The horsemen and bowmen. — A specially characteristic picture, as we see from the Nineveh sculptures, of Assyrian and Chaldæan armies.
Thickets... rocks. — Both words are Aramaic in the original. The former, elsewhere rendered “clouds,” is here used for the dark shadowy coverts in which men sought for shelter; the latter is the root of the name Cephas (= Peter). On the caves of Palestine as places of refuge in time of war, see Isaiah 2:19; 1 Samuel 13:6.