Yarn

The word "yarn" appears in the KJV of 1 Kings 10:28 and 2 Chronicles 1:16 in connection with Solomon's horse trade: "And Solomon had horses brought out of Egypt, and linen yarn: the king's merchants received the linen yarn at a price." However, most modern scholars and the Revised Version reject the rendering "yarn" entirely. The Hebrew word mikveh, literally "a stringing together" or "a collection," most likely refers here not to spun thread but to a troop or company of horses—a reading supported by the Septuagint, the Vulgate, and the contextual flow of the passage, which concerns the royal horse trade and chariots.

Under the correct reading, the verse describes Solomon's merchants purchasing horses in bulk lots from Egypt as an official, organized trade: he received them at a set price per troop (or company). Egypt was the premier supplier of chariot horses to the ancient Near East, and Deuteronomy 17:16 had explicitly warned Israelite kings not to multiply horses or send the people back to Egypt to acquire them. Solomon's horse trade therefore represents the beginning of the compromises that later generations of prophets would condemn as the kingdom turned from dependence on God to the military assets of the nations.