Bible Strands
Exodus 14:7
He took 600 of the best chariots, and all the other chariots of Egypt, with officers over all of them.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator describes Pharaoh mobilizing his military forces immediately after he readies his personal chariot and departs with his army. This occurs at the moment the Israelites begin their exodus, prompting Pharaoh to reverse his earlier decision.
The words — The verb וַ/יִּקַּ֗ח (va/i.yi.Kach) literally means "and he took," while בָּח֔וּר (ba.Chur) denotes "chosen" or "best." These terms specify that Pharaoh selected the elite fleet of six hundred chariots alongside all remaining Egyptian chariotry.
The thread — This mobilization previews the destruction detailed in Exodus 15:4, where the finest of those officers and chariots are drowned. The reliance on this military might also contrasts with the declaration in Psalms 20:7 that trust belongs to the name of the LORD rather than chariots or horses.
Why it lands — The text records the scale of the pursuing force to establish the magnitude of the impending threat before divine intervention. It requires the reader to note the historical reality of the military buildup without attributing its outcome to the chariots themselves.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And he took six hundred chosen chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt, and captains over every one of them.
Cross-references
- Exodus 15:4 Pharaoh’s chariots and army He has cast into the sea; the finest of his officers are drowned in the Red Sea.
- Psalms 20:7 Some trust in chariots and others in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.
- Exodus 14:23 And the Egyptians chased after them—all Pharaoh’s horses, chariots, and horsemen—and followed them into the sea.
- Judges 4:3 Then the Israelites cried out to the LORD, because Jabin had nine hundred chariots of iron, and he had harshly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years.
- Judges 4:15 And in front of him the LORD routed with the sword Sisera, all his charioteers, and all his army. Sisera abandoned his chariot and fled on foot.
- Psalms 68:17 The chariots of God are tens of thousands—thousands of thousands are they; the Lord is in His sanctuary as He was at Sinai.
- Isaiah 37:24 Through your servants you have taunted the Lord, and you have said: “With my many chariots I have ascended to the heights of the mountains, to the remote peaks of Lebanon. I have cut down its tallest cedars, the finest of its cypresses. I have reached its farthest heights, the densest of its forests.
- Joshua 17:16 “The hill country is not enough for us,” they replied, “and all the Canaanites who live in the valley have iron chariots, both in Beth-shean with its towns and in the Valley of Jezreel.”