4After this, war arose at Gezer with the Philistines. Then Sibbecai the Hushathite killed Sippai, of the sons of the giant; and they were subdued.
5Again there was war with the Philistines; and Elhanan the son of Jair killed Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.6There was again war at Gath, where there was a man of great stature, who had twenty-four fingers and toes, six on each hand, and six on each foot; and he also was born to the giant.7When he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimea David’s brother killed him.8These were born to the giant in Gath; and they fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.
4 After this, war arose at Gezer with the Philistines. Then Sibbecai the Hushathite killed Sippai, of the sons of the giant; and they were subdued.
5 Again there was war with the Philistines; and Elhanan the son of Jair killed Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.
6 There was again war at Gath, where there was a man of great stature, who had twenty-four fingers and toes, six on each hand, and six on each foot; and he also was born to the giant.
7 When he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimea David’s brother killed him.
8 These were born to the giant in Gath; and they fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.
KJVKing James Version
4 And it came to pass after this, that there arose war at Gezer with the Philistines; at which time Sibbechai the Hushathite slew Sippai, that was of the children of the giant: and they were subdued.
5 And there was war again with the Philistines; and Elhanan the son of Jair slew Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite, whose spear staff was like a weaver’s beam.
6 And yet again there was war at Gath, where was a man of great stature, whose fingers and toes were four and twenty, six on each hand, and six on each foot: and he also was the son of the giant.
7 But when he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimea David’s brother slew him.
8 These were born unto the giant in Gath; and they fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.
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JPSJPS Tanakh (1917)
4 And it came to pass after this, that there arose war at Gezer with the Philistines; then Sibbecai the Hushathite slew Sippai, of the sons of the giants; and they were subdued.
5 And there was again war with the Philistines; and Elhanan the son of Jair slew Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver's beam.
6 And there was again war at Gath, where was a man of great stature, whose fingers and toes were four and twenty, six on each hand, and six on each foot; and he also was born unto the giant.
7 And when he taunted Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimea David's brother slew him.
8 These were born unto the giant in Gath; and they fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants.
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Who did Elhanan kill?2 Samuel 21:19 says Elhanan son of Jaare-oregim killed Goliath the Gittite — the same Goliath whom 1 Samuel 17 credits David with killing.
2 Samuel 21:19(v5)There was again war with the Philistines at Gob; and Elhanan the son of Jaare-Oregim the Bethlehemite killed Goliath the Gittite’s brother,…
2 Samuel 21:18-22(v4)After this, there was again war with the Philistines at Gob. Then Sibbecai the Hushathite killed Saph, who was of the sons of the giant.…
1 Samuel 16:9(v7)Then Jesse made Shammah to pass by. He said, “Yahweh has not chosen this one, either.”
1 Chronicles 2:13(v7)and Jesse became the father of his firstborn Eliab, and Abinadab the second, and Shimea the third,
Romans 8:31(v8)What then shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
Show all 21 cross-references
Joshua 12:12(v4)the king of Eglon, one; the king of Gezer, one;
Joshua 14:12(v8)Now therefore give me this hill country, of which Yahweh spoke in that day; for you heard in that day how the Anakim were there, and great…
Joshua 16:3(v4)and it went down westward to the border of the Japhletites, to the border of Beth Horon the lower, and on to Gezer; and ended at the sea.
1 Samuel 17:4(v5)A champion out of the camp of the Philistines named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span went out.
1 Samuel 17:7(v5)The staff of his spear was like a weaver’s beam; and his spear’s head weighed six hundred shekels of iron. His shield bearer went before…
1 Samuel 17:10(v7)The Philistine said, “I defy the armies of Israel today! Give me a man, that we may fight together!”
1 Samuel 17:26(v7)David spoke to the men who stood by him, saying, “What shall be done to the man who kills this Philistine, and takes away the reproach from…
1 Samuel 17:36(v7)Your servant struck both the lion and the bear. This uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, since he has defied the armies of…
1 Samuel 21:9(v5)The priest said, “Behold, the sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the valley of Elah, is here wrapped in a cloth behind the…
1 Samuel 22:10(v5)He inquired of Yahweh for him, gave him food, and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine.”
