But he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses: forasmuch as the LORD hath said unto you, Ye shall henceforth return no more that way.
He shall not multiply horses. The use of these animals was not absolutely prohibited, nor is there any reason to conclude that they might not be employed as part of the state equipage. But the multiplication of horses would inevitably lead to many evils, to increased contact with foreign nations, especially with Egypt, to the importation of an animal to which the character of the country was not suited, to the establishment of an Oriental military despotism, to proud and pompous parade in peace, to a dependence upon Egypt in time of war, and a consequent withdrawal of trust and confidence in God (2 Samuel 8:4; 1 Kings 10:26; 2 Chronicles 1:16; 2 Chronicles 9:28; Isaiah 31:3).
The reason and the effect of this law are pointed out by Bochart's 'Hierozoicon;' by Paxton, 'Natural History,'
p. 205; Lowth's 'Israelite Nation,' ch. 2:, 7; Sherlock's 'Discourse on Prophecy,' dissertation 4:; Bunsen's 'Egypt's Place,' 4:, p. 559; Hengstenberg, 'Egypt and Books of Moses,' p. 222.
Bovet ('Voyage en Terre Saints' p. 310) says-`In the present day Egypt is the country of donkeys, and Palestine that of horses. In Biblical times it was the reverse, as is evident from the early rules prescribed for regulating the conduct of Israelite kings. It is well known that Solomon in this respect, as well as in many others, set himself above the law (1 Kings 10:26-29; 2 Chronicles 9:28), in his ambition to surpass all the monarchs of the East in magnificence. But the spirit of the Mosaic legislation continued to be upheld by the prophets (Isaiah 2:7), and even in an age of gross degeneracy, Zechariah, when describing the restoration of a native sovereign, represents him entering Jerusalem like the ancient judges of Israel, not upon a horse or a mule, but upon an ass of the native breed' (Zechariah 9:9: cf. Matthew 21:5).