SEV Biblia, Chapter 8:4
Y tomó David de ellos mil setecientos de a caballo, y veinte mil hombres de a pie; y desjarretó David los caballos de todos los carros, excepto cien carros de ellos que dejó.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - 2 Samuel 8:4
Verse 4. A thousand chariots] It is strange that there were a thousand chariots, and only seven hundred horsemen taken, and twenty thousand foot. But as the discomfiture appears complete, we may suppose that the chariots, being less manageable, might be more easily taken, while the horsemen might, in general, make their escape. The infantry also seem to have been surrounded, when twenty thousand of them were taken prisoners. David houghed all the chariot horses] If he did so, it was both unreasonable and inhuman; for, as he had so complete a victory, there was no danger of these horses falling into the enemy's hands; and if he did not choose to keep them, which indeed the law would not permit, he should have killed them outright; and then the poor innocent creatures would have been put out of pain. But does the text speak of houghing horses at all? It does not. Let us hear; bkrh lk ta dwd rq[yw vayeakker David eth col harecheb, And David disjointed all the chariots, except a hundred chariots which he reserved for himself. Now, this destruction of the chariots, was a matter of sound policy, and strict piety. God had censured those who trusted in chariots; piety therefore forbade David the use of them: and lest they should fall into the enemy's hands, and be again used against him, policy induced him to destroy them. The Septuagint render the words nearly as I have done, kai pareluse dauid panta ta armata.
He kept however one hundred; probably as a sort of baggage or forage wagons.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 4. And David took from him a thousand [chariots], and seven hundred horsemen , etc.] “Chariots” are not in the text here, it is only “horsemen”; but it is supplied from ( 1 Chronicles 18:4); where the word is expressly mentioned, and there the horsemen are said to be seven thousand as in the Septuagint version here, and in Josephus f137 ; which may be reconciled by observing, with Kimchi and Abarbinel, that here the chief officers are meant, there all the chariots and horsemen that were under their command are mentioned, which together made up that large number; or else here are meant the ranks and companies of horse David took, which were seven hundred; and these having ten in a company or rank, made seven thousand; and there the complement of soldiers in those companies and ranks are intended: and twenty thousand footmen ; the same as in ( 1 Chronicles 18:4); and so in Josephus f138 : and David houghed all the chariot [horses] ; or hamstrung them, as Joshua was ordered to do with respect to the Canaanites, ( Joshua 11:6); he did not kill them, which might seem cruel and unmerciful to the brute creatures, but hamstrung them, that they might be useless for war; and the reason of it was, that horses might not be multiplied in Israel for that purpose, that so their trust and confidence might not be placed in them; (see Deuteronomy 17:16); but reserved of them [for] an hundred chariots ; for his own use, not for war, but for grandeur; which accounts in some measure for the number of chariots and horses Solomon had, ( 1 Kings 4:26 2 Chronicles 1:14); the number of horses reserved is supposed to be four hundred, four horses being used in a chariot, which Jarchi gathers from ( 2 Chronicles 1:17).
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 1-8 - David subdued the Philistines. They had long been troublesome to Israel. And after the long and frequent struggles the saints have with the powers of darkness, like Israel with the Philistines, the Son of David shall tread them all under foot, and make the saints more tha conquerors. He smote the Moabites, and made them tributaries to Israel Two parts he destroyed, the third part he spared. The line that was to keep alive, though it was but one, is ordered to be a full line. Le the line of mercy be stretched to the utmost. He smote the Syrians. I all these wars David was protected, for this in his psalms he ofte gives glory to God.
Original Hebrew
וילכד 3920 דוד 1732 ממנו 4480 אלף 505 ושׁבע 7651 מאות 3967 פרשׁים 6571 ועשׂרים 6242 אלף 505 אישׁ 376 רגלי 7273 ויעקר 6131 דוד 1732 את 853 כל 3605 הרכב 7393 ויותר 3498 ממנו 4480 מאה 3967 רכב׃ 7393