2 Samuel 21:15(v4)The Philistines had war again with Israel; and David went down, and his servants with him, and fought against the Philistines. David grew…
2 Samuel 21:20(v6)There was again war at Gath, where there was a man of great stature, who had six fingers on every hand, and six toes on every foot, twenty…
Ecclesiastes 9:11(v8)I returned and saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet…
Isaiah 37:23(v7)Whom have you defied and blasphemed? Against whom have you exalted your voice and lifted up your eyes on high? Against the Holy One of…
Jeremiah 9:23(v8)Yahweh says, “Don’t let the wise man glory in his wisdom. Don’t let the mighty man glory in his might. Don’t let the rich man glory in his…
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (14 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Geneva Bible translators1599 · Public DomainOn vv4–6Or, Raphaim, or the giants.
Or, Raphaim, or the giants.
Or, Gob, 2 Sam. 21:18.
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Or, Saph.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp1656 · Public DomainOn v41Ch 20:4 And it came to pass after this,…
1Ch 20:4 And it came to pass after this, that there arose war at Gezer with the Philistines; at which time Sibbechai the Hushathite slew Sippai, [that was] of the children of the giant: and they were subdued.
Ver. 4. {See Trapp on "2Sa 21:18"} &c.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry1710 · Public DomainOn v4The Philistines were nearly subdued (Ch1 18:1); but, as…
The Philistines were nearly subdued (Ch1 18:1); but, as in the destruction of the Canaanites by Joshua the sons of Anak were last subdued (Jos 11:21), so here in the conquest of the Philistines the giants of Gath were last brought down. In the conflicts between grace and corruption there are some sins which, like these giants, keep their ground a great while and are not mastered without much difficulty and a long struggle: but judgment will be brought forth unto victory at last. Observe, 1. We never read of giants among the Israelites as we do of the giants among the Philistines - giants of Gath, but not giants of Jerusalem. The growth of God's plants is in usefulness, not in bulk. Those who covet to have cubits added to their stature do not consider that it will but make then more unwieldy. In the balance of the sanctuary David far outweighs Goliath. 2. The servants of David, though men of ordinary stature, were too hard for the giants of Gath in every encounter, because they had God on their side, who takes pleasure in abasing lofty looks, and mortifying the giants that are in the earth, as he did of old by the deluge, though they were men of renown. Never let the church's friends be disheartened by the power and pride of the church's enemies. We need not fear great men against us while we have the great God for us. What will a finger more on each hand do, or a toe more on each foot, in contest with Omnipotence? 3. These giants defied Israel (Ch1 20:7) and were thus made to pay for their insolence. None are more visibly marked for ruin that those who reproach God and his Israel. God will do great things rather than suffer the enemy to behave themselves proudly, Deu 32:27. The victories of the Son of David, like those of David himself, are gradual. We see not yet all things put under him; but it will be seen shortly: and death itself, the last enemy, like these giants, will be triumphed over.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley1765 · Public DomainOn v8They fell,&c. - We need not fear great men…
They fell,&c. - We need not fear great men against us, while we have the great God for us.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke1810 · Public DomainOn vv5, 6, 8Verse 5. Elhanan the son of Jair] 2Sa 21:19.…
Verse 5. Elhanan the son of Jair] 2Sa 21:19. The Targum says, "David, the son of Jesse, a pious man, who rose at midnight to sing praises to God, slew Lachmi, the brother of Goliath, the same day on which he slew Goliath the Gittite, whose spear-staff was like a weaver's beam."
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes1834 · Public DomainOn v4See the marginal reference and notes.
See the marginal reference and notes.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary1859 · Public DomainOn vv4, 5, 7Gazer, which seems preferable to Gob, 2 Kings xxi.…
Gazer, which seems preferable to Gob, 2 Kings xxi. 18.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown1871 · Public DomainOn v4THREE OVERTHROWS OF THE PHILISTINES AND THREE GIANTS SLAIN.…
THREE OVERTHROWS OF THE PHILISTINES AND THREE GIANTS SLAIN. (Ch1 20:4-8)
war at Gezer--or Gob (see Sa2 21:18-22).
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Next: 1 Chronicles Chapter 21
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges1878 · Public DomainOn vv4–84. at Gezer] See 1Ch_6:67, note. In 2Sa_5:25 it…
4. at Gezer] See 1Ch_6:67, note. In 2Sa_5:25 it is said that David smote the Philistines “from Geba until thou come to Gezer.” In 2 Sam. at Gob, but no place called Gob is known.
