Bible Synapse

Did Solomon set 3,300 overseers over the work or 3,600?

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 5:16

Besides his chief officers, Solomon had “three thousand and three hundred, which ruled over the people that wrought in the work”.

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 2:2

Solomon appointed burden-bearers, stone-cutters, and “three thousand and six hundred to oversee them”.

And Solomon told out threescore and ten thousand men to bear burdens, and fourscore thousand to hew in the mountain, and three thousand and six hundred to oversee them.

2 Chronicles 2:17–18

The 3,600 overseers were drawn, with the labourers, from the foreigners living in Israel.

And Solomon numbered all the strangers that were in the land of Israel, after the numbering wherewith David his father had numbered them; and they were found an hundred and fifty thousand and three thousand and six hundred. 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.

1 Kings 9:23

Kings also counts 550 chief officers over Solomon’s work.

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

Chronicles counts 250 chief officers.

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

The objection

1 Kings 5:16 says that Solomon had 3,300 officers over the labourers preparing for the temple; 2 Chronicles 2:2 and 2:18 say 3,600.

The answer

The two books count the same body of supervisors but divide it differently, as their totals show. Kings gives 3,300 overseers here and 550 chief officers later (1 Kings 9:23): 3,850 in all. Chronicles gives 3,600 overseers and 250 chief officers (2 Chronicles 8:10): again 3,850. Keil and Delitzsch, following J. H. Michaelis, conclude that Kings divides the supervisors by rank, 3,300 junior and 550 senior, while Chronicles divides them by origin. Chronicles says plainly that its 3,600 were taken from the foreigners living in Israel (2 Chronicles 2:17–18), and its 250 chief officers were Israelites. On that reading 300 of Kings’ 550 senior officers were foreigners, whom Chronicles counts among its 3,600. Because the totals agree exactly, Keil judged a copying error the less likely explanation.

Other answers Christians give

Three hundred chiefs

Gill, following Jacob Leon, took the extra 300 in Chronicles to be chief officers set over the 3,300 and counted in with them.

Still open

The Greek Septuagint of Kings reads 3,600 at 1 Kings 5:16 (5:30 in the Greek numbering), the same as Chronicles, so some think Kings once read 3,600 too; on that view the 550 and 250 would need a separate explanation.

From the classic commentators

to assume that these differences have arisen from copyists' errors … this explanation is overthrown as an improbable one, by the fact that the sum-total of the overseers is the same in both accounts (3300 + 550 = 3850 in the books of Kings, and 3600 + 250 = 3850 in the Chronicles)Keil & Delitzsch, Commentary on 1 Kings 5

Sources

Further reading

Raised by: Shabir Ally, 101 Clear Contradictions in the Bible, The Skeptic’s Annotated Bible. Only the verse references come from these lists.

Checked 2026-10-22. All hard questions