Inquiry:
How many stalls and horsemen did Solomon have? In 1 Kings 4:26 we read, “And Solomon had forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen.” However, 2 Chronicles 9:25 records, “And Solomon had four thousand stalls for horses and chaiots, and twelve thousand horsemen; whom he bestowed in the chariot cities, adn with the king at Jerusalem.” Is there a contradiction?
Response:
Firstly, there is no contradiction on how many horsemen there were. Both 1 Kings 4 and 2 Chronicles 9 state, “…and twelve thousand horsemen…”
Concerning the number of stalls, the questioner did not read the text closely. It would seem that in 1 Kings we are told how many horses Solomon had in stalls for his chariots – 40,000 horses. In 2 Chronicles we are told how many stalls he had in which to keep his horses and chariots – 4,000 stalls. Thus, he had 4,000 stalls, 10 horses in each stall, totalling 40,000 horses.
There is no contradiction.
This article is a response to Skeptic’s Annotated Bible
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