Sippai] In 2 Sam. “Saph.”
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giant] Heb. “Rapha”; the same Heb. word in the plu. “Rephaim” is translated “giants” in Deu_2:11, A.V. These Rephaim dwelt east of Jordan, but may have been akin to the Philistines.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers1878 · Public DomainOn vv4, 5, 6, 8II. This section corresponds to 2Sa_21:18-22. The chronicler has…
II. This section corresponds to 2Sa_21:18-22. The chronicler has omitted the history of Absalom’s rebellion, with all the events which preceded and followed it, as recorded in 2 Samuel 13-20; and, further, the touching story of the sacrifice of seven sous of Saul at the demand of the Gibeonites (2Sa_21:1-14).
(4) And it came to pass after this.—Comp. Notes on 1Ch_18:1; 1Ch_19:1. The chronicler has omitted, whether by accident or design, the account with which, in 2Sa_21:15-17, this fragmentary section begins, and which tells how David was all but slain by the giant Ishbi-benob.
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There arose war.—Literally, there stood, an unique phrase, which perhaps originated in a misreading of that which appears in 2Sa_21:18, “there became again.”
Gezer.—Samuel, “Gob,” an unknown place. Each word (spelling Gôb fully) has three consonants in Hebrew, of which the first is common to both, and the other two are similar enough to make corruption easy. For “Gezer,” see Jos_16:3. The Syriac and Arabic here read “Gaza”; but Gezer (so LXX. and Vulg.) seems right.
Sibbechai the Hushathite.—See 1Ch_11:29; 1Ch_27:11.
Sippai.—Samuel, “Saph.”
Of the children of the giant.—See margin. Render, Sippai, of the offspring (a special term—yĕlîdê—see Num_13:22; Jos_15:14) of the Rephaites. “Rapha” was doubtless the collective tribal designation of the gigantic Rephaim (Gen_14:5).
And they were subdued—Added by chronicler.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary1880 · Public DomainOn vv4–8For the Gezer (rzg) of this verse, the parallel…
For the Gezer (rzg) of this verse, the parallel place (2Sa_21:18) shows Gob (bwOg), a name not known, but which careless transcription may have easily made out of the former. The Syriac Version, however, as well as the Septuagint, has Gath in that verse as well as in the two verses following, (2Sa_21:18-20) another name also easily interchangeable in Hebrew characters with Gezer. The "yet again" of our ver. 6 would well accord with the supposition that the conflict with the Philistines was at Gath, or at the same place, each of the three times. Gezer belonged to Ephraim, and was situated to the north of Philistia. (1Ch_7:28 1Ch_14:16) Sibbechai. (see also 1Ch_11:29 1Ch_27:11) Sippai. In the parallel place spelt Saph. It is remarkable that, in the Peshito Syriac, over Psalm 143, is found the inscription," Of David, when he slew Asaph, the brother of Gulyad, and thanksgiving that he had conquered." Of the children of the giant. The Hebrew word for "giant," rapha (always in these verses spelt with a final aleph , but in the parallel verses always with he final), is here (Authorized Version) translated. "The Rapha, a native of Gath, was the forefather of the Canaanitish Rephaim, mentioned as early as Gen_14:5 Gen_15:20; Deu_2:11; Jos_12:4 Jos_15:8 Jos_17:15. The slaying of Ishbi-benob (2Sa_21:16) is not here given. It is also to be observed that the lengthy account of Samuel, respecting Absalom and his rebellion (2Sa 13-21) is not found here.
Vers. 4-8.
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Little things and great.
