The chiefs of all the people, even of all the tribes of Israel, presented themselves in the assembly of the people of God, four hundred thousand footmen who drew sword.
"Some comment must be made regarding the large numbers in this chapter. The discussion centers around the translation of the Hebrew word eleph. This word often is translated thousand but can also mean a family, clan, or military unit of fighting men (such as a squad of ten to twenty soldiers). The twenty-six, twenty-two, eighteen, ten, should not be thought of as so many thousand men but as so many units of men, each unit consisting of somewhere in the neighborhood of ten to twenty fighting men each. (A unit of ten is mentioned specifically in Judges 20:10.) This interpretation does not detract from the authority of the Scriptures in any way. It simply attempts to understand what the Bible actually says. Certainly it places the other numbers in the chapter in a reasonable context." [Note: Monson, p. 119. See also The New Bible Dictionary, 1962 ed., s.v. "Number," by R. A. H. Gunner.] 