Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Samuel 13:5
And the Philistines gathered themselves together to fight with Israel, thirty thousand chariots, and six thousand horsemen, and people as the sand which [is] on the sea shore in multitude: and they came up, and pitched in Michmash, eastward from Beth-aven.
5. thirty thousand chariots ] This reading, though as old as the Sept., is certainly wrong. The number of chariots was always less than that of horsemen, and such an enormous force of chariots is not only quite unparalleled, but would be useless in the mountainous country. Possibly the numeral 30, expressed in Hebrew by the letter l, was due to the accidental repetition of the last letter of the word Israel, and we should read “ a thousand chariots.” Jabin had “nine hundred chariots” (Jdg 4:3).
people as the sand which is on the sea shore ] “People” = infantry. “The sand on the sea shore” is a common figure for an indefinite number. Cp. Gen 22:17; Gen 41:49; Jos 11:4; Psa 78:27, &c.
in Michmash, eastward from Beth-aven ] Saul evacuated Michmash and withdrew to Gilgal. Jonathan however still held Gibeah ( 1Sa 13:16). Beth-aven (= “house of naught” i.e. idols) was near Ai, between Michmash and Bethel (Jos 7:2). The position was an important one, commanding the chief approach from Gilgal to the heart of the country.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Thirty thousand chariots – Probably a copyists mistake for 300. (Compare, for a similar numerical variation, 1Ch 18:4 with 2Sa 8:4.)
Eastward from Bethaven – Or more simply to the east of Bethaven, which Jos 7:2 lay on the east side of Bethel. Bethaven (thought to be the same as Deir Diwan) lay between Bethel and Michmash, which had been evacuated by Saul.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 5. Thirty thousand chariots, and six thousand horsemen] There is no proportion here between the chariots and the cavalry. The largest armies ever brought into the field, even by mighty emperors, never were furnished with thirty thousand chariots.
I think sheloshim, THIRTY, is a false reading for shalosh, THREE. The Syriac has [Syriac] telotho alpin, and the Arabic [Arabic] thalathato alf, both signifying THREE thousand; and this was a fair proportion to the horsemen. This is most likely to be the true reading.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Thirty thousand chariots: this number seems incredible to infidels; to whom it may be sufficient to reply, that it is far more rational to acknowledge a mistake in him that copied out the sacred text in such numeral or historical passages, wherein the doctrine of faith and good life is not directly concerned, than upon such a pretence to question the truth and divinity of the Holy Scriptures, which are so fully attested, and evidently demonstrated. And the mistake is not great in the Hebrew, schalosh for schellshim; and so indeed those two ancient translators, the Syriac and Arabic, translate it, and are supposed to have read in their Hebrew copies, three thousand. Nor is it necessary that all these should be military chariots, but many of them might be for carriages of things belonging to so great an army; for such b
Chariots here may very well be put for the men that rode upon them, and fought out of them, by a figure called a metonymy of the subject for the adjunct, or the thing containing for the thing contained in it, than which none more frequent. In the very same manner, and in the very same figure, the basket is put for the meat in it, Deu 28:5,17; the wilderness, for the wild beasts of the wilderness, Psa 29:8; the nest, for the birds in it, Deu 32:11; the cup, for the drink in it, Jer 49:12; 1Co 10:21. And, to come more closely to the point, a horse is put for a horse-load of wares laid upon it, 1Ki 10:28; and an ass of bread is put for an ass-load of bread, both in the Hebrew text of 1Sa 16:20, and in an ancient Greek poet. And, yet nearer, the word chariots is manifestly put either for the horses belonging to them, or rather for the men that fought out of them; as 2Sa 10:18, where it is said in the Hebrew that David slew seven hundred chariots; that is, seven thousand men which fought in chariots, as it is explained, 1Ch 19:18; and 1Ki 20:21, where Ahab is said to smite horses and chariots; and 1Ch 18:4; Psa 76:6, where the chariot and horse (i.e. the men that ride and fight in chariots, or upon horses) are said to be cast into a dead sleep; and Eze 39:20, where it is said, Ye shall be filled at my table with horses and chariots, (i.e. with men belonging to the chariots; for surely the chariots of iron had been very improper food,) with mighty men, &c. And let any cavilling infidel produce a wise reason why it may not, and ought not, to be so understood here also. Add to all this, that the Philistines were not alone in this expedition, but had the help of the Canaanites and the Tyrians, as is very credible, both from Sir 40:20, and from the nature of the thing. If it be further inquired, Why the Philistines should raise so great an army at this time? the answer is obvious, That not only their old and formidable enemy Samuel was yet alive, but a new enemy was risen, even king Saul, who was lately confirmed in his kingdom, and had been flushed with his good success against the Ammonites, and was likely to grow more and more potent, if not timely prevented; and they thought that now the Israelitish affairs were come to some consistency, being put into the hands of a king; and therefore they thought fit, once for all, to put forth all their strength to suppress the Israelites, and to prevent that ruin which otherwise threatened them.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
