Yahweh’s Character Brings Confidence (3:22–39)

Bear the yoke (3:27). The term “yoke” is used both in Hebrew and in other texts from the ancient Near East to refer to the beam apparatus that hitched two animals together to pull a plow or vehicle; this item often served as a metaphor for submission.54

Crush underfoot (3:34). See comment on 2:1. The Psalter also presents Israel’s victorious, sovereign Lord as one who will “shatter the head of his enemies” (Ps. 68:21–23; 60:12; 108:13). The Victory Stele of Naram-Sin depicts the enemy being crushed underfoot.55 Amenhotep II is depicted with his enemies underfoot.56 A pair of Tutankhamun’s sandals found in his tomb depict a pair of bound enemies, one Asiatic and the other Nubian on the insole,57 providing opportunity to continually “crush underfoot” his enemies.

One way of portraying the subjugation of peoples under their power was for the pharaohs to paint images of captives on the soles of their sandals thus placing their enemies under their feet.

Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY, courtesy of the Museo Egizio, Turin, Italy