1 Kings 10:29
And a chariot came up and went out of Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and an horse for an hundred and fifty: and so for all the kings of the Hittites, and for the kings of Syria, did they bring them out by their means. And a chariot came up and went out of Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and an horse for an hundred and fifty: and so for all the kings of the Hittites, and for the kings of Syria, did they bring them out by their means.
The account preserves the exact commercial terms of the traffic, six hundred shekels of silver for a chariot brought up out of Egypt and one hundred and fifty for a horse. Those chariots and horses were not retained for Israel alone but were carried onward to furnish all the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Syria. The arrangement made Egypt the source of supply and Solomon's agents the middlemen by whose means the surrounding monarchs obtained them. Such dealing shows a settled dependence on imported military equipment secured by trade rather than trust in divine protection.
That course stood in direct disregard of the divine command governing Israel's king, that he should not multiply horses to himself. It violated likewise the companion prohibition against causing the people to return to Egypt in order to multiply horses.