5. The Philistines gatheredthemselves together to fight with Israel, thirty thousand chariots,and six thousand horsemenEither this number must includechariots of every kindor the word “chariots” must meanthe men fighting in them (2Sa 10:18;1Ki 20:21; 1Ch 19:18);or, as some eminent critics maintain, Sheloshim (“thirty”),has crept into the text, instead of Shelosh (“three”).The gathering of the chariots and horsemen must be understood to beon the Philistine plain, before they ascended the western passes andpitched in the heart of the Benjamite hills, in “Michmash,”(now Mukmas), a “steep precipitous valley” [ROBINSON],eastward from Beth-aven (Beth-el).
1Sa13:6-8. THEISRAELITES’ DISTRESS.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And the Philistines gathered themselves together to fight with Israel,…. To prevent their further encroachments on them, and designs against them; for they perceived they intended to cast off their yoke, and free themselves entirely from them:
thirty thousand chariots, and six thousand horsemen; it may seem incredible that so small a people as the Philistines were, who only were possessed of five cities, or lordships, with the villages belonging to them, except what they had taken from Israel; and even if assisted by the Tyrians, the author of Sirach in the Apocrypha says:
“And he destroyed the rulers of the Tyrians, and all the princes of the Philistines.” (Sirach 46:18)
though he seems to have respect not to this time, but when Samuel discomfited them, 1Sa 7:10. I say it may seem incredible that they should bring such a number of chariots into the field; wherefore this must either be understood of 30,000 men that fought in chariots, as Lyra interprets it, and in which sense it is plain and certain the word chariots is sometimes used, as in 2Sa 10:18, or else of some sort of carriages, not chariots of war, at least not all of them; but what were brought to carry the baggage of their infantry, which was very large, and to carry away the goods and substance of the Israelites; some have thought that there is a mistake of the copier, who instead of , “three”, read , “thirty”: so Capellus; and the rather because in the Arabic and Syriac versions it is only “three thousand”; but even this is too great a number, understood of chariots of war; for never any people in the world was known to have so many chariots of war; Pharaoh in his large host had but six hundred, Ex 14:7 Jabin king of Canaan had indeed nine hundred, Jud 4:3 and David took from the king of Zobah one thousand chariots; but whether they were all chariots of war is not certain, 2Sa 8:4. Solomon indeed had one thousand and four hundred chariots, but they do not appear to be chariots of war, but some for use, and some for state and grandeur. Wherefore, if a mistake in the copy is admitted of, and this can be confirmed by some MSS, yet we must recur to one or other of the above senses; some of them must be understood of other sort of carriages, or of men that fought in these chariots; and allowing ten men to a chariot, which seems to be the usual number by comparing 2Sa 10:18 with 1Ch 19:18 then 3000 men would fill three hundred chariots, which are as many as it can well be thought the Philistines had Zerah the Ethiopian, who brought into the field an army of million men, had no more than three hundred chariots, 2Ch 14:9, and no more had Antiochus Eupator in his army,
“And with him Lysias his protector, and ruler of his affairs, having either of them a Grecian power of footmen, an hundred and ten thousand, and horsemen five thousand and three hundred, and elephants two and twenty, and three hundred chariots armed with hooks.” (2 Maccabees 13:2)
Darius in his vast army had but two hundred a, and in the very large one which Mithridates brought against the Romans there was but one hundred; and now 3000 men in three hundred chariots were but a proportion to 6000 horsemen, which in those times and countries was a large cavalry:
and the people as the sand which is on the sea shore in multitude; the infantry was so large as not to be numbered; however, the phrase denotes a great multitude of them; Josephus says b there were 300,000 footmen:
and they came up, and pitched in Michmash, eastward from Bethaven; where Saul, before he went to Gilgal, had his quarters, 1Sa 13:2. Bethaven was a place near Bethel, on the east of it, Jos 7:2 though Bethel itself was afterwards so called when Jeroboam had set up the worship of the calves there, Ho 4:15 it signifying the house of vanity or iniquity.
