Bible Commentaries
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible
1 Chronicles 19
Compare the marginal references and notes. The writer here adds one or two touches, and varies in one or two of the numbers.
Hanun - A Philistine king of this name is mentioned in the Assyrian inscriptions as paying tribute to Tiglath-pileser and warring with Sargon.
A thousand talents of silver - The price is not given in Samuel. On the practice of hiring troops about this time in western Asia, see 1 Kings 15:18; 2 Kings 7:6; 2 Chronicles 25:6.
They hired thirty and two thousand chariots - The reading is corrupt. Such a number as 32,000 chariots alone was never brought into battle on any occasion. Compare the numbers in Exodus 14:7; 1 Kings 10:26; 2 Chronicles 12:3. The largest force which an Assyrian king ever speaks of encountering is 3,940. The words “and horsemen” have probably fallen out of the text after the word “chariots” (compare 1 Chronicles 19:6). The 32,000 would be the number of the warriors serving on horseback or in chariots; and this number would agree closely with 2 Samuel 10:6, as the following table shows:
d 2 Samuel 10:6 Men
d
d Syrians of Beth-rehob and Zobah20,000
d
d Syrians of Ish-tob12,000
d
d Syrians of Maachah1,000
d
d Total33,000
d
d 1 Chronicles 19:7 Men
d
d Syrians of Zobah, etc.32,000
d
d Syrians of Machah (number not given)1,000
d
d Total33,000
d
d
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