Did Solomon have 550 chief officers or 250?

Hard question · Israel’s history: Joshua to Esther · raised by 2 of the lists sceptics circulate

Different ways of counting

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The passages

1 Kings 9:23

“These were the chief of the officers that were over Solomon’s work, five hundred and fifty”.

These were the chief of the officers that were over Solomon’s work, five hundred and fifty, which bare rule over the people that wrought in the work.

2 Chronicles 8:10

“these were the chief of king Solomon’s officers, even two hundred and fifty”.

And these were the chief of king Solomon’s officers, even two hundred and fifty, that bare rule over the people.

2 Chronicles 8:9

Solomon made no Israelites labourers; they were his soldiers and officers.

But of the children of Israel did Solomon make no servants for his work; but they were men of war, and chief of his captains, and captains of his chariots and horsemen.

1 Kings 5:16

Kings counts 3,300 lower overseers.

Beside the chief of Solomon’s officers which were over the work, three thousand and three hundred, which ruled over the people that wrought in the work.

2 Chronicles 2:18

Chronicles counts 3,600 overseers, taken from the foreigners in Israel.

And he set threescore and ten thousand of them to be bearers of burdens, and fourscore thousand to be hewers in the mountain, and three thousand and six hundred overseers to set the people a work.

The objection

In the same summary of Solomon’s labour force, 1 Kings 9:23 counts 550 chief officers and 2 Chronicles 8:10 counts 250.

The answer

These figures belong with the numbers of lower overseers given earlier in each book, and together they agree. Kings has 3,300 overseers (1 Kings 5:16) and 550 chief officers: 3,850. Chronicles has 3,600 overseers (2 Chronicles 2:18) and 250 chief officers: also 3,850. So the books count the same men but sort them differently. Keil and Delitzsch suggest that Kings sorts them by rank and Chronicles by nationality. Chronicles says its 3,600 were foreigners (2 Chronicles 2:17–18), and it treats the 250 as Israelites, the people Solomon did not make labourers but set over the work (2 Chronicles 8:9–10). Kings’ 550 senior officers would then include 250 Israelites and 300 foreigners, the 300 whom Chronicles counts among its 3,600.

Still open

This harmony rests on the Hebrew figures. The Greek Septuagint of Kings has 3,600 rather than 3,300 for the overseers at 1 Kings 5:16, which would leave the 550 and 250 to be explained another way, perhaps as a copying slip.

From the classic commentators

These overseers were Israelites, while in the number 550 (Kg1 9:23) the Israelite and Canaanite upper overseers are both includedKeil & Delitzsch, Commentary on 2 Chronicles 8