a Curtius, l. 4. c. 9. b Antiqu, l. 6. c. 6. sect. 1.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The Counter-attack of the Philistines. 1Sa. 13:5-7
5 And the Philistines gathered themselves together to fight with Israel, thirty thousand chariots, and six thousand horsemen, and people as the sand which is on the seashore in multitude: and they came up, and pitched in Michmash, eastward from Beth-aven.
6 When the men of Israel saw that they were in a strait, (for the people were distressed,) then the people did hide themselves in caves, and in thickets, and in rocks, and in high places, and in pits.
7 And some of the Hebrews went over Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead. As for Saul, he was yet in Gilgal, and all the people followed him trembling.
5.
Why were the people so alarmed? 1Sa. 13:6
The armies of Israel were caught in a trap. The Philistines came against them with their 30,000 chariots, 6,000 horsemen, and innumerable foot soldiers. Caves, thickets, rocks, high places, and pits afforded the people the only safety. Some of them even went across the Jordan into the land of Gilead in order to get as far away from Philistia as possible.
6.
Why did Saul go to Gilgal? 1Sa. 13:7
Gilgal was on the very eastern border of western Israel. It was the farthest rallying point from Philistia. In addition to being rather inaccessible to the Philistines, the spot was hallowed by the many events which had transpired here in Israels earlier history. Moreover, Samuel had told Saul that he would meet him there when Saul was anointed by Samuel (1Sa. 10:8).
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(5) And the Philistines gathered themselves together to fight with Israel.The figures here, again, of the numbers of this vast army are perfectly untrustworthy. In the rolls of ancient armies (and we possess many a one in the sacred records) the number of war chariots is always smaller than that of the horsemen; here the chariots are represented as four times as numerous. In the rolls of the most famous armies there never appear anything like this number. For instance, Jabin (Jdg. 4:3) had 900 chariots. Pharaoh pursued Israel with 600. When David defeated Syria, the great Syrian army had 40,000 horsemen and 700 chariots. King Solomon is only reported (1Ki. 10:26) to have possessed 1,400 chariots. Zerah the Ethiopian had but 300 in his vast army, and the Pharaoh Shishak 1,200. Here the more probable reading would be 300 not 30,000. Bishop Wordsworth endeavours to explain the vast array by a reference to Josephus, who relates that this Philistine force was composed of various nations; but this would never account for the incredible number of chariots. The Philistines evidently lost no time. While Saul was endeavouring to rally at Gilgal a Hebrew army, Philistia at once, with the aid of foreign allies, took the field, and with a large armyfor it is clear their host on this occasion was very largeencamped no great distance from Gilgal, evidently determined once and for all to crush their enemies and their recently-elected daring king.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
5. Thirty thousand chariots, and six thousand horsemen Here we meet another instance of manifest error of numbers in the text. “Thirty thousand war chariots bear no proportion whatever to six thousand horsemen, not only because the number of war-chariots is invariably smaller than that of the horsemen, (compare 2Sa 10:18; 1Ki 10:26 ; 2Ch 12:3,) but also because such a number of war chariots is never met with either in sacred or profane history, not even in the case of nations that were much more powerful than the Philistines. The number is, therefore, certainly corrupt, and we must either read three thousand, according to the Syriac and Arabic, or else simply one thousand. In the latter case the origin of the number thirty must be attributed to the fact that, through the oversight of a copyist, the (Hebrew numeral for thirty) of the word , Israel, was written twice, and consequently the second was taken for the numeral thirty.” Keil.
