2 Chronicles 1:14 - Exposition

The contents of this and the following three verses are identical with the parrallel 1 Kings 10:26-29 , except that the words, "and gold," of our 1 Kings 10:15 ( 2 Chronicles 9:20 ) are not found there. The position of these four verses in the parallel, towards the close of the account of Solomon, would seem more natural than their position here, which has somewhat the appearance of a fragment interpolated, as on the other hand the account of the harlot-mothers there. Solomon gathered chariots and horsemen. The chariot was no institution of Israel (so Deuteronomy 20:1 ), neither of their earliest ancestors, nor of those more proximate. The earliest occasions of the mention of it ( Genesis 41:43 ; Genesis 46:29 ; Genesis 50:9 ) are in connection with Egypt, and almost all subsequent occasions for a long stretch of time show it in connection with some foreign nation, till we read ( 2 Samuel 8:4 ; 1 Chronicles 18:4 ) of David "reserving horses" unhoughed "for a hundred chariots," apparently also "reserved" out of the very much larger number which he had taken in battle from Hadadezer King of Zobah. The very genius of the character of God's people, a pilgrim -genius, as well as their long-time pilgrim -life, quite accounts for the "chariot," though it be a war-chariot, having never ranked among their treasures ( Deuteronomy 17:16 ; 1 Samuel 8:11 ). Now, however, Solomon thinks it the time to make it a feature of the nation's power and splendour. He gives the large order for fourteen hundred chariots apparently to Egypt ( 1 Kings 10:17 ; also 1 Kings 9:28 ), the appropriate number of horses to which would be probably four thousand. Solomon's fourteen hundred chariots were probably intended to exceed the numbers of the Egyptian king, of Hadadezer's ( 2 Samuel 8:4 ; 1 Chronicles 18:4 ), and of the Syrians ( 2 Samuel 10:18 ). But, on the other hand, see 1 Samuel 13:5 and 1 Chronicles 19:7 , unless, as seems very probable, the numerals in these places are again incorrect. Dr. Smith's 'Dictionary of the Bible' contains an interesting article on the chariot (vol. 1:295). For significant allusions to the horsemen , reference may be made to 1 Samuel 8:11 ; 1 Kings 20:20 ; 2 Kings 2:12 ; Isaiah 21:7 . Twelve thousand horsemen . These probably purport what we should call horse-soldiers, or cavalry. And. it is likely that they come to designate these in virtue of the Hebrew word here used ( פָרָשִׁים ) meaning horses of the cavalry sort (see Gesenius, 'Lexicon,' sub voce ). The chariot cities. In 2 Chronicles 8:5 , 2 Chronicles 8:6 we are expressly told that Solomon "built" purposely these cities, for the chariots and for the horsemen, just as he built the "store" cities (see also 1 Kings 9:17-19 ; Xenoph; 'Anab.,' 1 Kings 1:4 . § 10).