How many stalls for horses did Solomon have?
- Forty thousand (I Kings 4:26)
- Four thousand (2 chronicles 9:25)
1 Kings 4:26 And Solomon had forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen.
2 Chronicles 9:25 And Solomon had four thousand stalls for horses and chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen; whom he bestowed in the chariot cities, and with the king at Jerusalem.
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It is not hard to see why Shabir would assert that this is a contradiction. A basic reading of these scriptures clearly show a difference between the two recorded numbers. One verse says 4,000 and the other 40,000. That is a big error. Some 36,000 stalls difference between the numbers recorded in the two verses.
This is actually a very “popular” contradiction. I have been able to find this particular supposed contradiction on many websites dealing with contradictions in the Bible such as the well known website Skeptics annotated Bible for example.
https://skepticsannotatedbible.com/contra/stalls.html
So was it 4,000 or 40,000 stalls?
This is another contradiction put down as a copyist error by many so-called Scholars and Christian apologists. In fact, in searching for what answers other apologists have used in order to reconcile these two verses, this without doubt, seems to be the most popular.
I shall cite Matt Slick’s website Carm.org. Matt has 2 possible reasons for the error. 1 of those being a copyist error, which he claims is the most likely, but also a second possible answer that there were two separate counts of these stalls.
“There are two possible explanations for this discrepancy. 1) A copyist error. 2) The difference is due to time; that is, one account is at the beginning of Solomon’s reign (1 Kings 4:26), and the other at the end (2 Chron. 9:25). I believe the most probable is a copyist error since we can see that Chronicles does have copyist errors in other areas. Therefore, it is probable that the same thing occurred here.”
https://carm.org/bible-difficulties/how-many-stalls-of-horses-did-solomon-have-4000-or-40000/
It shouldn’t come as any surprise that I disagree with both of these possible “explanations” offered by Matt. In fact I would say that these “explanations” are flat out wrong and do not answer the supposed contradiction at all. I will be honest enough to admit here, if the Bible reads 4,000 in one verse and 40,000 in another verse and only one is correct, then this is an error in the Bible. Ok, the error is made by a copyist and not with the original text, if like Matt asserts it is only the originals that are inspired, but the Bible still contains an error and so is wrong.
I will point out that the second option, that the counts were at different times, is also postulated on another Christian apologetics website, although the author does at least acknowledge that this answer is speculative.
Response: 1 Kings 4:26 and 2 Chronicles 9:25 might simply be talking about different points in time. Perhaps Solomon had 4,000 stalls when 2 Chronicles 9:25 was written, and 40,000 when 1 Kings 4:26 was written. I understand that my answer is speculative, but so too is the claim that there’s an alleged contradiction.
http://www.aboutbibleprophecy.com/q51.htm
While I disagree with this answer, it has to be a possibility as there is nothing in the text that would negate this, and so even as a possibility it would remove the “fact” of a contradiction. It is a possible answer so for the contradiction to stand it would have to be demonstrated that these counts cannot have been done at different times of king Solomon’s reign.
Some modern versions “correct” this error and change the reading in 1 Kings from 40,000 to 4,000, such as the NIV
1 Kings 4:26 Solomon had four thousand stalls for chariot horses, and twelve thousand horses. NIV
Another version doing likewise is the NET Bible
1 Kings 4:26 Solomon had 4,000 stalls for his chariot horses and 12,000 horses. NET Bible
Notice also that the NET Bible has 12,000 horses while the KJV reads 12,000 horsemen.
I shall just point out that the Jehovah witness translation, the NWT published in 2013 reads 4,000. The two previous editions, the 1961 and the 1970 revision both read 40,000 stalls
So if the correct answer is 4,000 in both verses, had Shabir used one of these versions, this contradiction would not be found since they both read 4,000. Yet again Shabir is playing the cherry picking versions game in order to assert his claims of contradictions.
Most versions, however, including most modern versions do read 40,000 just like the KJV.
All English Bibles that preceded the KJV also read 40,000. This is not a KJV issue at all.
1394 Wycliffe Bible
And Salomon hadde fourty thousynd cratchis of horsis for charis, and twelue thousynde of roode horsis; and the forseid prefectis nurshiden tho horsis.
1535 Coverdale Bible
And Salomo had fortye thousande cart horses and twolue thousande horsmen.
1537 Matthew Bible
And Salomon had fourtye thousand stalles of horsses for charettes, & twelue thousand horsmen
1539 Great Bible
And Salomon had .xl.M. stalles of horses for charrettes, and .xij.M. horsmen.
