Egypt's Horses Are Flesh, Not Spirit

Woe to those who go down to Egypt for horses and do not look to the Holy One

Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help; and stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many; and in horsemen, because they are very strong; but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the LORD! Yet he also is wise, and will bring evil, and will not call back his words: but will arise against the house of the evildoers, and against the help of them that work iniquity.

Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit. When the LORD shall stretch out his hand, both he that helpeth shall fall, and he that is holpen shall fall down, and they all shall fail together. Quantity of cavalry is flesh. The woe is misplaced military trust, not nationalism, not a warrant to copy imperial violence, and not a map of Egypt onto a living people.

A lion over prey and hovering birds picture Jerusalem's defense

For thus hath the LORD spoken unto me, Like as the lion and the young lion roaring on his prey, when a multitude of shepherds is called forth against him, he will not be afraid of their voice, nor abase himself for the noise of them: so shall the LORD of hosts come down to fight for mount Zion, and for the hill thereof. As birds flying, so will the LORD of hosts defend Jerusalem; defending also he will deliver it; and passing over he will preserve it.

Lion-fearlessness and bird-hovering are the LORD's protection of the hill, a passover-flavored preserve. Shepherds shouting cannot shoo him. The images are not war propaganda for a modern army to roar like a lion over prey.