David took from him one thousand seven hundred horsemen and twenty thousand footmen. David hamstrung the chariot horses, but reserved enough of them for one hundred chariots.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 4. A thousand. Protestants supply chariots, ( Bible.) after the Septuagint and 1 Par. (18:4) which have 7000 horsemen. See how we have attempted to reconcile these texts, 1 Kennicott. 13:5. Perhaps the numbers were expressed by single letters; and the Hebrew final n, (700) has been mistaken for z, (7000) both here and Calmet. 10:18. Literis numeralibus non verbis antiquitus numeri concipiebantur. Scaliger, apud Walton prol.—“Will any other hypothesis so naturally solve this repeated difficulty?” Kennicott, Diss. on 1 Chron. xi p. 96 and 463.—Kimchi thinks that the king’s horse-guards are only specified here; and Salien supposes, that those who fought on chariots are also included in Chronicles, as they are often styled horsemen. Isaiah 21:7, 9. Menochius.—Houghed. Aquila, “destroyed.” He rendered them unfit for war, as Josue had don, (Joshua 11:6) supposing that this was the import of the decree, forbidding many horses to be kept, Deuteronomy 17:16.—Horses is not expressed in Hebrew though the Prot. supply the word; as also, for. We should translate lit. “He left out of them 100 chariots;” ( Bible.) as we read elsewhere, that Adarezer had 1000. Menochius.—But this expression being unintelligible, no less than, “he houghed all the chariots,” as the text stands at present in the original, may lead us to suspect that this verse has been inaccurately printed. Septuagint “David paralyzed, (or rendered useless) all the chariots; and 100 chariots were reserved for himself out of them.” Josephus says the rest of the 1000 chariots were burnt, 5000 horse slain, and 20,000 foot. Bible.