Absalom’s Rebellion

15 After this, Absalom bought a chariot and horses, and he hired fifty bodyguards to run ahead of him.

Adonijah Claims the Throne

⁵ About that time David’s son Adonijah, whose mother was Haggith, began boasting, “I will make myself king.” So he provided himself with chariots and charioteers and recruited fifty men to run in front of him.

¹¹ “This is what the Lord says: Because of what you have done, I will cause your own household to rebel against you. I will give your wives to another man before your very eyes, and he will go to bed with them in public view.

¹¹ “This is how a king will reign over you,” Samuel said. “The king will draft your sons and assign them to his chariots and his charioteers, making them run before his chariots.

²⁶ Solomon built up a huge force of chariots and horses.^[a] He had 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horses. He stationed some of them in the chariot cities and some near him in Jerusalem. ²⁷ The king made silver as plentiful in Jerusalem as stone. And valuable cedar timber was as common as the sycamore-fig trees that grow in the foothills of Judah.^{[b] 28} Solomon’s horses were imported from Egypt^[c] and from Cilicia^[d]; the king’s traders acquired them from Cilicia at the standard price. ²⁹ At that time chariots from Egypt could be purchased for 600 pieces of silver,^[e] and horses for 150 pieces of silver.^[f] They were then exported to the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Aram.