Solomon also had 40,000 stalls of horses for his chariots, and 12,000 horsemen.
Solomon's court was so large that the horses alone needed thousands of stalls. Commentators read this detail in two ways: as a picture of peace under a coming king, and as the first quiet break of a law given long before to Israel's kings.
Provision and protection
One writer sets the horses beside the provision for Solomon's kingdom, then points past them to where Israel's trust will finally rest:
Leslie M. GrantAs well as provision for his kingdom, Solomon was concerned for its protection, having 40,000 stalls of horses for his chariots and 12,000 horsemen (v.26). This pictures the protection of Israel by the government of the Lord Jesus in the Millennium. But it is only a picture. Israel will not need chariots and horses for their protection then. Instead, they will say, "Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God" (Ps.20:7).
The law written for kings
Long before Israel had a king, God gave three rules for whoever would take the throne. One writer points to the verb that repeats in each one, and to the two words tied to it:
F. B. HoleThere were also three laws laid down just for him. First, he was NOT to multiply horses to himself, and thereby cause the people to return to Egypt. Second, he was NOT to multiply wives to himself, so that his heart should not be turned away. Third, he was NOT to multiply to himself silver and gold. It is noticeable how the word "multiply" occurs, and the third time it is "greatly multiply." And in each case it is "multiply to himself."
Something new in Israel
The number is striking. What came before it is stranger still: Israel's story to this point has almost no horses in it.
F. B. HoleSo, as regards the first, "Solomon also had 40,000 stalls of horses for his chariots, and 12,000 horsemen" (1 Kings 4:26). And again, Solomon had horses brought out of Egypt (1 Kings 10:28). What could be more natural? His wife came out of Egypt, and she was not likely to be content with humble donkeys or mules. Note also that there is no mention of a horse in Israel up to the days of Solomon. The only exceptions are the few David captured and kept back according to 2 Samuel 8:4, and Absalom, who prepared chariots and horses when making his bid for the kingdom (2 Sam. 15:1). So Solomon openly disobeyed this first command.
The road back to Egypt
This ban had a direction to it. One writer explains why horses pointed the nation back toward Egypt:
J. N. DarbyEgypt was famous for its horses and chariots. This is noticed in the Lord's prohibition to the king: "he must not acquire many horses for himself or cause the people to return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, since the LORD has said to you, 'You shall never return that way again.'" Their redemption from Egypt and all its power should have been final. Nothing should have tempted them to return. But in the reign of Solomon we find that horses were one chief article of trade with Egypt.
The forgotten proverb
Solomon wrote about horses before he stockpiled them. One writer sets the two side by side:
W. W. FeredaySolomon himself tells us in Proverbs 21:31 that "the horse is made ready for the day of battle"; and he adds, what he afterwards quite forgot, "but the victory belongs to the LORD." … What a testimony to the nations around him, who should have learned from him that trusting God is better than trusting horses.
Why a blessed man drifted
The failure here is not a young man's mistake. It is the slow effect of everything going well:
W. W. FeredayAs the years passed, the childlike simplicity that marked him at the beginning of his reign (1 Kings 3) faded away. He became self-important and self-willed. … The prosperity so graciously granted to Solomon was too much for his slender faith. The invisible and the eternal were never to him what they were to his father. But then he never had his father's training in the school of affliction. The thought is humbling, that we need affliction and sorrow to keep us right.
The number itself
Commentators differ on the figure. Most keep the forty thousand as it stands; one treats it as a copyist's slip:
Arno Clemens GaebeleinSolomon had 4,000 horses; the number 40,000 in verse 26 is evidently the error of a copyist. (See 2 Chron. 9:25.)
Summary
- Picture — The stalls belong to a scene of peace and plenty. It points forward to the reign of Christ, when Israel will need no chariots or horses at all.
- Prohibition — God told Israel's king never to multiply three things to himself: horses, wives, gold. This verse shows Solomon breaking the first.
- Direction — Horses meant trade with Egypt, and Egypt was the one road God told Israel never to travel again.
- Contradiction — Solomon wrote that victory belongs to the Lord. Then he filled Israel with horses it had never kept before.
- Drift — Success, not hardship, undid him. His early simplicity faded as the good years went on.