King Solomon was famous for his wisdom and wealth, and there are passages in the Bible that refer to his riches. But there seems to be a contradiction in two of these passages – how many stalls did Solomon have

It says in the Book of Kings:

“And Solomon had forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen.” (1 Kings 4:26)

Whereas in the Book of Chronicles, it says:

“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.” (2. Chronicles 9:25)

There seems to be a “contradiction” here as the first verse says 40,000 stalls but Chronicles writes 4,000 stalls. So how can we explain this discrepancy?

A possible explanation

The explanation for the number of stalls for horses is quite simple as it just requires careful reading. The first verse says: “… Solomon had forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots…”

So, Solomon had 40,000 stalls for horses intended for the chariots, so the number of horses is 40,000.

The second verse says: “…Solomon had four thousand stalls for horses and chariots…”

However, this verse says that Solomon had 4,000 stalls for chariots, which happened to be where they used to hitch the horses to them. So, the number of chariots: 4,000.

Taken together, these verses reveal that Solomon had 40,000 horses and 4,000 chariots. That makes 10 horses per chariot. And many scholars have said that this number is highly improbable.

Why would each chariot have 10 horses assigned to it?

The chariots had five teams of two horses each. Why two horses? Having two horses pull a small chariot is stronger, easier and faster than just one horse pulling a chariot. Also, if a horse were to pull the chariot alone and died, the chariot would remain in the battlefield and the fighters would be trapped. But with two horses, the charioteers could still go back to the picket lines with the second horse, swap for two fresh horses, and return to battle. (Similar to spare tires in a car race).

In battle – or even travelling to the staging area for the battle – one or both horses could either become injured (1), killed (2), exhausted (3), dehydrated (4) or in need of food (5). It would therefore be problematic to leave the chariot dysfunctional. That’s why five teams were formed per chariot so that they can switch among themselves at any time where one of the five scenarios mentioned above occurred. In this way, it was guaranteed that the chariot always stays in battle to gain advantage over the enemy who is approaching on foot.

Conclusion:

The differences between the books of Kings and Chronicles in how many stalls Solomon had, are not “Bible contradictions” but merely more information for the reader to get the full story or scope.

You can find more articles dealing with difficult Bible verses at the link below:
https://copticapologetics.com/category/bible-difficulties/