And David took from him a thousand chariots, and seven thousand horsemen, and twenty thousand footmen: David also houghed all the chariot horses, but reserved of them an hundred chariots.
David took from him a thousand chariots - (see the notes at 2 Samuel 8:3-14.) In that passage David is said to have taken 700 horsemen, whereas here it is said that be took 7,000. This great discrepancy in the text of the two narratives seems to have originated with a transcriber in confounding the two Hebrew letters which indicate the numbers, and in neglecting to mark or observe the points over one of them. We have no means of ascertaining whether 700 or 7,000 is the more correct. Probably the former, should be adopted (Davidson's 'Hermeneutics').
But reserved of them an hundred chariots - probably to grace a triumphal procession on his return to Jerusalem, and after using them in that way, to destroy them like the rest.