1-kings 4:26

Solomon had forty thousand stalls of horses - and twelve thousand horsemen - In 2 Chronicles 9:25, instead of forty thousand stalls, we read four thousand; and even this number might be quite sufficient to hold horses for twelve thousand horsemen; for stalls and stables may be here synonymous. In 1 Kings 10:26 it is said he had one thousand four hundred chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen; and this is the reading in 2 Chronicles 1:14. In 2 Chronicles 9:25, already quoted, instead of forty thousand stalls for horses, the Septuagint has τεσσαρες χιλιαδες θηλειαι ἱπποι, four thousand mares; and in this place the whole verse is omitted both by the Syriac and Arabic. In the Targum of Rabbi Joseph on this book we have ארבע מאה arba meah, four hundred, instead of the four thousand in Chronicles, and the forty thousand in the text. From this collation of parallel places we may rest satisfied that there is a corruption in the numbers somewhere; and as a sort of medium, we may take for the whole four thousand stalls, one thousand four hundred chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen.

In 2 Chronicles 9:25, the number of stalls for Solomon's chariot horses is stated at 4,000, instead of 40,000. The number in the present passage is probably a corruption. Solomon's chariots were but 1,400 1 Kings 10:26; 2 Chronicles 1:14, for which 40,000 horses could not possibly be required. The Assyrian chariots had at most three horses apiece, while some had only two. 4,000 horses would supply the full team of three to 1,200, and the smaller team of two to 200 chariots. The number 4,000 is in due proportion to the 12,000 horses for cavalry, and is in accordance with all that we know of the military establishments of the time and country. Compare 2 Chronicles 12:3; 2 Samuel 8:4.

4:26 Forty thousand - In 2 Chronicles 9:25 , it is but four thousand. But it is not exactly the same Hebrew word which ishere and there, though we translate both stalls; and therefore there maywell be allowed some difference in the signification, the one signifyingproperly stables, of which there were four thousand, the other stallsor partitions for each horse, which were forty thousand.Chariots - Both for his military chariots, which seem to be those fourteenhundred, chap. 10:26 , and for divers other uses, as about his great andvarious buildings, and merchandises, and other occasions, which mightrequire some thousands of other chariots. Horsemen - Appointed partly forthe defence of his people in peace; and partly for attendance upon hisperson, and for the splendor of his government.