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The Contradiction Desk
Claimed Bible contradictions, stated the way they circulate, each with one diagnosis and the evidence for it: the Hebrew, the Greek, the manuscripts.
Seven hundred chariots, or seven thousand?
2 Samuel 10:18 says David killed the men of 700 chariots and 40,000 horsemen. 1 Chronicles 19:18 says 7,000 charioteers and 40,000 foot soldiers. A number and a noun disagree.
2 Samuel 10:18, in every translation this tool compares.
The real question: can both reports of one battle be right? The match report says 700 fans came, and the club says 7,000. Did someone miscount, or misprint?
2 Samuel 10:18 says David killed the men of seven hundred Syrian chariots and forty thousand horsemen. 1 Chronicles 19:18 says seven thousand men who fought in chariots and forty thousand footmen.
The ESV Study Bible says the difference between 700 and 7,000 is probably due not to a discrepancy in the original manuscripts but to a scribal error in the later copying of one book or the other. MacArthur judges that 2 Samuel's 700 is the copyist's error and that Chronicles' foot soldiers is more likely correct than Samuel's horsemen. The CSB prints foot soldiers in 2 Samuel 10:18, and its textual note says it follows some Septuagint manuscripts there, where the Masoretic Text reads horsemen.
And the Syrians fled before Israel; and David slew the men of seven hundred chariots of the Syrians, and forty thousand horsemen, and smote Shobach the captain of their host, who died there.
The Skeptic's Annotated Bible asks "How many men did David kill?" and quotes the two verses side by side. At full strength: two differences in one sentence, a number and a kind of soldier, are harder to put down to a single slip.
The harmonizing case here is the copying case: the books agreed and a figure was miscopied. MacArthur takes Chronicles as the better text on both points. The ESV Study Bible does not say which book holds the original.
The explanation needs two separate changes, a number and a noun, which makes it less tidy than a single slip; that is an observation made here. The sources do not agree on which book preserves which detail: MacArthur picks Chronicles for both, the CSB corrects only the noun in Samuel from the Septuagint, and the ESV leaves it open.
Not a claim that the battle did not happen. Both books report the same defeat of the Syrians.
- ESV Study Bible, note on 1 Chronicles 19:18
- The MacArthur Study Bible (ESV), notes on 2 Samuel 10:18 and 1 Chronicles 19:18
- CSB Study Bible, text and textual note on 2 Samuel 10:18
- The Skeptic's Annotated Bible, How many men did David kill?, https://skepticsannotatedbible.com/contra/chariots.html
- King James Version, 2 Samuel 10:18 and 1 Chronicles 19:18
