HEBREW WORD STUDY – A HORSE – SUS סוס Samek Vav Samek
Song of Solomon 1:9: “I have compared thee, O my love, to a company of horses in Pharaoh’s chariots.”
So here we have King Solomon who is completely stricken with this Shulamite woman. I mean this old boy really has it bad for this woman, he is totally on Cloud 9. He is now describing her great beauty and what does he do, he compares her to horse. King or no king, if I were her I’d hit him.
Here is the real clincher. This poem is a metaphor of God’s relationship with us as His bride. So, God is comparing us to horse. Actually, we are being compared to a team of horses that pull a chariot. I mean really, is this all we are to God is just a beast of burden?
Well, let’s look at this from a historical and cultural lens. At this time there was an arms race going on. The nuclear bomb of that era was the chariot and the horses that pulled these chariots. At one point, Assyria, the arch enemy of Egypt and Israel was in the lead in this arms race. They developed chariots that required a team of horses that took them twenty years to breed and charioteers who were chosen as children and trained from childhood to adulthood to man the chariots. At one point they were invincible and struck terror throughout the known world for their powerful chariots. Egypt wasn’t far behind in the development of chariots and horses to pull them and they were catching up about the time of King David. King David, seeing the threat from Assyria declared in Psalms 20:7 “Some [trust] in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.”
Would you like Chaim Bentorah as your personal Hebrew teacher?
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Israel really had no war horses during David’s time. However, things changed during the time of King Solomon and when he became King of Israel, the Pharaoh of Egypt, hoping to build an alliance with Israel, gifted King Solomon with one of his best and prized chariots as well as a team of horses bred to pull these chariots, as well as breeding stock. With that start-up kit the result was that over a short period of time King Solomon developed at least 12,000 of these chariots and had stalls built for 40,000 of these specially breed horses to pull the chariots putting them in the lead of this arms race. Of course, King Solomon kept the most beautiful and excellent horses to provide the horsepower for his presidential limousine of a chariot. Actually, it would be more like Air Force One as far as prestige goes. When the President of the United States flies into any country in Air Force one that plane has been polished to perfection. Everything on it is first class and it is the most exclusive plane in the world politically speaking. It is a show of the technical achievement, military might and power of the nation. In a word it is used to show off. That plane is pampered and cared for deliberately designed to do so the President could fly around the world and brag how great and powerful the country is that he leads.
That was the chariot and horses that King Solomon rode. The horses were pampered, groomed and decorated for one purpose and one purpose only, to show off the greatness of the king. King Solomon said he was comparing her to his team of royal horses. The word compare in Hebrew is dimmitik from the root word damah which means to imagine, to be similar to, to conceive an idea. In other words, it is something that gives you an idea of how to describe something else.
Well, obviously he was not comparing her to a horse in appearance. No matter how beautiful a horse can be, it is still a horse and who wants to look like a horse. But using the word damah would suggest that King Solomon is trying very hard to express what the Shulamite woman means to him. He thinks of his prize possession, his team of royal horses, and how he appears to his subjects when he rides that chariot before them. That chariot and those horses symbolize what he wants the world to see him as. A powerful king, a compassionate king who cares for his team by grooming them, taking extra special care of them and showing them off with great pride.
The Shulamite woman is one who is not only beautiful but makes him as a king look like he wants the world to see him. He not only wants to take care of her but to pamper her, to give her everything he can that will show important she is to him and he also wants to show her off to the world as the woman who holds a special place in his heart, one that he dearly loves.
If God loves you so much that he wants to not only take care of you but to pamper you, give you everything you need so the world can see how important you are to Him all because He wants to show you off as the love of His existence, would you mind being called a horse?
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Thanks & Blessings, it means a lot to me!
Excellent teaching!
You clarify how special these horses were and
that makes a lot of us feel more like a Kentucky
Derby model instead of an old plow horse.
Really Really encouraging word study..thank you so much
I will not allow any one use me as a horse. I am a person with dignity. I cannot be dammah to any one.
God is this God of dignity. He not appreciates Solomon a brag a pampous
I’ll be a horse anyday :-)
Me too : )
Wow. This is amazing subject, just yesterday I was thinking about horses. And noted very insteresting fact in Job 39:19-24 when God spoke to Job. I thought it’s amazing to be fearless like a horse, fearless of the enemy.
Chaim…I absolutely am enamoured with your indulgence of the history of horses in biblical times and linking it to God’s Love for us..clarifying that the church is His bride. But each of us is “his personal bride”..the Holy Spirit spoke to me in a rather special way as well as I have always loved horses 🐎 even though my only experience with them as a child was so frightening. I always wanted to ride one and learn (but it was too expensive) – out of all God’s incredibly unique Creative Animals, I
Believe the horse is so Majestic and even – closest to humans in the ability to be trained by men and perform, follow instruction, be led…it is incredible since their size and power can completely overpower any human, yet they are trained “by men” – their beauty and grace is so exquisite. Even their silky shining coat is something to be mesmerized by. The fact that we are like the “horse” – of course of course…call me a horse! Such wonderful clarity on intricate details imbedded in scripture – but taking a ride on that horse…with Jesus ….into the Horizon and around every turn – so enchanting. Thanks for that. My love of horses even has more intrigue now. Thank you.
Oooohh, I absolutely love this description of God’s view of His bride. I do have a question, though. I am taking great risk in asking this question, as it could lead to me being extremely disappointed. However, this is something I have been struggling with of and on over the years, and very much so the last few days. The way you described God loving His bride, is that just meaning He has passion for the Jews that way, or does He have that same passion for me, a Gentile, too?
Hi Rachel,
Do you know the Scripture John 3:16? It reads “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” That Scripture, that idea, that purpose is the center around which all Scripture revolves. God loves us–the world–regardless of ethnicity or origin. Yes, the Scriptures were given to the Jews/written in Aramaic but the same message is relevant/ is meant for everyone. God So loved the world! Okay, so what? Well, He loved the World so much that He gave His prized posession–His only Son, the human Embodiment of Himself to die a horrible death on a cross so that we-the world–might receive everlasting life. Chaim wrote about “Let this cup pass from me” when Jesus was agonizing in the garden that resonated within my spirit. The rough breakdown was that Jesus’ agony was not from the fear of a horrible death from an overabundance of love that He wanted to overflow to the ones He was dying for. Who was He dying for? –Us. You, me and everyone who has ever lived. Maybe my writing is clumsy but what I’m trying to say is that you, Rachel, and I were found so worthy of love that God Almighty died to make sure that we can be rejoined to Him. (For reference sake I am a black woman who loves the Lord with all her heart) John 15:13 says “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” Well, Jesus, God Incarnate laid down His life for those who declared themselves His enemies–which you and I were. What does that say about His love? Paul said in Galatians 3:26-28. “We are all the children of God through faith in Jesus Christ…there is neither Jew nor Greek…and if ye be Christ’s then ye are Abraham’s seed and heirs…” Abraham was the founding father of the Jewish nation. Through believing in Jesus Christ’s sacrifice we become God’s children–and all promises are applied to us. So you and I are God’s children and heirs–the same as the Jews –through belief in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
Hopefully that helps, Rachel. God loves you with all the fiery passion of a thousand splendid suns and beyond–Jew or not–and He died to prove it to you. God bless and keep you!