In that day, saith the LORD, I will smite every horse with astonishment, and his rider with madness: and I will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah, and will smite every horse of the people with blindness.
Ver. 4. I will smite every horse with astonishment] Great is the strength of the horse and the rage of his rider: Jehu marched furiously; Bajazet, the Great Turk, of his fierce and furious riding was surnamed Gilderun, or Lightning; but God can make the Egyptians to appear men, and not gods, and their horses flesh, and not spirit; "When the Lord shall but stretch out his hand" (and that is no hard matter of motion), "both he that helpeth shall fall and he that is helped shall fall down, and they shall all fail together," Isaiah 31:8. See Psalms 76:5,6 "An horse is a vain thing for safety," Psalms 33:17, though a warlike creature full of terror; but safety or victory is of the Lord, Proverbs 21:31 "In nothing be terrified," saith the apostle, Philippians 1:28. The Greek word is a metaphor from horses when they tremble and are sore frightened; as it happened in the Philistines' army, when the angels made a bustle among the mulberry trees, 2 Samuel 5:24; in the Syrians' army, when the angels likewise made a hurrying noise in the air, of chariots, of horses, and of a great host, 2 Kings 7:6; in the army of Sennacherib, when at God's sole rebuke "both the chariot and horse were cast into a dead sleep," Psalms 76:6. Lastly, in the German wars against Zisca and the Hussites in Bohemia, where God smote every horse with astonishment, and his rider with madness; such a panic terror seized upon the enemies of the truth, though they came in with three potent armies at once, that they fled before ever they looked the enemy in the face. How this prophecy was literally fulfilled to the Maccabees, see 2Ma 10:30 .
And I will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah] Who before seemed to wink, or to be asleep. Now will I awake, saith the Lord, Now will I arise, now will I lift up myself, Isaiah 33:10, for the relief and rescue of my poor people; and that because they called them outcasts, saying, "This is Zion, whom no man looketh after," Jeremiah 33:17 .