The Philistines assembled themselves together to fight with Israel, thirty thousand chariots, and six thousand horsemen, and people as the sand which is on the sea-shore in multitude: and they came up, and encamped in Michmash, eastward of Beth Aven.
Most of the scholars dispute the figure of 30,000 chariots, giving the number as either 3,000 or even 300.  It makes no difference at all. Whatever the number, it was large enough to frighten all Israel into the most abject terror and flight.  The Philistines had the great advantage over Israel because they controlled the iron industry.