Yeremia 47:3

47:3 Fathers will hear the hoofbeats of the enemies’ horses,

the clatter of their chariots and the rumbling of their wheels.

They will not turn back to save their children

because they will be paralyzed with fear. ¹ 

Yehezkiel 26:10

26:10 He will cover you with the dust kicked up by his many horses. ²  Your walls will shake from the noise of the horsemen, wheels, and chariots when he enters your gates like those who invade through a city’s broken walls. ³ 

Nahum 3:2

Portrayal of the Destruction of Nineveh

3:2 The chariot drivers will crack their whips; ⁴ 

the chariot wheels will shake the ground; ⁵ 

the chariot horses ⁶  will gallop; ⁷ 

the war chariots ⁸  will bolt forward! ⁹ 

[47:3]  ¹ tn Heb “From the noise of the stamping of the hoofs of his stallions, from the rattling of his chariots at the rumbling of their wheels, fathers will not turn to their children from sinking of hands.” According to BDB 952 s.v. רִפָּיוֹן the “sinking of the hands” is figurative of helplessness caused by terror. A very similar figure is seen with a related expression in Isa 35:3-4. The sentence has been restructured to put the subject up front and to suggest through shorter sentences more in keeping with contemporary English style the same causal connections. The figures have been interpreted for the sake of clarity for the average reader.

[26:10]  ² tn Heb “From the abundance of his horses he will cover you (with) their dust.”

[26:10]  ³ tn Heb “like those who enter a breached city.”

[3:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “the sound of a whip.”

[3:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “the shaking of a chariot wheel.”

[3:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “a horse.”

[3:2]  ⁷ tn Albright argues that the term דֹּהֵר (doher) should be translated as “chariot driver” (W. F. Albright, “The Song of Deborah in Light of Archaeology,” BASOR 62 [1936]: 30). More recent research indicates that this term denotes “to dash” (HALOT 215 s.v.) or “to gallop, neigh” (DCH 2:417 s.v. דהר I). It is used as a synonym for רָקַד (raqad, “to skip”). This Hebrew verb is related to Egyptian thr (“to travel by chariot”) and Arabic dahara VII (“to hurry”). The related noun דַּהֲרָה (daharah) means “dashing, galloping” (Judg 5:22; HALOT 215 s.v.; DCH 2:417 s.v. דַּהֲרָה I).

[3:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “a chariot.”

[3:2]  ⁹ tn The Piel participle מְרַקֵּדָה (mÿraqqedah, “jolting”) is from רַקַד (raqad); this verb means “to dance, to leap” (of children, Job 21:11), “to skip about, to dance” (Eccl 3:4), and “to leap” (of chariots, Joel 2:5). In related Semitic languages (Akkadian, Ugaritic, and Arabic) the root raqad means “to dance, to skip about.” Here, the verb is used as a figurative expression (hypocatastasis) to describe the jostling of the madly rushing war-chariots.