A HORSE — in the Hebrew Bible almost never a mount and almost always a WAR machine, the animal that pulls a chariot. That is why Deuteronomy 17:16 can forbid a king to multiply them without forbidding transport: a cavalry corps is a standing army in miniature. ⚠ The verse attaches a direction to the ban that matters more than the ban — he may not send the people back to Egypt to get them. Egypt was the region's horse market, and the traffic that paid for horses ran in people. ⭐ The prophets keep the association exactly: trusting in horses is the standing image for trusting in military power instead of in God (Isaiah 31:1, Psalm 20:8, Psalm 33:17). And Exodus 15:1 opens the Song of the Sea with the horse and its rider thrown into the water — the same animal, on the other side of the story this law is trying not to reverse. → first discussed at Deut 17:16