Of brimstone (SevwSers). Perhaps light yellow, such a color as would be produced by the settling fumes of brimstone.
Of the horses. In the Bible the horse is always referred to in connection with war, except Isa. xxviii. 28, where it is men- tioned as employed in threshing, the horses being turned loose in the grain as in the Italian ¢riglia. The magnificent descrip- tion in Job xxxix. 19-25 applies to the war-horse. He is dis- tinguished, not so much for his speed and utility as for his strength (see Ps. xxxiii. 17; cxlvii. 10), and the word adbir strong is used as an equivalent for a horse (Jer. viii. 16; xlvii. 3). The Hebrews, as a pastoral race, did not need the horse; and, for a long time after their settlement in Canaan, dispensed with it, partly because of the hilly nature of the country, which allowed the use of chariots only in certain places (Judges i. 19), and partly because of the prohibition in Dent. xvii.16. Accord- ingly they hamstrung the horses of the Canaanites (Josh. xi. 6, 9). The great supply of horses was effected by Solomon through his connection with Egypt. See 1 Kings iv. 26.
Proceedeth fire and smoke. Compare Virgil.
“‘ Then, if the sound of arms he hear from far, Quiet he cannot stand, but pricks his ears, Trembles in every limb, and snorting, rolls The gathered fire beneath his nostrils wide.” “‘ Georgics,” iii, , 88-85.
Also Job xxxix. 20: “the glory of his nostrils is terrible.”
18. These three. Add wAnyav plagues, on which see on Mark iii. 10; Luke x. 30.
19. Their power (é£ovclas airav). Read éEovala trav trap the power of the horses.
Like unto serpents. “Long, smooth, subtle, clasping their victim in an embrace from which he cannot escape” (Milligan). As one of the innumerable fantasies of Apocalyptic exposition may be cited that of Elliott (“Hore Apocalyptice”) who finds
Voi, t1.—23