Six hundred chosen chariots. — The chariot force was that on which the Egyptians chiefly relied for victory from the beginning of the eighteenth
dynasty. Diodorus Siculus assigns to his Sesostris (probably Rameses II.) a force of 27,000 chariots; but this is, no doubt, an exaggeration. The largest number of chariots brought together on any one occasion that is sufficiently attested, is believed by the present writer to be 3,940, which were collected by various confederates against an Assyrian king (Ancient Monarchies, vol. ii, p. 103, Note). In 1 Samuel 13:5,30,1 Samuel 13 chariots are mentioned, no doubt by some numerical error. A force of 2,500 is said by Rameses II. to have been brought against him in his great Hittite campaign (Records of the Past, vol. ii., pp. 69, 71). Sheshonk I. (Shishak) invaded Judaea with 1,200 (2 Chronicles 12:3). The “six hundred chosen chariots” of the present passage are thus quite within the limits of probability. Most likely they constituted a division of the royal guard, and were thus always at the king’s disposal.
And all the chariots of Egypt. — The word “all” must not be pressed. The writer means “all that were available — that could be readily summoned.” These could only be the chariots of Lower Egypt — those stationed at Memphis, Heliopolis, Bubastis, Pithom, Sebennytus perhaps, and Pelusium. They would probably amount to several hundreds.
Captains over every one of them. — Rather, over the whole of them. These “captains” are again mentioned in Exodus 15:4. The word in the original — a derivative from the numeral three — is supposed to have meant, primarily, “persons occupying the third rank below the king.”