Commentators note a difference between this verse (700 chariots, 40,000 horsemen) and the parallel account in 1 Chronicles 19:18 (7,000 men, 40,000 footmen). Scholars explain this in two main ways. Some, like Barnes and Ellicott, suggest a simple scribal error in copying numbers, which was common. Others, like Gill, propose that the accounts count differently—for example, one counts the 700 chariots while the other counts the 7,000 men inside them. This shows how apparent contradictions can often be reasonably explained.