2 Samuel 21:16

21:15-22 These events seem to have taken place towards the end of David's reign. David fainted, but he did not flee, and God sent help in the time of need. In spiritual conflicts, even strong saints sometimes wax faint; then Satan attacks them furiously; but those who stand their ground and resist him, shall be relieved and made more than conquerors. Death is a Christian's last enemy, and a son of Anak; but through Him that triumphed for us, believers shall be more than conquerors at last, even over that enemy.

And Ishbibenob, which was of the sons of the giant,.... Of Goliath, or of a giant, of the race of them: the weight of whose spear weighed three hundred shekels of brass in weight; which must be understood either of the wood of it, or of the head of it, the flaming point of it, as many interpret it; and if so, it was but half the weight of Goliath's spear, unless there was any difference of the weight of iron and of brass, see 1 Samuel 17:7, he being girded with a new sword; or rather with a new girdle, as the Targum; and so Jarchi, which might be given him as a mark of honour, or as a token of his having a commission in the army: thought to have slain David; his aim was at him, and perceiving him faint and feeble, thought to take the advantage of it, and dispatch him.

(16) Ishbi-benob. —The name is a strange one, and it is generally thought that some error has crept into the text, but none of the suggested emendations are free from difficulty. Perhaps the most probable is that in the Speaker’s Commentary, by which for Ishbi (the Hebrew margin) they halted is read, and benob, by a very slight change in one letter, becomes at Gob; then a clause is supplied, there was a man, so that the whole reads, “David waxed faint, and they halted at Gob. And there was a man which was of the sons,” &c.; 2Samuel 21:18 (as well as 2Samuel 21:19 ) seems to imply a previous battle in Gob. Three hundred shekels.—About eight pounds; just half the weight of Goliath’s spear-head (1Samuel 17:7). Girded with a new sword.—The word sword is not in the original, and its omission, where intended, is unusual. Either it should be girded with new armour, or else the word for new is intended to denote some otherwise unknown weapon.

16 . Ishbi-benob ] Perhaps = “dweller on a height,” a name given him because he lived in some inaccessible castle. But there are good reasons for suspecting that there is some corruption in the text, and that the giant’s real name has been lost. of the sons of the giant ] The word for sons is one specially used of the progeny of the giant races of Canaan ( Numbers 13:22 ; Numbers 13:28 ; Joshua 15:14 ). Râphâh , or with the article ha-Râphâh , translated “the giant,” may be a quasi proper-name for the father of the four giants here mentioned, or, more probably, for the founder of the tribe of Rephaim . The Vulg. has Arapha , and hence comes Harapha , the name of the giant introduced in Milton’s Samson Agonistes . three hundred shekels ] About nine pounds: half the weight of Goliath’s spear head. brass ] See note on ch. 2 Samuel 8:8 . with a new sword] There is no substantive expressed in the Hebrew: the Vulg. supplies sword : others suit of armour : the Sept. reads a mace instead of the word new , and this suggests the probability that the original reading was some rare word, denoting a specially formidable kind of weapon.

Verse 16. - Ishbi-benob. The Hebrew has Ishbo-benob , which Gesenius interprets as meaning "dweller upon the height." But surely the man's name would not be Hebrew; he was a Raphah, and we shall not be able to explain his name until we know the language of the Rephaim. Of the sons of the giant; Hebrew, of the children of the Raphah ; that is, he belonged to the race of the Rephaim, the word not signifying "sons," but the members of a stock. It is translated "children" in Numbers 13:22, 28 , etc. (For the Rephaim, see note on 2 Samuel 5:18.) "The Raphah" may be the mythic progenitor of the Rephaim, but more probably it is simply the singular of "Rephaim," and "children of the Raphah" a more poetic way of describing the race. Three hundred shekels. It weighed, therefore, about eight pounds; the spearhead of Goliath was just twice as heavy ( 1 Samuel 17:7 ). Girded with a new. The Vulgate supplies "sword," which the Authorized Version has adopted. The Septuagint reads a "mace" instead of "new;" others think that he had a new suit of armour. If the narrator had thought it of sufficient importance to let us know that the article was new, he would scarcely have left the thing itself unspecified. It is evident, however, that the Septuagint did not read hadasha , "new," but the name of some strange warlike instrument, which being unknown to the scribes, they substituted for it a word which they did know, but which makes no sense.

