1 Samuel 13:5 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy 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 a distinction of chariots we find Exodus 14:7. But there is no need of this reply. 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, Deuteronomy 28:5,17; the wilderness, for the wild beasts of the wilderness, Psalms 29:8; the nest, for the birds in it, Deuteronomy 32:11; the cup, for the drink in it, Jeremiah 49:12 1 Corinthians 10:21. And, to come more closely to the point, a horse is put for a horse-load of wares laid upon it, 1 Kings 10:28; and an ass of bread is put for an ass-load of bread, both in the Hebrew text of 1 Samuel 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 2 Samuel 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, 1 Chronicles 19:18; and 1 Kings 20:21, where Ahab is said to smite horses and chariots; and 1 Chronicles 18:4 Psalms 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 Ezekiel 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 /APC 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.