2 Kings 8:4
And David took from him a thousand and seven hundred horsemen, and twenty thousand footmen, and houghed all the chariot horses: and only reserved of them for one hundred chariots.
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- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Et captis David ex parte ejus mille septingentis equitibus, et viginti millibus peditum, subnervavit omnes jugales curruum : dereliquit autem ex eis centum currus.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ προκατελάβετο Δαυεὶδ τῶν αὐτοῦ χίλια ἅρματα καὶ ἑπτὰ χιλιάδας ἱππέων καὶ εἴκοσι χιλιάδας ἀνδρῶν πεζῶν· καὶ παρέλυσεν Δαυεὶδ πάντα τὰ ἅρματα, καὶ ὑπελίπετο ἑαυτῷ ἑκατὸν ἅρματα.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וַיִּלְכֹּ֨ד דָּוִ֜ד מִמֶּ֗נּוּ אֶ֤לֶף וּשְׁבַע מֵאוֹת֙ פָּרָשִׁ֔ים וְעֶשְׂרִ֥ים אֶ֖לֶף אִ֣ישׁ רַגְלִ֑י וַיְעַקֵּ֤ר דָּוִד֙ אֶת כָּל הָרֶ֔כֶב וַיּוֹתֵ֥ר מִמֶּ֖נּוּ מֵ֥אָה רָֽכֶב
Haydock's commentary
A thousand. Protestants supply chariots, (Haydock) after the Septuagint and 1 Paralipomenon (xviii. 4.) which have 7000 horsemen. See how we have attempted to reconcile these texts, 1 Kings xiii. 5. Perhaps the numbers were expressed by single letters; and the Hebrew final n, (700) has been mistaken for z, (7000) both here and [in] chap. x. 18. Literis numeralibus non verbis antiquitus numeri concipiebantur. (Scaliger, apud Walton prol.)
"Will any other hypothesis so naturally solve this repeated difficulty?" (Kennicott, Diss. on 1 Chronicles xi. p. 96 and 463.)
Kimchi thinks that the king's horse-guards are only specified here; and Salien supposes, that those who fought on chariots are also included in Chronicles, as they are often styled horsemen, Isaias xxi. 7, 9. (Menochius)
Houghed. Aquila, "destroyed." He rendered them unfit for war, as Josue had done, (Josue xi. 6.) supposing that this was the import of the decree, forbidding many horses to be kept, Deuteronomy xvii. 16.
Horses is not expressed in Hebrew, though the Protestants supply the word; as also, for. We should translate literally, "He left out of them 100 chariots;" (Haydock) as we read elsewhere, that Adarezer had 1000. (Menochius)
But this expression being unintelligible, no less than, "he houghed all the chariots," as the text stands at present in the original, may lead us to suspect that this verse has been inaccurately printed. Septuagint, "David paralyzed, (or rendered useless) all the chariots; and 100 chariots were reserved for himself out of them." Josephus says the rest of the 1000 chariots were burnt, 5000 horse slain, and 20,000 foot. (Haydock)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.