HORSE (סוּס֒, H6061, [masc.], סוּסָה, H6063, [fem.]; ἵππος, G2691, horse, all Eng. VSS; פָּרָשׁ֒, H7304, horsemen). Applied equally to mounted horse or horse without rider. Male is “stallion” and female, “mare.” Young, usually born singly, is “colt” or “foal.” RSV tr. “stallion” four times in Jeremiah where KJV tr. “horse” (5:8; 8:16; 47:3) and “bull” (50:11). “Mare” is found once only (Song of Solomon 1:9); company of horses KJV; “steed” ASV; “a mare of Pharaoh’s chariot” RSV. This last is correct (from Heb. סוּסָה, H6063).
1. Introduction. The horse was the latest and strongest transport animal to be developed; it spread rapidly, first over Eurasia and N Africa, later to the Americas and Australasia, escaping and becoming feral in suitable areas. Everywhere it has become the most important beast of burden and an intimate associate of man, next only to the dog. This factor may have helped to fix a prejudice against eating horsemeat in Eng.-speaking lands. This was forbidden to the Heb. for, like its close relative the ass, the horse is single-hoofed and does not ruminate; there is no obvious hygienic basis for this ban.
2. Origin. Zeuner sets out in detail the archeological and zoological evidence of the horse’s early history and this section owes much to his research. The equines once formed four groups, fairly distinct geographically. a. The zebras in E and S Africa; sporadic attempts to use them had only temporary success. b. The true asses of N and NE Africa, from which the donkey is derived (see Ass). c. The half-asses from the dry belt running from Pal. eastward to the Gobi Desert (see [http://biblegateway/wiki/Ass WILD ASS]). d. The horses of the grassy lowlands of Eurasia N of the great mountain ranges. All four groups were divided into local species or races. Of the true horses, only Przewalski’s, the E race, survives precariously in Mongolia and some zoo parks. It stands about forty inches at the shoulder and is reddish brown, the hair becoming longer and paler in winter; the mane is dark brown. Like all equines it runs in herds. The W race was the tarpan, of which the last known specimen died in 1851 in the Ukraine. It was a small gray-brown horse with upright mane and the chief ancestor of the many breeds of domestic horses today, with the Plains of Turkestan a likely center of domestication, though not the only one.
3. Domestication. Undoubtedly this occurred later than with the sheep, goat, ox and ass but nothing is known of its early pattern. Oxen had long been used for pulling wheeled carts, and with the fertile patches of plains country becoming exhausted and dried out (as happened after a few centuries of primitive agriculture) the need for faster draught animals might have prompted the farmers to catch and tame these wild horses. The actual means remains a mystery; modern man has achieved nothing like it, other than the catching and training of a few zebras. Regarding its original domestication, this must have been during the 3rd millennium b.c. but evidence prior to 2000 b.c. is not reliable. The Sumerians mention the horse in proverbs from c. 2100 b.c. but apparently did not use it. The horse first found regular mention about 1,800 b.c., though it was not yet important, for Hammurabi’s law (c. 1750 b.c.) does not list it. Within the next fifty years it spread rapidly to the SW including Asia, Palestine, and Egypt, where it arrived in the Hyksos era not many decades before Joseph came to power. This spread, which took it as far as Troy, resulted from its use in war chariots. Whatever its purpose when first brought into service, the horse added a new dimension to invading armies.
4. The horse in Biblical narrative. The first Biblical mention is Genesis 47:17, “Joseph gave them food in exchange for their horses....” At this time, and for some centuries, the horse was used mainly for draught purposes, mostly drawing chariots, and the first clear evidence of one being ridden is a figurine of the 18th dynasty (c. 1580 b.c.). An individual rider appeared first in 1 Kings 20:20, “Benhadad king of Syria escaped on a horse with horsemen,” but Genesis 50:9 records that both horsemen and chariots accompanied the great cortege that took Jacob’s body for burial in Canaan, and the Egyp. armies used both chariots and cavalry to pursue the escaping Hebrews. It is unlikely that they had owned horses in Goshen or taken any with them to the desert. Later, Egypt was an important source of horses, some of which Solomon’s Traders handled as agents (1 Kings 10:28, 29), when Solomon had control of the two main routes parallel to the coast along which horses could be brought safely. The amassing of horses had been specifically forbidden by God (Deut 17:16); the context of this ban is notable; it follows the statement that the Hebrews would one day demand a king. When the people made this request some two centuries later (1 Sam 8:11) Samuel warned them that the ban would be ignored, to their detriment; however, it may have been observed through Saul’s and most of David’s reign when the main reference is to horses in the enemy armies. It appears from 2 Samuel 8:4 that David kept some for his own use; he killed most, but “left enough for 100 chariots.” This turned out to be a tragic mistake, for they were available for two of his sons to use. Absalom plotted against him and “got himself a chariot and horses” (2 Sam 15:1). Some twelve years later, when David was on his death bed, a younger son, Adonijah, in an effort to take over the kingdom, “prepared for himself chariots and horsemen” (1 Kings 1:5).
Solomon made no attempt to obey God on this point and within a year or so of becoming king he had built stables for 4,000 horses (2 Chron 9:25). The figure of 40,000 in the corresponding passage in 1 Kings 4:26 is a scribal error. He imported horses from Egypt, with which he had profitable connections through marrying the daughter of the pharaoh, paying 150 shekels of silver (60 ounces) per horse. Horses also formed part of the regular tribute paid him (1 Kings 10:25). From then on both Judah and Israel regarded horses and chariots as essential for fighting the frequent wars with neighboring nations. Early in its history the horse sometimes had sacred connections. The only Biblical instance is in 2 Kings 23:11, where Josiah, in his sweeping reforms, removed horses that earlier kings had dedicated to the sun.
5. Biblical significance. There is nothing about the horse’s biology or habits in the many Biblical contexts, in contrast to other major animals. Psalm 32:9 lists it with the mule as “without understanding, which must be curbed with bit and bridle else it will not keep with you” RSV (cf. KJV “lest they come near unto thee”). Many carvings illustrate the early use of the bit. Job’s description (Job 39:19-25) is of a war horse and speaks merely of its strength and fearlessness in battle. 1 Kings 18:5 concerns the famine foretold by Elijah “perhaps we may find grass and save the horses and mules alive.” Asses were much more numerous but could manage on poorer forage and were owned in ones and twos.
The horse’s place in the Scriptures contrasts markedly with the ass. Of over 140 occurrences only about 50 are truly literal; the rest, with all the fifteen NT references (except horsemen, Acts 23:23, 32) are fig. or prophetic. In a small minority of cases a single horse is mentioned: notably 1 Kings 10:29—the price of a horse from Egypt; Esther 6:8ff.—the Persian king’s horse; and nine quasiproverbial expressions in Job, Psalms and Proverbs. Otherwise the word is always pl. There is no record of a horse being owned by the common people; throughout OT times the horse was a monopoly of kings and their nobles in both Pal. and nearby countries and, thus, in effect, a symbol of human power. This confirms its metaphorical significance. Some of the prophetic passages of Zechariah and Revelation are highly symbolic and beyond the scope of comment here, but the tenor of all the many fig. passages may be summed up in two vv.—Psalm 33:17, “The war horse is a vain hope for victory”; and Hosea 1:7, “I will not deliver them by...horses, nor by horsemen.”
Bibliography G. S. Cansdale, Animals and Man (1952); F. E. Zeuner, A History of Domesticated Animals (1963).