Exodus 14:7 - Exposition

Six hundred chosen chariots . Diodorus Siculus assigns to one Egyptian king a force of 27,000 chariots (1. 54, § 4), which however is probably beyond the truth. But the 1200 assigned to Shishak ( 2 Chronicles 12:3 ) may well be regarded as historical; and the great kings of the nineteenth dynasty would possess at least an equal number. The "six hundred chosen chariots" set in motion on this occasion probably constituted a division of the royal body-guard (Herod. 2.168). The remaining force would be collected from the neighbouring cities of Northern Egypt, as Memphis, Heliopolis, Bubastis, Pithom, and Pelusium. Captains over every one of them . Rather, "Captains over the whole of them." So the LXX . the Vulgate and SyriActs version. Some, however, understand "warriors in each of them ' (Gesenius, Bodiger, Kalisch).