23 They take hold of bow and spear. They are cruel, and have no mercy. Their voice roars like the sea, and they ride on horses, everyone set in array, as a man to the battle, against you, daughter of Zion."
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
Spear - Properly, a javelin for hurling at the enemy (see 1-Samuel 17:6 note): an ordinary weapon of the Babylonians.
Cruel - ruthless, inhuman. In the Assyrian monuments warriors put the vanquished to death; rows of impaled victims hang round the walls of the besieged towns; and men collect in heaps hands cut from the vanquished.
Horses, set in array - A full stop should be put after horses. It - the whole army, and not the cavalry only - is "set in array."
As men for war against thee - Rather, as a warrior for battle "against thee."
They shall lay hold on bow and spear - Still pointing out the Chaldeans: or according to Dahler, the Scythians, who had before their invasion of Palestine overrun many parts of Asia, and had spread consternation wherever their name was heard.
They shall lay hold on bow and spear,.... That is, everyone of them should be furnished with both these pieces of armour, that they might be able to fight near and afar off; they had bows to shoot arrows at a distance, and spears to strike with when near. The Targum renders it bows and shields. "They are cruel, and have no mercy"; this is said, to strike terror into the hearts of the hardened Jews:
their voice roareth like the sea; the waves of it, which is terrible, Luke 21:25,
and they ride upon horses; which still made them more formidable, as well as suggests that their march would be quick and speedy, and they would soon be with them:
set in array as men for war; prepared with all sorts of armour for battle: or, "as a man" (a); as one man, denoting their conjunction, ardour, and unanimity; being not only well armed without, but inwardly, resolutely bent, as one man, to engage in battle, and conquer or die; see Judges 20:8,
against thee, O daughter of Zion; the design being against her, and all the preparation made on her account; which had a very dreadful appearance, and threatened with ruin, and therefore filled her with terror and distress, as follows.
(a) "tanquam vir", Pagninus; "ut vir", Schmidt; "quam unus vir", Grotius.
like the sea-- (Isaiah 5:30).
as men for war--not that they were like warriors, for they were warriors; but "arrayed most perfectly as warriors" [MAURER].
*More commentary available at chapter level.