2 Samuel 10:18

WEB

The Syrians fled before Israel; and David killed of the Syrians seven hundred charioteers, and forty thousand horsemen, and struck Shobach the captain of their army, so that he died there.

KJV

And the Syrians fled before Israel; and David slew the men of seven hundred chariots of the Syrians, and forty thousand horsemen, and smote Shobach the captain of their host, who died there.

Commentary

And the Syrians fled before Israel,.... After an obstinate and bloody fight between them: and David slew the men of seven hundred chariots of the Syrians; the word "men" is rightly supplied, for chariots could not be said to be slain, but the men in them; in Ch1 19:17 , they are said to be seven thousand, here seven hundred; which may be reconciled by observing, that here the chariots that held the men are numbered, there the number of the men that were in the chariots given, and reckoning ten men in a chariot, seven hundred chariots held just seven thousand men; though Kimchi takes another way of reconciling the two places, by observing that here only the choicest chariots are mentioned, there all of them, but the former way seems best: and forty thousand horsemen; in Ch1 19:17 ; it is forty thousand "footmen", and so Josephus (c); and the same may be called both horse and foot, be cause though they might come into the field of battle on horseback, yet might dismount and fight on foot; and so one historian calls them horsemen, and the other footmen; or the whole number of the slain, horse and foot mixed together, were forty thousand; Kimchi makes use of another way of removing this difficulty, and which perhaps is the best, that here only the horsemen are numbered that were slain, and there the footmen only, and both true; an equal number of each being slain, in all eighty thousand, besides the seven thousand in the chariots: and smote Shobach the captain of their host, who died there; of his wounds upon the spot. (c) Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 7. c. 6. sect. 3.)