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How many stalls did Solomon have?

Claim:

1 Kings 4:26 states that Solomon had 40,000 stalls. However, 2 Chronicles 9:25 states that he had 4,000. Which is true?

Response:

The Masoretic Text (MT) says that Solomon had 40,000 stalls. However, this is most likely a copyist error. The 2 Chronicles passage is far more likely, because of the fact that there were only 12,000 horsemen. If 40,000 was the true number, then horses would outnumber men over 3 to 1. Since Hebrew numbers were so easy to miscopy, there is good reason to believe that one of these numbers was miscopied by a scribe. For more on this subject, see comments on Exodus 12:37.

About The Author
James Rochford

James earned a Master’s degree in Theological Studies from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, graduating magna cum laude. He is the founder of Evidence Unseen and the author of several books. James enjoys serving as a pastor at Dwell Community Church in Columbus, Ohio, where he lives with his wife and their two sons.