Did David take seven hundred horsemen from Hadadezer, or seven thousand?
Samuel counts the companies of horse, seven hundred; Chronicles the men in them, seven thousand.
The Passages
2 Samuel 8:4
1 Chronicles 18:4
The Difficulty
“And David took from him a thousand chariots, and seven hundred horsemen, and twenty thousand footmen” (2 Samuel 8:4). “And David took from him a thousand chariots, and seven thousand horsemen, and twenty thousand footmen” (1 Chronicles 18:4).
The Answer
The word “chariots” in 2 Samuel 8:4 is in italics: the Hebrew there reads “a thousand and seven hundred horsemen,” and the KJV supplies “chariots” from Chronicles, which names them. So the passages agree on the thousand chariots and the twenty thousand footmen, and differ only in how the horse are counted.
Gill gives two answers, from Kimchi and Abarbinel: Samuel counts the ranks or companies of horse, seven hundred, of ten men each, and Chronicles the seven thousand men in them; or Samuel counts the chief officers and Chronicles all under their command. The same way of counting reconciles the next battle (see “Seven hundred chariots or seven thousand?”).
Sources
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Here are meant the ranks and companies of horse David took, which were 700; and these having ten in a company or rank, made 7000; and there the complement of soldiers in those companies and ranks are intended.
Checked against: Internet Archive scan of the first edition, 2026-10-23
