2 Samuel 8:4 And David took from him 1,700 horsemen, and 20,000 foot soldiers. And David hamstrung all the chariot horses but left enough for 100 chariots.

1 Chronicles 18:4 And David took from him 1,000 chariots, 7,000 horsemen, and 20,000 foot soldiers. And David hamstrung all the chariot horses, but left enough for 100 chariots.

The story of David is told twice in the Bible, once across 1 Sam 16 to 1 Kings 2 and again in 1 Chronicles. Here we have near identical verses from both sources describing the same event, but with one important distinction: The chariots are not referenced in 2 Samuel and a different number of horsemen are listed, 1,700 versus 7,000. This may seem like an insignificant discrepancy, but what does this difference tell us about the sources themselves? Was this an error? How can we know what the original text said if one of these numbers is incorrect?