CHARIOTS. The Scriptures employ different words to denote carriages of different sorts, but it is not in every case easy to distinguish the kind of vehicle which these words severally denote. We are now, however, through the discovery of ancient sculptures and paintings, in possession of such in formation respecting the chariots of Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, and Persia, as gives advantages in the discussion of this subject which were not possessed by earlier writers. The chariots of these nations are, in fact, mentioned in the Scriptures ; and by connecting the known with the unknown, we may arrive at more determinate conclusions than have hitherto been attainable.
The first chariots mentioned in Scripture are those of the Egyptians ; and by close attention to the various notices which occur respecting them, we may be able to discriminate the different kinds which were in use among that people.
The earliest notice on this head occurs in Gen. xli. 43, where the king of Egypt honours Joseph by commanding that he should ride in the second of the royal chariots. This was doubtless a state chariot, and the state-chariots of the Egyptians do is attended by a number of running footmen, one of whom hastens forward to knock at the door of the house, another advances to take the reins, a third bears a stool to assist his master in alighting, and most of them carry their sandals in their hands that they may run with the more ease. This con veys a lively illustration of such passages as i Sam. viii. II ; 2 Sam. xv. I. The principal distinction between these private chariots and those actually used in war was, as appears from the monuments, that in the former the party drove himself, whereas in war the chariot, as among the Greeks, often contained a second person to drive it, that the war rior might be at liberty to employ his weapons with the more effect. But this was not always the case ; for in the Egyptian monuments we often see even royal personages alone in their chariots, war ring furiously, with the reins lashed round their waist (No. 182). So it appears that Jehu (who certainly rode in a war-chariot) drove himself ; for his peculiar style of driving was recognised at a considerable distance (2 Kings ix. 20).
There has been some speculation as to any dif ference of meaning between the preceding word Infrcahtth (rOnt)), and mercab (Inn). In Kings v. 6 (A. V. iv. 26), the latter obviously means chariots, taken collectively. But in Lev. xv. 9 (ren dered in the A. V. saddle') and Cant. iii. to (ren dered 'the bottom') it has been understood by some to denote the seat of a chariot. To this view there is the fatal objection that ancient chariots had no seats. It appears to denote the seat of a litter (the only vehicle that had a seat), and its name mercab may have been derived from the general resemblance of the body of a litter (distinguished from the canopy, etc.) both in form and use, to
that of a chariot.
Another word, 271 receb, from the same root, appears to signify a carriage of any kind, and is especially used with reference to large bodies of carriages, and hence most generally of war-cha riots ; for chariots were anciently seldom seen to gether in large numbers except when employed in war. It is applied indifferently to the war-chariots of any nation, as to those of the Egyptians (Exod. xiv. 9), the Canaanites (Josh. xvii. IS ; Judg. i. r9; iv. 3), the Hebrews (2 Kings ix, 21, 24 ; X. 16), the Syrians (2 Kings v. 9), the Persians (Is. xxi. 7, 9), By a comparison of these references with those passages in which mercabah occurs, we find the two words applied with so little distinction to all sorts of carriages as to suggest that they were used indifferently and interchangeably, just as we should say either carriage' or 'coach '—neither of which is specific, and both of which differ more from each other than the Hebrew receb and merca bah—to denote the same vehicle. Indeed there are passages in which both words are manifestly applied to the same identical vehicle, as in 2 Kings v. 9, 2r, and r Kings xxii. 35, 3S ; where no reader would suspect a change of vehicles, which some have endeavoured to establish in order to make out a difference between the receb and flier cabah. Mr. Charles Taylor, in one of the frag ments appended to his edition of Calmet, indulges in much ingenious speculation on this subject, and labours to make out that while the mercabah de noted a chariot of state drawn by four horses, the receb was a humbler chariot drawn by two horses, and sometimes a litter carried by two horses. To this it may be sufficient to answer that chariots of state were not drawn by four horses in the East ; that no instance of such a practice can be produced ; and that the best Hebrew scholars of the Continent deny that it can be proved that receb anywhere denotes a litter, for which indeed there is a differ ent word. [LITTER.] There is another word which is sometimes ren dered by chariot, viz. rI9 1, 'agalah ; but as we have elsewhere [CART] shewn that it denotes a plaustrum, cart, or waggon, drawn by oxen, we need not here return to the subject. It is indeed alleged that in Ps. xlvi. 9 the word manifestly im ports a chariot of war. The plural 'agaloth, is there used, and the supposition that it means a chariot of war proceeds on the assumption that only chariots were used in war. But this is not the fact, for in the scenes of Egyptian warfare we find carts, drawn by oxen, brought into the field by certain nomade nations, and in which they en deavour to escape from their pursuers.