They hired thirty and two thousand chariots - The reading is corrupt. Such a number as 32,000 chariots alone was never brought into battle on any occasion. Compare the numbers in Exodus 14:7; 1 Kings 10:26; 2 Chronicles 12:3. The largest force which an Assyrian king ever speaks of encountering is 3,940. The words “and horsemen” have probably fallen out of the text after the word “chariots” (compare 1 Chronicles 19:6). The 32,000 would be the number of the warriors serving on horseback or in chariots; and this number would agree closely with 2 Samuel 10:6, as the following table shows:
| Men | |
| Syrians of Beth-rehob and Zobah | 20,000 |
| Syrians of Ish-tob | 12,000 |
| Syrians of Maachah | 1,000 |
| Total | 33,000 |
| Men | |
| Syrians of Zobah, etc. | 32,000 |
| Syrians of Machah ( number not given) | 1,000 |
| Total | 33,000 |