Come up, ye horses; and rage, ye chariots; and let the mighty men come forth; the Ethiopians and the Libyans, that handle the shield; and the Lydians, that handle and bend the bow.
Come up, ye horses ... let the mighty men come forth - ironical exhortation, as in Jeremiah 46:3. The Egyptians, owing to the heat of their climate and abstinence from animal food, were physically weak, and therefore employed mercenary soldiers.
Ethiopians - Hebrew, Cush: Abyssinia and Nubia.
Libyans - Phut, Mauritania, west of Egypt (cf. Genesis 10:6).
Shield. The Libyans borrowed from Egypt the use of the long shield extending to the feet (Xenophon, 'Cyropaedia,' 6: and 7:)
Lydians - not the Lydians west of Asia Minor (Genesis 10:22, "Lud"), but the Ludim, an African nation descended from Egypt (Mitsraim) (Genesis 10:13; Ezekiel 30:5. "Ethiopia, Libya, Lydia;" Nahum 3:9).
Handle and bend the bow. The employment of two verbs expresses the manner of bonding the bow-namely, the foot being pressed on the center, and the hands holding the ends of it.