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The Philistines assembled themselves together to fight with Israel, thirty thousand chariots, and six thousand horsemen, and people as the sand which is on the sea-shore in multitude: and they came up, and encamped in Michmash, eastward of Beth-aven.

Verse Takeaways

1

An Impossible Number

Nearly all commentators agree that the number "thirty thousand chariots" is a copyist's error. They point out that this number is vastly larger than any other army's chariot force in the Bible, including Pharaoh's or Solomon's. The original number was likely 3,000 or even 300, which would still represent a formidable force. This helps us understand how scholars handle textual variations without undermining the core message.

See 3 Verse Takeaways

Book Overview

1 Samuel

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Commentaries

4

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes

On 1 Samuel 13:5

18th Century

Theologian

Thirty thousand chariots - This is probably a copyist’s mistake for 300. (Compare 1 Chronicles 18:4 with [Reference 2 Samuel 8:4…

Charles Ellicott

Charles Ellicott

On 1 Samuel 13:5

19th Century

Bishop

And the Philistines gathered themselves together to fight with Israel. —The figures provided here, again, for the numbers…

John Gill

John Gill

On 1 Samuel 13:5

17th Century

Pastor

And the Philistines gathered themselves together to fight with
Israel
To prevent thei…

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Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry

On 1 Samuel 13:1–7

17th Century

Minister

Saul reigned one year, and nothing particular happened; but in his second year, the events recorded in this chapter took place. For more than a yea…