So he made ready his chariot means that the Pharaoh “hooked up his chariot” (Durham), or “put horses to his chariot” (New English Bible). Since he was king, it is likely he had it done for him, so Revised English Bible has “Pharaoh had his chariot yoked.” Another way to render this is “The king had them hook horses up to his chariot.” The word for chariot is sometimes used collectively, so the plural may be intended, as in New American Bible: “So Pharaoh made his chariots ready.” The Egyptian “war chariot” (Good News Translation) had two wheels and was pulled by two horses. In many languages translators will need to use a descriptive phrase for chariot; for example, “horse-drawn war cart [or, wagon]” or “war cart pulled by two horses.” (For “horses” see 9.2-3.)

And took his army with him uses the word for “people” (American Standard Version), but it is clear from the context that these were his “men” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh), or his “soldiers” (New American Bible). New Jerusalem Bible and Revised English Bible have “troops.” Good News Translation simply has “The king got his war chariot and his army ready.” This is because the sentence continues, and the took may be saved for the next verse. In a number of languages, however, there will be one set of words for getting a chariot ready and another set of words for getting an army ready. In such cases the following model will be helpful: “He had them hook up horses to his war chariot and commanded that they get all his soldiers ready to chase after the Israelites.”

The six hundred picked chariots are distinguished from all the other chariots of Egypt because they were picked, or “the best” (New International Version, New Jerusalem Bible). New American Bible has “first-class chariots.” All the other chariots of Egypt suggests that none were left behind. With officers over all of them uses a word that means “a third man,” or “commander” (Revised English Bible), so it may be assumed that each of these chariots had three riders—the driver, the warrior, and the “third man,” who was over it as commander.

Good News Translation‘s model for verse 7 will be helpful for many translators. However, for some translators the long and complicated sentence will be difficult to reproduce. An alternative model is:

• He took all his chariots with him. Six hundred of these were his best chariots. Each chariot had an officer [or, commander] in charge of it.

Quoted with permission from Osborn, Noel D. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Exodus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1999. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .