Albert Barnes Commentary 2 Samuel 10:18

"And the Syrians fled before Israel; and David slew of the Syrians [the men of] seven hundred chariots, and forty thousand horsemen, and smote Shobach the captain of their host, so that he died there." — 2 Samuel 10:18 (ASV)

Seven hundred chariots - This is more probable than the “seven thousand” mentioned in 1 Chronicles 19:18. The frequent errors in numbers arise from the practice of expressing numerals by letters, with one or more dots or dashes to indicate hundreds, thousands, and so on.