The wagon or cart of ancient times was a simple vehicle, usually wooden, having spoked or solid wheels. (1Sa 6:14) Some were little more than two-wheeled open platforms fitted with a horizontal tongue or pole in front. Others had sides, and some were covered, such as the six covered wagons (drawn by two bulls each) used to transport tabernacle articles. (Nu 7:2-9) The “coaches” of Revelation 18:13 may denote four-wheeled wagons or carriages.

In Israel, especially in earlier times, the wagon was usually drawn by cattle rather than horses, the latter being used especially for chariots and in warfare. (2Sa 6:3, 6; 15:1; 1Ch 13:7, 9; Pr 21:31) Wagons were employed to transport persons (Ge 45:19, 21, 27; 46:5), grain, and other loads. (1Sa 6:7-14; Am 2:13) Those used in warfare (as mentioned at Ps 46:9) may have been military baggage wagons. In the time of Isaiah, when the Israelites had many horses (Isa 2:7), wagons pulled by horses were used in threshing.​—Isa 28:27, 28.

The prophet Isaiah pronounced woe upon persons ‘drawing sin as with wagon cords,’ possibly indicating that such individuals were attached to sin just as animals were tied with cords to wagons they pulled.​—Isa 5:18.