Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
1 Chronicles 18:4 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 4. 4And David took from him a thousand chariots, and seven thousand horsemen, and twenty thousand footmen: David also houghed all the chariot horses, but reserved of them an hundred chariots.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
Counts captured forces and limits retained chariots by disabling horses.
Read It With
- 1 Chronicles 18:1–18:8
Counts captured forces and limits retained chariots by disabling horses. Read 1 Chronicles 18:4 within 18:1–18:8. The complete unit records: David defeats Philistines, Moab, Zobah, and Arameans, disables horses, stations garrisons, receives tribute, and brings gold and bronze to Jerusalem for later temple use.
Why This Verse Appears Here
The narrative turns the house promise into territorial success while already redirecting war materials toward Solomon's temple. In this exact position, the line beginning “And David took from him a thousand chariots, and seven thousand horsemen, and twenty…” counts captured forces and limits retained chariots by disabling horses.
Follow the Context
- David defeats Philistines, Moab, Zobah, and Arameans, disables horses, stations garrisons, receives tribute, and brings gold and bronze to Jerusalem for later temple use.
- The narrative turns the house promise into territorial success while already redirecting war materials toward Solomon's temple.
Phrase-by-Phrase Explanation
“And David took from him a thousand chariots, and seven thousand horsemen, and twenty…”
In plain language: Counts captured forces and limits retained chariots by disabling horses.
The line beginning “And David took from him a thousand chariots, and seven thousand horsemen, and twenty…” counts captured forces and limits retained chariots by disabling horses.
Why it matters: The wording carries a material literary, historical, temple, royal-power, violence, ethnic, illness, gender, exile, reception, or misuse boundary.
How certain? probableWhat This Verse Is Not Saying
The victories do not authorize empire, killing, forced tribute, animal cruelty, modern conquest, or the claim that sacred use cleanses violent acquisition.
What Remains True
Counts captured forces and limits retained chariots by disabling horses. This concrete detail supports a bounded truth: Accounts of conflict must name agents, victims, land, loss, and literary judgment without converting ancient war into a modern command or ethnic hostility.
How It Can Shape Life
- Because this verse counts captured forces and limits retained chariots by disabling horses, keep it inside 18:1–18:8, compare its Samuel-Kings relationship honestly, protect affected people from coercion or stigma, and apply only the accountable principle the complete unit supports.
Teach It Back
Explain why 1 Chronicles 18:4 counts captured forces and limits retained chariots by disabling horses. Use 18:1–18:8, paraphrase “And David took from him a thousand chariots, and seven thousand horsemen, and twenty…,” state one source or reconstruction limit, identify one person or group power can obscure, and reject one conclusion this verse does not authorize.
Your explanation stays in this browser. It is not sent or saved.
Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read 1 Chronicles 18:1–18:8 — Victories, garrisons, and captured metals expand David's ruleSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? probable
Where care is needed
1 Chronicles 18:4 remains within this thought-unit limit: Troop and horse numbers differ from 2 Samuel 8; place names, sequence, garrisons, and theological preservation require textual and historical caution.
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
Exact location: 1 Chronicles 18:1–18:8, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: 1 Chronicles
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Hebrew wording, morphology, names, clauses, regnal formulas, temple vocabulary, older-English controls, and translation limits.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/1Chr.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 18:1–18:8
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible Full Notes: 1 Chronicles
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press; STEP Bible presentation, 2019 edition; current web presentation
Supports: Unit-bounded translation comparisons and only those lexical, textual, grammatical, numerical, historical, and parallel-passage notes attached to these verses.
Exact location: STEP Bible NET2full, 1 Chronicles 18:1–18:8, verse-attached translation and translator notes
Open source ↗