A Champion
- 1 Samuels 17:4–7.—A champion. Literally, “a man of the two middles,” i. e. one who enters the space between the two armies in order to decide the contest by a single combat. Of Gath. In Josh. 11:21 this town is mentioned, together with Gaza and Ashdod, as still having among its inhabitants men of the race of Anak. Whose height was six cubits and a span. In our measure his height was eight feet five and one-third inches; for the cubit is sixteen inches, and the span (really the hand-breadth) is five and one-third inches. A span, sit, is eight inches, but the word used here is zereth. See on these measures, Conder, ‘Handbook,’ p. 79. This height, though very great, has been attained to in modern times. Armed with a coat of mail. Literally, “clothed in a shirt of scales,” i. e. a corselet made of metal scales sewn on cloth so as to overlap one another. It was flexible, and protected the back and sides as well as the front. Five thousand shekels of brass. Really copper, as brass was then unknown. Conder gives the shekel as equal to two-thirds of an ounce. This would make the corselet weigh at least two hundred-weight, an enormous load to carry even for a short time. Goliath’s other equipment's correspond in heaviness, and largely exceed the weight of medieval suite of armour. Greaves of brass upon his legs. The thighs were protected by the corselet, so that only the legs required defensive armour. This would account for the weight of the corselet, as it was much longer than the cuirass, as it worn by the Greeks and Romans. A target. Really, “a javelin.” It was carried at the back, ready to be taken in the hand and thrown at the enemy when required. The versions have a different reading—magan, shield, for chidon, javelin. The shield was carried before him by an armour-bearer. The staff. The written text has a word which usually signifies shaft, arrow, for which the Kri substitutes wood, the known actually found in 2 Sam. 21:19; 1 Chron. 20:5; but most probably the word used here is an archaic name for the handle or staff of a spear. Six hundred shekels. The weight of the iron head of the spear would be about twenty-five pounds. How ever tall and strong Goliath may have been, yet with all this vest weight of metal his movements must have been slow and unready. He was got up, in fact, more to tell upon the imagination than for real fighting, and though, like a castle, he might have been invincible; if attacked with sword and spear, he was much too encumbered with defensive armour to be capable of assuming the offensive against a light-armed enemy. To David belongs the credit of seeing that the Philistine champion was a huge imposition.
Spence-Jones, H. D. M., ed. 1 Samuel. London; New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1909. Print. The Pulpit Commentary.
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