With twelve hundred chariots. — The short account in Kings says nothing of the numbers or constituents of the invading host. The totals here assigned are probably round numbers founded on a rough estimate. The cavalry are exactly fifty times as many as the chariots. Thenius finds the numbers “not in credible.”
The Lubims, the Sukkiims, and the Ethi-opians. — Rather, Lybians, Sukkîyans, and Cushites (without the definite article). These were “the people” — i.e., the footmen. The Lybians and Cushites are mentioned together as auxiliaries of Egypt in Nahum 3:9. (Comp. 2 Chronicles 16:8.) The Sukkîyans are unknown, but the LXX. and Vulg. render Troglodytes, or cave-dwellers, meaning, it would seem, the Ethiopian Troglodytes of the mountains on the western shore of the Arabian Gulf. (Comp. sukkô, “his lair,” Psalms 10:9.)