1560 Geneva Bible
And Salomon had fourtie thousande stalles of horses for his charets, and twelue thousand horsemen.
1568 Bishops’ Bible
And Solomon had fourtie thousand stalles of horses for charettes, & twelue thousande horsemen.
The Latin Vulgate also reads 40,000 in 1 Kings
1 Kings 4:26 et habebat Salomon quadraginta milia praesepia equorum currulium et duodecim milia equestrium
And Solomon had forty thousand stalls of chariot horses, and twelve thousand for the saddle.
Interestingly, 1 Kings 4:26 is completely missing from Brenton’s Septuagint but reads 4,000 in 2 Chronicles 9.25
2 Chronicles 9:25 And Solomon had four thousand mares for chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen; and he put them in the chariot cities, and with the king in Jerusalem. Brenton’s Septuagint
It is almost certain that the reason why those that postulate a copyist error have chosen 4,000 as the correct number in both verses rather than 40,000 is based on the reading here of the Septuagint.
Matt Slick states that 40,000 seems rather large:
The correct answer is probably 4,000 since 40,000 seems extraordinarily large.
https://carm.org/bible-difficulties/how-many-stalls-of-horses-did-solomon-have-4000-or-40000/
So how do we explain this copyist error?
Of course, in English it could be an easy mistake. After all it is just one ‘0’ difference. 4 ‘0’s’ instead of 3 or vise versa. A copyist could easily, I suppose, add an extra 0 or not include one where it should have been. However, Hebrew is different. The words were written out.
The Hebrew in this verse is אַרְבָּעִ֥ים ’ar-bā-‘îm it is the written Hebrew number 40. The Hebrew number for 4 is אַרְבַּעַת ’ar-ba-‘aṯ the words are similar but the ending is clearly not. If you go back and look at the English versions prior to the KJV the words fourty thousand, are written out just as the Hebrew does (bar the Great Bible that has Roman numerals)
The NIV translates this as four (thousand)
2 Chronicles 9:25 Solomon had four thousand stalls for horses and chariots, and twelve thousand horses, which he kept in the chariot cities and also with him in Jerusalem.
It would therefore mean that the scribe either accidently (or deliberately) changed the ending from ‘aṯ (4) to îm (40)
If there is no error, as I would assert, and 4,000 and 40,000 are the correct numbers as recorded in the KJV and others, how do we reconcile them together?
There is, in reality, not a lot of explanation required and no deep study needed in order to answer this “contradiction”. It simply disappears when we just look at the language used in the 2 verses themselves.
In 1 Kings it says that King Solomon had 40,000 stalls OF Horses FOR his chariots. Clearly Solomon had 40,000 horses which were used for his chariots:
Kings 4:26 And Solomon had forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen.
However, 2 Chronicles says that he had 4,000 stalls FOR Horses AND chariots:
2 Chronicles 9:25 And Solomon had four thousand stalls for horses and chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen; whom he bestowed in the chariot cities, and with the king at Jerusalem.
One says that the stalls were for the horses that were for the chariots and the other says the stalls were for horses and chariots. These are not the same sets of stalls. They are different stalls. Therefore, the numbers do not need to match. It’s actually that basic.
Furthermore, on examination of the text we see that in the passage in 2 Chronicles a statement regarding the stalls for the horses and chariots being bestowed “in the chariot cities”.
2 Chronicles 9:25 And Solomon had four thousand stalls for horses and chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen; whom he bestowed in the chariot cities, and with the king at Jerusalem
Bestowed in the KJV is rendered as “kept” in the NIV and “stationed” in the ESV
2 Chronicles 9:25 Solomon had four thousand stalls for horses and chariots, and twelve thousand horses, which he kept in the chariot cities and also with him in Jerusalem. NIV
2 Chronicles 9:25 And Solomon had 4,000 stalls for horses and chariots, and 12,000 horsemen, whom he stationed in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem. ESV
So it would seem that these stalls were bestowed, kept, stationed, placed, whichever word you wish to use, in certain cities.
It is possible that the “contradiction” is resolved by a simple mathematical equation.
40,000 horses, 4,000 chariots with horses. 40,000 ÷ 4,000 = 10
There were 10 horses per chariot.
Solomon had 40,000 stalls for the horses. 1 stall per horse. He also had 4,000 stalls for the horses AND chariots together which were different from the 40,000 stalls which were for the horses alone.