How small and insignificant in our esteem are the physical peculiarities of these "children of the giant"! How little we care to treasure their names and deeds in our memories! They probably thought much of themselves, and were made much of by their contemporaries; but they have sunk into entire insignificance now. We feel thatI DISTINCTION BASED ON BODILY PECULIARITY IS OF LITTLE WORTH. Great stature makes its possessor conspicuous among his fellows, if that be a desirable thing; great muscular strength serves in good stead on those rare occasions when a man has to resist by physical force. Unusual beauty of countenance attracts the eye and wins the admiration of the opposite sex. But these visible specialities have their drawbacks, if not their evils. The first of these often secures a most undesirable and even painful notoriety; the second tempts to acts of violence which are regrettable; the last exposes to peculiar perils of its own. And how speedily they perish! In this war with the Philistines these giants "were subdued" (ver. 4). Lahmi"s great spear did not save him from the skill of Elhanan (ver. 5); nor the immense stature of the giant with twenty-four fingers and toes, from the courage and capacity of Jonathan (vers. 6, 7). "They fell by the hand of David"s servants" (ver. 8). Mere size of body, mere power of muscle, mere skill of fence, and even beauty of face and charm of manner, all these are either overmatched with something that is stronger, or they soon fade and fall under the resistless ravages of time. And when they pass, how soon they are forgotten! We hardly recognize some of these names; or, if we remember them, we associate them with other men who bore them, but were distinguished by other and nobler features. The next generation will care little for those who have nothing better to claim than great strength, or commanding stature, or some other bodily peculiarity. On the other hand, we feel that
II DISTINCTION BASED ON SPIRITUAL WORTH IS A DESIRABLE EXCELLENCY.
1. Mental strength, when gained by diligent self-culture and devoted to useful ends, enjoys a more lasting honour and effects a far greater good.
1. But spiritual worth is the most valuable acquisition; that is the true greatness of man.
1. It raises him highest in the scale of being.
2. It renders nobler and truer service.
3. It yields a finer fragrance in grateful recollection. (Pro_10:7)
4. It lives on to distant generations in benignant influence.
The "good men do" is not "interred with their bones;" it lives and blossoms, and bears precious fruit in the hearts and lives of men. C.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator1887 · Public DomainOn v6Where was a man of great stature, whose fingers…
1Ch_20:6
Where was a man of great stature, whose fingers and toes were four and twenty?
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Great giants and small
A giant, the son of a giant, children of the giant, a man of great stature. There were giants in those days; there are giants in our day. There is nothing in all history so great as the history of the present; there is no moment of time so pregnant with the meaning of eternity as the moment of our present breathing. You tremble when you read the names of these giants. There is no need to tremble; a deadlier giant is aiming at your heart to-day. The heroics have changed as to apparatus and nomenclature and environment, and all that sort of vanishing vapour; the great fight goes on, the tremendous rush of armies, Philistine and Israelite still meet face to face. And they can make no peace; they represent different worlds, different ideas, atmospheres, purposes, and they never can compromise. June cannot compromise with December. What giants have you been fighting? You have got through the first crude lot. I know it; so have we all. But it was a mere mob of blackguards; the hostility itself was vulgar, coarse, contemptible. The mischief is, lest having got through that mob of scoundrelism and villainy detestable and palpable, we think that therefore the fighting is done. The fighting never ends until the body is in the grave or is laid out on its last bed. You have killed the giant of Falsehood, you would not for the world be thought to be a liar. Long ago you killed the giant Untruth, the black-faced giant Lies. But it does not therefore follow that you are now a true man, that you have escaped the lap and the shame of another falsehood, deeper, subtler, deadlier. Take care! Thou shalt not steal. What is stealing? What is a thief? In the old time the robber despised the thief. A great distinction is drawn in the New Testament between thieves and robbers. Thieves were little, contemptible, mean apers of gigantic, majestic robbery. There is another set of giants to be encountered. What about the giant of Unbelief? But we are rather proud of fighting with the giant Unbelief, and showing thus how extremely intellectual we are. That we have even known the very existence of the word unbelief may show what marvellous giants of might we are. Not until we distinguish between crime and sin can we make any real progress in gospel studies. Have you fought down and conquered the giant of Ingratitude? Who thinks about the spiritual sins? Who is not horrified by crime and draws its garments round it in attestation of its shocked refinement? There may be more sin in ingratitude than in some murders. The