Neither shall he stand that handleth the bow; and [he that is] swift of foot shall not deliver [himself]: neither shall he that rideth the horse deliver himself.
Ver. 15. Neither shall he stand that handleth the bow] Arcitenens, though he can do it never so dexterously, yet if he trust in his bow, Psalms 44:6, God will break it, Jeremiah 49:35, or otherwise render it unuseful; as it befell the army of Sennacherib in Egypt, of Maximus against Theodosius, and the French in the battle between our Edward III and their King Philip, who being enraged with a defeat, resolved presently to revenge it, being elevated with an assured hope of triumphant victory. But it happened otherwise; for there fell at the instant of the battle a piercing shower of rain which dissolved their strings, and made their bows useless.
Neither shall he that rideth the horse] Though it be as good a one as Cain is feigned by Dubertas to have managed, or as Alexander's Bucephalus, or Julius Cesar's great horse serviceable, and full of terror. A horse is so swift that Job saith he "eateth up the ground"; and the Persians dedicated him to their god the sun, as the swiftest creature to the swiftest power divine, ωσπερ το ταχιστον τω ταχυτατφ θεων (Pausan.). But as the sun in heaven can neither be outrun nor stopped in his race, so neither by men nor means can God be frustrated, or his anger avoided. The Canaanites had both horses and chariots, the Israelites had neither; and yet they found a horse a vain thing for victory, Psalms 33:17; Psalms 147:10 .