Isaiah 5 · Verse 28

Isaiah 5:28

Whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent, their horses’ hoofs shall be counted like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind:

Isaiah 5:28, King James Version

Isaiah 5:28 in other translations

BSB	Their arrows are sharpened, and all their bows are strung. The hooves of their horses are like flint; their chariot wheels are like a whirlwind.
WEB	whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent. Their horses’ hoofs will be like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind.
ASV	whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent; their horses’ hoofs shall be accounted as flint, and their wheels as a whirlwind:
YLT	Whose arrows are sharp, and all its bows bent, Hoofs of its horses as flint have been reckoned, And its wheels as a hurricane!
DARBY	their arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent; their horses' hoofs are reckoned as the flint, and their wheels as a whirlwind.
BBE	Their arrows are sharp, and every bow is bent: the feet of their horses are like rock, and their wheels are like a rushing storm.
Webster	Whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent, their horses' hoofs shall be counted like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind:

What does Isaiah 5:28 mean?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown

28. bent--ready for battle. hoofs ... flint--The ancients did not shoe their horses: hence the value of hard hoofs for long marches. wheels--of their chariots. The Assyrian army abounded in cavalry and chariots (Is 22:6, 7; 36:8).

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown, 1871 · public domain

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 28 Their horses' hoofs shall be counted like flint "The hoofs of their horses shall be counted as adamant" - The shoeing of horses with iron plates nailed to the hoof is quite a modern practice, and was unknown to the ancients, as appears from the silence of the Greek and Roman writers, especially those that treat of horse medicine, who could not have passed over a matter so obvious and of such importance that now the whole science takes its name from it, being called by us farriery. The horseshoes of leather and iron which are mentioned; the silver and gold shoes with which Nero and Poppaea shod their mules, used occasionally to preserve the hoofs of delicate cattle, or for vanity, were of a very different kind; they enclosed the whole hoof as in a case, or as a shoe does a man's foot, and were bound or tied on. For this reason the strength, firmness and solidity of a horse's hoof was of much greater importance with them than with us, and was esteemed one of the first praises of a fine horse. Xenophon says that a good horse's hoof is hard, hollow, and sounds upon the ground like a cymbal. Hence the χαλκοποδες ἱπποι, of Homer, and Virgil's solido graviter sonat ungula cornu. And Xenophon gives directions for hardening the horses' hoofs by making the pavement on which he stands in the stable with roundheaded stones. For want of this artificial defense to the foot which our horses have, Amos, Amo 6:12, speaks of it as a thing as much impracticable to make horses run upon a hard rock as to plough up the same rock with oxen: - "Shall horses run upon a rock? Shall one plough it up with oxen?" These circumstances must be taken into consideration in order to give us a full notion of the propriety and force of the image by which the prophet sets forth the strength and excellence of the Babylonish cavalry, which made a great part of the strength of the Assyrian army. Xenop. Cyrop. lib. ii. Like a whirlwind - כסופה cassuphah, like the stormy blast. Here sense and sound are well connected.

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Isaiah 5:24-30

Let not any expect to live easily who live wickedly. Sin weakens the strength, the root of a people; it defaces the beauty, the blossoms of a people. When God's word is despised, and his law cast away, what can men expect but that God should utterly abandon them? When God comes forth in wrath, the hills tremble, fear seizes even great men. When God designs the ruin of a provoking people, he can find instruments to…

Read the full comment on Isaiah 5:24-30 →

Isaiah 5:28 in the original Hebrew

Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.

אֲשֶׁ֤ר'a.SherwhichH834

חִצָּיו֙chi.Tzavarrows itsH2671

שְׁנוּנִ֔יםshe.nu.Nim[are] sharpenedH8150

וְכָל\־ve.kholand allH3605

קַשְּׁתֹתָ֖יוka.she.to.Tavbows itsH7198

דְּרֻכ֑וֹתde.ru.Khot[are] bentH1869

פַּרְס֤וֹתpar.Sot[the] hooves ofH6541

סוּסָיו֙su.Savhorses itsH5483

כַּצַּ֣רka.Tzarlike <the> flintH6862

נֶחְשָׁ֔בוּnech.Sha.vuthey are regardedH2803

וְגַלְגִּלָּ֖יוve.gal.gi.Lavand wheels itsH1534

כַּסּוּפָֽה\׃ka.su.Fahlike <the> storm-windH5492

Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Cross references for Isaiah 5:28

Psalms 45:5
Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the king’s enemies; whereby the people fall under thee.
Ezekiel 21:9-11
Son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus saith the Lord; Say, A sword, a sword is sharpened, and also furbished: It is sharpened to make a sore slaughter; it is furbished that it may glitter: should we then make mirth? it contemneth the rod of my son, as every tree. And he hath given it to be furbished, that it may be handled: this sword is sharpened, and it is furbished, to give it into the hand of the slayer.
Nahum 2:3-4
The shield of his mighty men is made red, the valiant men are in scarlet: the chariots shall be with flaming torches in the day of his preparation, and the fir trees shall be terribly shaken. The chariots shall rage in the streets, they shall justle one against another in the broad ways: they shall seem like torches, they shall run like the lightnings.
Jeremiah 5:16
Their quiver is as an open sepulchre, they are all mighty men.
Psalms 7:12-13
If he turn not, he will whet his sword; he hath bent his bow, and made it ready. He hath also prepared for him the instruments of death; he ordaineth his arrows against the persecutors.
Micah 4:13
Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion: for I will make thine horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass: and thou shalt beat in pieces many people: and I will consecrate their gain unto the Lord, and their substance unto the Lord of the whole earth.
Isaiah 21:1
The burden of the desert of the sea. As whirlwinds in the south pass through; so it cometh from the desert, from a terrible land.
Psalms 120:4
Sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals of juniper.
Judges 5:22
Then were the horsehoofs broken by the means of the pransings, the pransings of their mighty ones.
Nahum 3:2
The noise of a whip, and the noise of the rattling of the wheels, and of the pransing horses, and of the jumping chariots.
Jeremiah 47:3
At the noise of the stamping of the hoofs of his strong horses, at the rushing of his chariots, and at the rumbling of his wheels, the fathers shall not look back to their children for feebleness of hands;

Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

arrows.
Ps 45:5; 120:4; Jer 5:16; Eze 21:9-11
their horses.
Jud 5:22; Jer 47:3; Mic 4:13; Na 2:3,4; 3:2

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain

Context

Isaiah 5:27
None shall be weary nor stumble among them; none shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken:
Isaiah 5:28
Whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent, their horses’ hoofs shall be counted like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind:
Isaiah 5:29
Their roaring shall be like a lion, they shall roar like young lions: yea, they shall roar, and lay hold of the prey, and shall carry it away safe, and none shall deliver it.

Read all of Isaiah 5

Isaiah 5:28 in other languages

Spanish Reina-Valera 1909	Sus saetas amoladas, y todos sus arcos entesados; las uñas de sus caballos parecerán como de pedernal, y las ruedas de sus carros como torbellino.
French Bible J.N. Darby 1885	Ses flèches sont aiguës, et tous ses arcs tendus; les sabots de ses chevaux sont comme le caillou, et ses roues comme le tourbillon.
German Elberfelder 1871	Ihre Pfeile sind geschärft, und alle ihre Bogen gespannt; die Hufe ihrer Rosse sind Kieseln gleich zu achten, und ihre Räder dem Wirbelwinde.
Latin Clementine Vulgate	Sagittæ ejus acutæ, et omnes arcus ejus extenti. Ungulæ equorum ejus ut silex, et rotæ ejus quasi impetus tempestatis.