And he took six hundred chosen chariots
The chief and best he had, war chariots, chariots of iron;
perhaps such as had iron scythes to them, to cut down men as they
drove along; these were taken partly for quickness of dispatch,
that they might be able the sooner to overtake the Israelites,
who had got several days' marches before them; and partly for
their strength and the annoyance of their enemies with them:
and all the chariots of Egypt:
as many as could in so short a time be got together: for the
words are not to be taken in the utmost latitude, but to signify
a great number, and all that could be conveniently come at: the
Greek version is, "all the horse", the cavalry, which better
distinguishes them from the former:
and captains over everyone of them:
over everyone of the chariots, so that they must each of them
have many in them, to have captains over them: and perhaps the
infantry, or foot soldiers, for, quickness of expedition, were
put into them; for, besides these, there were horsemen: Josephus
F16 makes the whole number of his army
to be 50,000 horse, and 200,000 foot, and the same number is
given by a Jewish chronologer F17: but Patricides, an Arabic
writer, says F18 it consisted of 600,000, and
Ezekiel F19, the tragic poet, has made it
amount to a million of horse and foot: should it be asked where
horses could be had to draw the chariots, and horses for the
horsemen after mentioned, when all were destroyed by the hail, (
Exodus 9:25 )
it may be replied, that only those in the field were killed, not
such as were in stables, where chariot horses and horses for war
may be supposed to be: besides, as the Targum of Jonathan
intimates, these might belong to these servants of Pharaoh who
feared the word of the Lord, and took their cattle home, (
Exodus 9:20 )
.
F16 Antiqu. l. 2. c. 15. sect. 3.
F17 Shalshalet Hakabala, fol. 77. 4.
F18 Apud Hottinger. Smegma, p. 464.
F19 Apud Euseb. ut supra. (Praepar. Evangel. c. 27. p. 436.)