murder may have been done in hot blood, in haste to be repented of evermore, through ages eternal to be regretted and deplored as a lasting bruise of the soul. Ingratitude is slow, mean, deliberate, calculating, cruel. The giant of Ingratitude takes a great deal of fighting. Have you overthrown the giant of your Ambition? that sordid, calculating ambition that always wishes to shoulder out some other man and get a foremost place in the race of life? The danger does not lie always along what may be called the line of giants. There are more difficult forces to contend with than the visibly and measurably gigantic. There is not a giant to fight every one of us, but there is a foe that every soul must know and confront and be thrown by or must overthrow. You could shoot an evil beast, but an army could not overtake the Colorado beetle. There would be plenty of people who at other peoples expense would go to distant countries to shoot big game. Poor fools! If they would pay their own waybill I would think a little less harshly of them. So many people are prepared for giants who are not prepared for beetles and bacilli and the germs that sow the air with death. Many people would do heroic things who are only called upon to do little, simple, daily, domestic things. Are you fully aware that there are many assailants and enemies who are not giants by name, but are giants in influence, in obstinacy of purpose, in a cruel determination to ruin your soul? Have you calculated the force of little things? Read me the plagues of Egypt. Lions, tigers, elephants--is that how the story runs? Not a word of it. What were the plagues? Hardly anything bigger than a frog; the lice, the flies, the little things, these excited the alarms of Egypt, and brought Egypt to her knees. You and I are not called upon to fight the giant of Gath, or his son, or the monster referred to in the text, but we are called upon to fight many insects, bacilli, germs of poison, things that require a microscope to discover, so minute as to be to the naked eye actually invisible, and vet on the tip of your finger you may have as many of them as would people any city in Europe as to mere number. To that fight we are called--the fight of spirit with spirit, soul with influence. A tremendous battle is ours! Do you suppose that an eagle fears any foes? Think of those pinions of steel, those eyes of fire, that beak of brass. And yet the eagle is maddened to death by a humming-bird no bigger than the joint of a finger. We have often told of the insect in certain countries that eats away all the woodwork of the door and leaves nothing but a coat of paint, so that going to the door and endeavouring to open it, it falls to pieces under the slightest pressure. That is translated into the life of to-day and into the life of every day. The paint is right, the externalism is beyond criticism, all seems to be well; but take care, for the white ant has eaten up all the interior character, and nothing is left but some flake of paint. We have to fight these things in various forms, but principally I think to-day in the forms of books and tracts and publications. (J. Wolfendale.)
Hindering superfluities
The anxieties and annoyances of those whose estates have become plethoric can only be told by those who possess them. It will be a good thing when, through your industry and prosperity, you can own the house in which you live. But suppose you own fifty houses, and you have all those rents to collect, and all those tenants to please. Suppose you have branched out in business successes until in almost every direction you have investments. The fire-bell rings at night, you rush upstairs to look out of the window, to see if it is any of your mills. Epidemic of crime comes, and there are embezzlements and abscondings in all directions, and you wonder whether any of your bookkeepers will prove recreant. A panic strikes the financial world, and you are like a hen under a sky full of hawks, and trying with anxious cluck to get your overgrown chicken safely under wing. After a certain stage of success has been reached, you have to trust so many important things to others that you are apt to become the prey of others, and you are swindled and defrauded, and the anxiety you had on your brow when you were earning your first thousand dollars is not equal to the anxiety on your brow now that you have won your three hundred thousand. The trouble with such a one is, he is spread out like the unfortunate one in my text. You have more fingers and toes than you know what to do with. Twenty were useful, twenty-four is a hindering superfluity. Disraeli says that a king of Poland abdicated his throne and joined the people, and became a porter to carry burdens. And some one asked him why he did so, and he replied: Upon my honour, gentlemen, the load which I cast off was by far heavier than the one you see me carry. The weightiest is but a straw when compared to that weight under which I laboured. I have slept more in four nights than I have during all my reign. I begin to live and to be a king myself. Elect whom you choose. As for me, I am so well it would be madness to return to court. I am anxious that all who have only ordinary equipment be thankful for what they have and rightly employ it. I think you all have figuratively, as well as literally, fingers enough. Do not long for hindering superfluities. (T. De Witt Talmage.)