We cannot, however, depend upon the translation of the Septuagint, "mace." The want of special knowledge on the part of the translators of the Septuagint, though partly accounted for by the long absence from Palestine of its authors, and their having to depend entirely upon such knowledge of their language as survived at Alexandria, is more than we should have expected or can quite understand. Here, however, there is nothing remarkable in their not knowing the exact meaning of this carious weapon of the Rephaite; but plainly it could not be a mace, but must have been something that could be gift upon him. The Authorized Version, moreover, gives a look of probability to the insertion of "sword," which is wanting in the Hebrew; for it does not connect his purpose of killing David with the hadasha. The Hebrew is, "And Ishbo-benob, who was a Rephaite, and whose spear weighed three hundred shekels, and who was girt with an hadasha; and he thought to smite David." 2 Samuel 21:16

Ishbi-benob - A corrupt reading. The whole passage should perhaps run thus: "And David waxed faint. So they halted in Gob (as in 2 Samuel 21:18-19 ). And there was a man (in Gob) which was of the sons of the giant, etc." Sons of the giant - The "giant" here 2 Samuel 21:18, 2 Samuel 21:20, 2 Samuel 21:22 is "ha-Raphah," whence, the "Rephaim" Genesis 14:5; Deuteronomy 2:11. The sons of Ha-raphah, or Rephaim, are different from the "Nephilim," or Giants Genesis 6:4; Numbers 13:33. The sons of Anak were not strictly Rephaim, but Nephilim. Three hundred shekels of brass - About eight pounds. Goliath's spear's head weighed "six hundred shekels of iron."

The giant; so called by way of eminency. Or, of Rapha , a giant so called. The weight of whose spear weighed three hundred shekels: see 1 Samuel 17:5 . With a new sword, or rather, with a new girdle or belt; for, first, This was the usual habit of soldiers, 1 Samuel 18:4 2 Samuel 18:11 1 Kings 2:5 Isaiah 5:27 , and when it was of an extraordinary fashion and price, an ensign of dignity and command in the army, Ezekiel 23:15 . So this may be mentioned to note that this was the first time either of his going out to fight, or of his advancement to some eminent place in the army; which made him desirous to signalize himself with some great action. Secondly, This supplement is more natural and usual, the word girdle being easily supplied from the word being girded ; such ellipses of conjugate words being frequent in the Hebrew tongue, as Numbers 11:14 Psalm 76:12 Matthew 20:12 . Thirdly, The newness of the sword seems to have no emphasis nor significancy for the present purpose, seeing an old and tried sword would seem more considerable for his encouragement than one new and unproved.

15-22. Moreover the Philistines had yet war again with Israel—Although the Philistines had completely succumbed to the army of David, yet the appearance of any gigantic champions among them revived their courage and stirred them up to renewed inroads on the Hebrew territory. Four successive contests they provoked during the latter period of David's reign, in the first of which the king ran so imminent a risk of his life that he was no longer allowed to encounter the perils of the battlefield.

Heroic Acts Performed in the Wars with the Philistines. - The brief accounts contained in these verses of different heroic feats were probably taken from a history of David's wars drawn up in the form of chronicles, and are introduced here as practical proofs of the gracious deliverance of David out of the hand of all his foes, for which he praises the Lord his God in the psalm of thanksgiving which follows, so that the enumeration of these feats is to be regarded as supplying a historical basis for the psalm. 2 Samuel 21:15-16 The Philistines had war with Israel again. עוד (again) refers generally to earlier wars with the Philistines, and has probably been taken without alteration from the chronicles employed by our author, where the account which follows was attached to notices of other wars. This may be gathered from the books of the Chronicles, where three of the heroic feats mentioned here are attached to the general survey of David's wars (vid., 1 Chronicles 20:4). David was exhausted in this fight, and a Philistian giant thought to slay him; but Abishai came to his help and slew the giant. He was called Yishbo benob (Keri, Yishbi), i.e., not Yishbo at Nob, but Yishbobenob, a proper name, the meaning of which is probably "his dwelling is on the height," and which may have been given to him because of his inaccessible castle. He was one of the descendants of Raphah, i.e., one of the gigantic race of Rephaim.

Raphah was the tribe-father of the Rephaim, an ancient tribe of gigantic stature, of whom only a few families were left even in Moses' time (vid., Deuteronomy 2:11; Deuteronomy 3:11, Deuteronomy 3:13, and the commentary on Genesis 14:5). The weight of his lance, i.e., of the metal point to his lance, was three hundred shekels, or eight pounds, of brass, half as much as the spear of Goliath (1 Samuel 17:7); "and he was girded with new armour." Bttcher has no doubt given the correct explanation of the word חדשׁה; he supposes the feminine to be used in a collective sense, so that the noun ("armour," כּליו) could be dispensed with. (For parallels both to the words and facts, vid., Judges 18:11 and Deuteronomy 1:41.) ויּאמר, he said (sc., to himself), i.e., he thought.