his great power.
Parallel translations
- KJV An horse is a vain thing for safety: neither shall he deliver any by his great strength.
- BSB A horse is a vain hope for salvation; even its great strength cannot save.
- NKJV A horse is a vain hope for safety; Neither shall it deliver any by its great strength.
- NASB A horse is a false hope for victory; Nor does it rescue anyone by its great strength.
- NLT Don’t count on your warhorse to give you victory— for all its strength, it cannot save you.
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
A war horse is a false hope for victory and cannot deliver by its strength.
Overview
Even the most prized military asset, the horse, is a vain hope for safety, unable to save by its power. The psalmist redirects trust away from impressive means to God himself. True deliverance comes not from earthly resources but from the Lord, supremely in the salvation won by Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Prov 21:31The horse is prepared for the day of battle; but victory is with Yahweh.
- Ps 20:7Some trust in chariots, and some in horses, but we trust the name of Yahweh our God.
- Ps 147:10He doesn’t delight in the strength of the horse. He takes no pleasure in the legs of a man.
- Job 39:19–25“Have you given the horse might? Have you clothed his neck with a quivering mane?
- Hos 14:3Assyria can’t save us. We won’t ride on horses; neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, ‘Our gods!’ for in you the fatherless finds mercy.”
- Isa 30:16but you said, “No, for we will flee on horses”; therefore you will flee; and, “We will ride on the swift”; therefore those who pursue you will be swift.
- 2 Kgs 7:6–7For the Lord had made the army of the Syrians to hear the sound of chariots, and the sound of horses, even the noise of a great army; and they said to one another, “Behold, the king of Israel has hired against us the kings of the Hittites and the kings of the Egyptians to attack us.”
- Eccl 9:11I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happen to them all.
- Judg 4:15Yahweh confused Sisera, all his chariots, and all his army, with the edge of the sword before Barak. Sisera abandoned his chariot and fled away on his feet.
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 33:17 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
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