Jeremiah 50:42

They shall hold the bow and the lance,.... Or "spear". The Targum interprets it, "shields"; as many in Cyrus's army had t; the one an offensive, the other a defensive weapon; or, if bow and lance, the one is used at a distance, the other when near. The Medes and Persians were well skilled in handling the bow, as once and again observed: this very properly describes the armour of the Persians; which were, as Herodotus u says, large bows and short spears; and Xenophon w observes, that, besides bows and arrows, they had two javelins or lances, one of which they cast, and the other they held and used in their hands, as they found necessary; and so Cyrus x, in a speech of his, says that they had breast plates to cover their bodies, and lances or javelins which they could use by throwing or holding, as they pleased:

they [are] cruel, and will not show mercy: not even to infants, but dash them against the stones, Psalms 137:8; see Isaiah 13:17; and

Isaiah 13:17 and

Isaiah 13:18; hence "horribilis Medus", in Horace y:

their voice shall roar like the sea; when there is a tempest on it. This does not design the shout of the soldiers, when beginning the onset in battle, or making an attack upon a city besieged; but the noise of their march, their foot, and horse, and chariots, and the clashing of their army; all which, by reason of their numbers, would be very clamorous and terrible:

and they shall ride upon horses; the Persians had a large cavalry, their country abounding in horses:

[everyone] put in array like a man to the battle, against thee, O daughter of Babylon; furnished with armour, and put in a proper disposition, all in rank and file, well accoutred, and full of spirit, prepared to engage in battle, with you, O ye inhabitants of Babylon.

t Cyropaedia, l. 5. c. 15. u Terpsichore, sive l. 5. c. 49. Polymnia, sive l. 7. c. 61. w Cyropaedia, l. 1. c. 5. x Ibid. l. 4. c. 16. y Carmin. l. 1. Ode 29.