רֶ֫כֶב

From the study of 1 Samuel 13:5

Range of meaning

A chariot. Used as a group noun it means 'chariotry', a whole chariot force. It can also mean a team of draft animals, or an upper millstone (the 'rider' stone).

Against the English

'Chariots' is accurate. The real issue is the number: KJV, WEB, YLT and NASB keep the Hebrew 'thirty thousand', while BSB, NIV and NLT follow other ancient versions and print 'three thousand'.

Used elsewhere in the period

Chariots were the elite weapon of the Late Bronze and early Iron Ages. Thutmose III says he captured 924 chariots at Megiddo, and the Hittite army at Qadesh is put at roughly 2,500–3,500. Shalmaneser III's Kurkh Monolith credits Ahab of Israel with 2,000 chariots at Qarqar (853 BC), the largest contingent in an alliance of about 3,900. Egyptian reliefs at Medinet Habu show the Sea Peoples, among them the Philistines' ancestors, fighting from chariots. Joshua 11:4 and Judges 4:3 present Canaanite chariot forces as the frightening thing Israel could not match.

From the study of Isaiah 37:24

Range of meaning

Rekhev means a chariot, or chariots taken together as a fighting force (chariotry). Sometimes it means the team or the riders. Rov means 'abundance, great number'.

Against the English

KJV/WEB 'the multitude of my chariots' and BSB 'my many chariots' are all accurate. The Hebrew stresses how many chariots there were. It also hints that numbers are what the king trusts in.

Used elsewhere in the period

Isaiah 31:1 condemns those who 'trust in chariots because they are many' instead of looking to the Holy One of Israel. Psalm 20:7 says: 'Some trust in chariots… but we in the name of YHWH.' Assyrian royal annals regularly boast of forcing chariots over mountain passes. Sennacherib's own accounts of his mountain campaigns describe riding in his chariot where possible and climbing on foot where the slopes were too steep (see ANET).

From the study of 2 Chronicles 16:8

Range of meaning

Rekhev is chariotry: a chariot, or the chariot corps collectively. Parash can mean a horse (especially a chariot or team horse), a horseman, or a charioteer or chariot crewman. In earlier texts it often refers to the chariot arm. True cavalry spread in the Near East from around the 9th century BCE onward.

Against the English

'Horsemen' is a fair translation, but readers may picture a medieval-style cavalry charge. NLT's 'charioteers' reflects the view that the phrase means the chariot forces and their crews.

Used elsewhere in the period

The pair is a stock phrase for elite military power: Pharaoh's 'chariots and horsemen' at the sea (Exodus 14:9, 17–18); Shishak's 1,200 chariots and 60,000 parashim alongside Libyans and Cushites (2 Chronicles 12:3); 'some trust in chariots and some in horses' (Psalm 20:7); 'woe to those who… lean on horses' (Isaiah 31:1); the king must not 'multiply horses' or return to Egypt for them (Deuteronomy 17:16).