2 Kings 19:28

19:28 Because you rage against me,

and the uproar you create has reached my ears; ¹ 

I will put my hook in your nose, ² 

and my bridle between your lips,

and I will lead you back the way

you came.”

Psalms 32:9

32:9 Do not be ³  like an unintelligent horse or mule, ⁴ 

which will not obey you

unless they are controlled by a bridle and bit. ⁵ 

James 3:3

3:3 And if we put bits into the mouths of horses to get them to obey us, then we guide their entire bodies. ⁶ 

[19:28]  ¹ tc Heb “and your complacency comes up into my ears.” The parallelism is improved if שַׁאֲנַנְךְ (sha’anankh), “your complacency,” is emended to שַׁאֲוַנְךְ (sha’avankh), “your uproar.” See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 237-38.

[19:28]  ² sn The word picture has a parallel in Assyrian sculpture. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 238.

[32:9]  ³ tn The verb form is plural (i.e., “do not all of you be”); the psalmist addresses the whole group.

[32:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “like a horse, like a mule without understanding.”

[32:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “with a bridle and bit, its [?] to hold, not to come near to you.” The meaning of the Hebrew noun עֲדִי (’adiy) is uncertain. Normally the word refers to “jewelry,” so some suggest the meaning “trappings” here (cf. NASB). Some emend the form to לְחֵיהֶם (lÿkhehem, “their jawbones”) but it is difficult to see how the present Hebrew text, even if corrupt, could have derived from this proposed original reading. P. C. Craigie (Psalms 1-50 [WBC], 265) takes the form from an Arabic root and translates “whose gallop.” Cf. also NRSV “whose temper must be curbed.”

[3:3]  ⁶ tn Grk “their entire body.”