The hand
Sir Charles Bell was so impressed with the wondrous construction of the human hand that when the Earl of Bridgewater gave forty thousand dollars for essays on the wisdom and goodness of God, and eight books were written, Sir Charles Bell wrote his entire book on the wisdom and goodness of God as displayed in the human hand. The twenty-seven bones in the hand and wrist with cartilages and ligaments and phalanges of the fingers all made just ready to knit, to sew, to build up, to pull down, to weave, to write, to plough, to pound, to wheel, to battle, to give friendly salutation. The tips of its fingers are so many telegraph offices by reason of their sensitiveness of touch. The bridges, the tunnels, the cities of the whole earth are the victories of the hand. The hands are not dumb, but often speak as distinctly as the lips. With our hands we invite, we repel, we invoke, we entreat, we wring them in grief, or clap them in joy, or spread them abroad in benediction. The malformation of the giants hand in the text glorifies the usual hand. Fashioned of God more exquisitely and wondrously than any human mechanism that was ever contrived, I charge you use it for God and the lifting of the world out of its moral predicament. Employ it in the sublime work of gospel handshaking. (T. De Witt Talmage.)
The foot
Yea; the malformation of this fallen giants foot glorifies the ordinary foot, for which I fear you have never once thanked God. The twenty-six bones of the foot are the admiration of the anatomist. The arch of the foot fashioned with a grace and a poise that Trajans arch, or Constantines arch, or any other arch could not equal. Those arches stand where they were planted, but this arch of the foot is an adjustable arch, a yielding arch, a flying arch, and ready for movements innumerable. The human foot so fashioned as to enable man to stand upright as no other creature, and leave the hand that would otherwise have to help in balancing the body free for anything it chooses. The foot of the camel fashioned for the sand, the foot of the bird fashioned for the tree-branch, the foot of the hind fashioned for the slippery rock, the foot of the lion fashioned to rend its prey, the foot of the horse fashioned for the solid earth, but the foot of man made to cross the desert, or climb the tree, or scale the cliff, or walk the earth, or go anywhere he needs to go. With that Divine triumph of anatomy in your possession where do you walk? In what path of righteousness or what path of sin have you set it down? Where have you left the mark of your footsteps? Amid the petrifactions in the rocks have been found the mark of the feet of birds and beasts of thousands of years ago. And God can trace out all the footsteps of your lifetime, and those you made fifty years ago are as plain as those made in the last soft weather, all of them petrified for the Judgment Day. Oh, the foot! Give me the autobiography of your foot from the time you stepped out of the cradle until to.day, and I will tell your exact character now and what are your prospects for the world to come. (T. De Witt Talmage.)
The folly of underestimating our enemies
An easy accommodation of the text and an allowable one, will permit us to see several practical lessons here. Do not under-estimate the powers that are opposed to you; count their fingers, count their toes, measure their stature, take their weight, calculate them to a nicety as to what they can possibly do. He is a fool who calls a giant a dwarf. The powers of this world are not to be sneered at. Your adversary the devil goeth about--like a cripple? like I. weakling? like a thing that may be despised? No--like a roaring lion; and no man has ever sneered at a lion. (J. Parker, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann1924 · Public DomainOn v4Exploits of Individual Heroes
Exploits of Individual Heroes
v. 4. And it came to pass after this that there arose war at Gezer, it was rekindled, like a fire that has been smoldering, with the Philistines, Gezer being on their northern boundary, in the tribe of Ephraim; at which time Sibbechai the Hushathite slew Sippai (or Saph), that was of the children of the giant, belonging to the Rephaim, the last remnant of the former giant race in this country; and they were subdued.
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v. 5. And there was war again with the Philistines, another uprising; and Elhanan, the son of Jair (or Jaare-oregim), slew Lahmi, the brother of Goliath the Gittite, whose spear-staff was like a weaver’s beam.
v. 6. And yet again there was war at Gath, in the Philistine country proper, where was a man of great stature, whose fingers and toes were four and twenty, six on each hand and six on each foot; and he also was the son of the giant, he, too, belonged to this giant race.
v. 7. But when he defied Israel, reproached and challenged the host of the Lord, Jonathan, the son of Shimea, David’s brother, slew him.
v. 8. These were born unto the giant in Gath, the last of the giant family; and they fell by the hand of David, that is, while he was supreme military chief, although he personally slew Goliath, and by the hand of his servants. The story is typical of the fate which comes upon those who oppose the rule of the great Son of David, Jesus Christ, for they will, if not in this life, eventually receive their punishment, everlasting destruction, by their own fault.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv4, 6It came about
It came about
This phrase is used here to mark the beginning of a new part of the story. If your language has a way for doing this, you could consider using it here.
