Joshua 11:4 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Ver. 4. And they went out,—and all their hosts, &c.— Entering the field with so numerous an army, that the sacred writer does not scruple to express it by an hyperbole very familiar in Scripture, even as the sand upon the sea shore in multitude. The allied army was so much the more formidable, in that, as the host of the Israelites was wholly composed of foot-soldiers, in this there were not only cavalry, but armed chariots, in great numbers. Josephus makes it amount to 300,000 infantry, 10,000 horse, and 20,000 chariots. Hist. Jud. l. v. c. 1. Bochart, in his Hieroz. l. ii. c. 9. informs us, that Egypt supplied the Canaanites with all these horses. God forbad his people the use of them in their armies. See on Deuteronomy 17:16; Deuteronomy 20:1. With respect to the chariots of the Canaanites, they were, in all probability, armed with iron, such as were anciently used to break the enemies' battalions, and which, in fact, made the most terrible havoc in armies. They are described by the ancients as follows: "The pole to which the horses were fastened, was armed with spikes, or iron points, which advanced forward; the yokes also of the horses had points, three cubits in length; to the axletree were fixed iron spits, armed at the ends with scythes; the spokes of the wheels were armed with javelins, sticking out, and the very fellies with scythes, which tore to pieces every thing they met with; the axletree was longer, and the wheels stronger than usual, that they might be the better able to bear a shock, and the chariot be less liable so be overturned." The charioteer, who was covered all over with armour, sat in a kind of tower, made of very solid wood, about breast high, and sometimes men well armed were put into the chariot and fought from thence with darts and arrows. Hence we may judge that these machines must have made dreadful slaughter at first, when they met with the enemy's troops: but in time, when men came to find out the way of opposing them, they did not so much execution, and were of course disused. See Diod. Sic. l. ii. c. 93. Q. Curt. l. iv. c. 15. Xenoph. Cyr. l. vi. Lucret. l. vi. ver. 635. 641, &c. God Almighty forbad the Israelites the use of chariots, for the same reasons that he had prohibited that of cavalry; see Isaiah 31:1.Psalms 20:7. Proverbs 21:31.Hosea 1:7.