This is an explanation offered by John Gill:
and Solomon had forty thousand stalls for horses,…. In 2 Chronicles 9:25; it is only four thousand; and therefore some think that here is a mistake of the copier, of “arbaim”, forty, for “arbah”, four; which it is thought might be through divine permission, in such lesser matters, without any prejudice to the authority of the Scriptures in matters of faith and practice; but without supposing this, a reconciliation may be made, by observing, that here the writer, as Ben Gersom notes, gives the number of the horses that were in the stables, which were forty thousand, there the stables themselves, which were four thousand, ten horses in a stable; or here he numbers the stalls, which were forty thousand, and there the stables, which were four thousand, there being ten stalls in each;
John Gill commentary on 1 Kings 4:26
Matthew Poole in his commentary postulates the possibility that the stalls were subdivided based on the different Hebrew words translated stalls that are used in the two verses.
Secondly, It is not exactly the same Hebrew word which is here and there, though we translate both stalls; and therefore there may well be allowed some difference in the signification, the one signifying properly stables, of which there were 4000, the other stalls or partitions for each horse, which were 40,000;
Matthew Pool commentary 1 Kings 4:26
The 10 horses per chariot answer has been objected to by some, the claim being that no chariots would have required 10 horses and they would have had no more than 3 horses per chariot, but likely only 1 or 2.
We also should take note of 2 Chronicles 1:14 where we are told that Solomon had 1,400 Chariots:
2 Chronicles 1:14 And Solomon gathered chariots and horsemen: and he had a thousand and four hundred chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen, which he placed in the chariot cities, and with the king at Jerusalem.
Notice the reference to being placed in the chariot cities. The number 1,400 here is found in all major versions of the Bible. Solomon had 1,400 chariots, not 4,000 chariots.
The number 1,400 is also recorded in 1 Kings 10:26
1 Kings 10:26 And Solomon gathered together chariots and horsemen: and he had a thousand and four hundred chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen, whom he bestowed in the cities for chariots, and with the king at Jerusalem.
Against this is found in all major versions of the Bible
However, we do not actually need there to have been 10 horses per chariot nor do we need 4,000 chariots to require a number as large as 4,000 in relation to the chariot with horses stalls and 40,000 stalls for the horses alone. If there was one single horse per chariot and there were 1,400 chariots then this would obviously mean 1,400 horses. 2,800 with 2 horses and 4,200 with 3 horses per chariot, with 3 horses we have now gone over the 4,000 number which gets even worse with 4 horses.
But we also get the number 12,000 in regards to horsemen, which the Net Bible renders horses. We cannot, and should not ignore information given to us in the immediate context. If these horsemen each had a horse or there were 12,000 horses we now have at least 13,400 horses. 4,000 stalls would simply not be enough. Even with this understanding of just one horse per chariot, there would be a requirement of 13,400 stalls for horses if the 12,000 horses are included for the horsemen. I will also admit here that the number of horses for the horsemen may not have been included in the 40,000 number as it does explicitly state 40,000 stalls of horses for the chariots. This then, could exclude the horses for horsemen without a chariot. This would bring us back to a possible 1,400 horses but this number is dependent on just one single horse being used per chariot and as we have seen any more than 2 horses per chariot and this would demand more than 4,000 stalls. It is also very possible , however, and actually very likely that not all the horses that Solomon had acquired were used at the same time. There were likely extra horses ready to replace the horses being used for the chariots. This could be for the reason of fatigue in the horse or if a horse was injured or killed during service. Horses would be swapped out. We are now delving into the realms of possibles and probables, but it is also not out of the realms of possibility that Solomon would have had spare horses not in use, nor is it impossible that while there were 40,000 stalls of horses not all the stalls were actually in use at any one time the text may not demand that the stalls were full only that the number is mentioned as to how many stalls there were in total. Personally I would say that this is unlikely as I would understand the text to say 40,000 stalls of horses, indicating here were in deed 40,000 horses.
It may be pointed out by some, regarding a quantity of horses that may have been up to 40,000, that it was explicitly prohibited for a king to multiply horses to himself in Deuteronomy 17
Deuteronomy 17:16 But he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses: forasmuch as the LORD hath said unto you, Ye shall henceforth return no more that way.
However, in the very next verse we see a prohibition for the king to Multiple wives unto himself.
Deuteronomy 17:17 Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.
Solomon had 700 wives
1 Kings 11:2 Of the nations concerning which the LORD said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon clave unto these in love 3 And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives turned away his heart.
Solomon had a tendency to not quite follow the requirements and prohibitions of a king.
There are many different ways in which this supposed contradiction could be answered. I would assert that there is no contradiction between these two recorded numbers because they both almost certainly record different sets of stalls used for different purposes.
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