Came up pitched in Michmash Thus occupying the heights from which Saul had fallen back.
Beth-aven This place was on the east of Beth-el, (Jos 7:2,) and, as we infer from this passage, between it and Michmash; but it has not yet been satisfactorily identified with any modern site.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1Sa 13:5. Thirty thousand chariots. {Three thousand chariots. Syr. Arab.} {A thousand princes in chariots. Bucher. Praef.}
Houbigant also reads three thousand; a reading, says he, which Bochart has shewn to be just, for very good reasons; for it appears that the number of thirty thousand chariots was never heard of even in the largest armies.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
(5) And the Philistines gathered themselves together to fight with Israel, thirty thousand chariots, and six thousand horsemen, and people as the sand which is on the sea shore in multitude: and they came up, and pitched in Michmash, eastward from Bethaven. (6) When the men of Israel saw that they were in a strait, (for the people were distressed,) then the people did hide themselves in caves, and in thickets, and in rocks, and in high places, and in pits. (7) And some of the Hebrews went over Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead. As for Saul, he was yet in Gilgal, and all the people followed him trembling.
In all this relation here is nothing said of the Lord of Hosts, nothing of the ministry of his servants. Where is Samuel, where are the priests of the Lord? How strikingly do we behold in this what the Lord hath said in another part of scripture, when God’s people neglect him, and seek confidence in human strength, one thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one, at the rebuke of five shall ye flee; till ye be left as a beacon upon the top of a mountain, and as an ensign on an hill. Isa 30:17 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
1Sa 13:5 And the Philistines gathered themselves together to fight with Israel, thirty thousand chariots, and six thousand horsemen, and people as the sand which [is] on the sea shore in multitude: and they came up, and pitched in Michmash, eastward from Bethaven.
Ver. 5. Thirty thousand chariots. ] Armed with scythes and hooks. These were a great number. Sisera had but nine hundred, Pharaoh six hundred.
And people as the sand which is on the sea shore.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
thirty thousand . . . six, &c. Multiples of six. See App-10.
as the sand, &c. Figure of speech Parcemia. App-6.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
thirty thousand chariots: The Philistines had no doubt collected troops in this emergency, from all the surrounding nation; but the number of chariots is immensely large beyond any example, and wholly disproportioned to the number of their cavalry. It is probable, therefore, that for sheloshim aileph, “thirty thousand,” we should read shelosh aileph, “three thousand,” with the Syriac and Arabic.
as the sand: Gen 22:17, Jos 11:4, Jdg 7:12, 2Ch 1:9, Isa 48:19, Jer 15:8, Rom 9:27
Bethaven: 1Sa 14:23, Jos 7:2, Jos 18:12, Hos 4:15, Hos 5:8, Hos 10:5
Reciprocal: Gen 41:49 – General Deu 28:29 – thou shalt be Jdg 3:3 – five lords 1Sa 13:2 – Michmash 1Sa 13:11 – Michmash 1Sa 13:23 – passage 1Sa 17:1 – gathered 1Sa 28:1 – that the 1Ki 20:1 – and horses 1Ki 20:27 – like two 1Ch 17:10 – And since 1Ch 19:7 – hired 2Ch 12:3 – twelve hundred Ezr 2:27 – Michmas Neh 7:31 – Michmas Psa 20:7 – Some trust Isa 10:28 – Michmash Rev 20:8 – the number
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1Sa 13:5. Thirty thousand chariots The Syriac and Arabic copies mention only three thousand chariots, which seems to be the true reading; for there is no foundation for believing that the Philistines could bring into the field thirty thousand chariots of war. Indeed we read of nothing like it in all history. Or, we may suppose that most of them were but carriages for the baggage of the army.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
13:5 And the Philistines gathered themselves together to fight with Israel, thirty thousand chariots, and six thousand horsemen, and people as the sand which [is] on the sea shore in multitude: and they came up, and pitched in Michmash, eastward from {e} Bethaven.
(e) Which was also called Beth-el, in the tribe of Benjamin.