The Hebrew word eleph
is normally translated as thousand
but it can also mean tribe or clan or just a military group (a commando unit).1 This is how this word is translated in Numbers 10:4, Judges 6:15, and 1 Samuel 10:19. It is unlikely that there were two hundred thousand Israelites and ten thousand men from Judah. Whatever the precise number may have been, Saul had enough manpower to outnumber and subdue Amalek.2
4 So Saul summoned the people and numbered them in Telaim, two hundred thousand men on foot, and ten thousand men of Judah.