1 Chronicles 12 Footnotes

12:24 The numbers have troubled many commentators because they seem larger than our knowledge of ancient Palestine would support. Some solutions are the following. (1) The Hebrew word eleph, “thousand,” is the name of a military unit and not a literal number. In this case, 6,800 becomes “six military units, eight hundred strong.” (2) Another proposal is that the Hebrew word should be pronounced alluph, “military leader.” Then 6,800 becomes eight hundred troops under the command of six officers. In light of the comparison of David’s army to the innumerable hosts of heaven in v. 22, perhaps these numbers should be best understood literally.