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there was a battle at Gezer with the Philistines
"the Israelites battled the Philistines at Gezer"
Gezer ... Gob
These are the names of cities. (See: How to Translate Names)
This can be stated in active form. AT: "they subdued the Philistines" (See: Active or Passive)
the Philistines were subdued
This can be translated in active form. AT: "the Israelites were able to subdue the Philistines" or "the Philistines were brought under the Israelites' control"
staff
a long and thin pole.
the staff of whose spear was like a weaver's beam
A weaver's beam was a very large piece of wood used to stretch strings as the threads of a rug are weaved together around them. This means the handle of Lahmi's spear was very large.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv4–6 Or, Raphaim, or the giants.
Or, Raphaim, or the giants.
Or, Gob, 2 Sam. 21:18.
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Or, Saph.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On v4 1Ch 20:4 And it came to pass after this,…
1Ch 20:4 And it came to pass after this, that there arose war at Gezer with the Philistines; at which time Sibbechai the Hushathite slew Sippai, [that was] of the children of the giant: and they were subdued.
Ver. 4. {See Trapp on "2Sa 21:18"} &c.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v4 The Philistines were nearly subdued (Ch1 18:1); but, as…
The Philistines were nearly subdued (Ch1 18:1); but, as in the destruction of the Canaanites by Joshua the sons of Anak were last subdued (Jos 11:21), so here in the conquest of the Philistines the giants of Gath were last brought down. In the conflicts between grace and corruption there are some sins which, like these giants, keep their ground a great while and are not mastered without much difficulty and a long struggle: but judgment will be brought forth unto victory at last. Observe, 1. We never read of giants among the Israelites as we do of the giants among the Philistines - giants of Gath, but not giants of Jerusalem. The growth of God's plants is in usefulness, not in bulk. Those who covet to have cubits added to their stature do not consider that it will but make then more unwieldy. In the balance of the sanctuary David far outweighs Goliath. 2. The servants of David, though men of ordinary stature, were too hard for the giants of Gath in every encounter, because they had God on their side, who takes pleasure in abasing lofty looks, and mortifying the giants that are in the earth, as he did of old by the deluge, though they were men of renown. Never let the church's friends be disheartened by the power and pride of the church's enemies. We need not fear great men against us while we have the great God for us. What will a finger more on each hand do, or a toe more on each foot, in contest with Omnipotence? 3. These giants defied Israel (Ch1 20:7) and were thus made to pay for their insolence. None are more visibly marked for ruin that those who reproach God and his Israel. God will do great things rather than suffer the enemy to behave themselves proudly, Deu 32:27. The victories of the Son of David, like those of David himself, are gradual. We see not yet all things put under him; but it will be seen shortly: and death itself, the last enemy, like these giants, will be triumphed over.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On v8 They fell,&c. - We need not fear great men…
They fell,&c. - We need not fear great men against us, while we have the great God for us.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv5, 6, 8 Verse 5. Elhanan the son of Jair] 2Sa 21:19.…
Verse 5. Elhanan the son of Jair] 2Sa 21:19. The Targum says, "David, the son of Jesse, a pious man, who rose at midnight to sing praises to God, slew Lachmi, the brother of Goliath, the same day on which he slew Goliath the Gittite, whose spear-staff was like a weaver's beam."
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On v4 See the marginal reference and notes.
See the marginal reference and notes.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv4, 5, 7 Gazer, which seems preferable to Gob, 2 Kings xxi.…
Gazer, which seems preferable to Gob, 2 Kings xxi. 18.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On v4 THREE OVERTHROWS OF THE PHILISTINES AND THREE GIANTS SLAIN.…
THREE OVERTHROWS OF THE PHILISTINES AND THREE GIANTS SLAIN. (Ch1 20:4-8)
war at Gezer--or Gob (see Sa2 21:18-22).
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Next: 1 Chronicles Chapter 21
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv4–8 4. at Gezer] See 1Ch_6:67, note. In 2Sa_5:25 it…
4. at Gezer] See 1Ch_6:67, note. In 2Sa_5:25 it is said that David smote the Philistines “from Geba until thou come to Gezer.” In 2 Sam. at Gob, but no place called Gob is known.
Sippai] In 2 Sam. “Saph.”
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giant] Heb. “Rapha”; the same Heb. word in the plu. “Rephaim” is translated “giants” in Deu_2:11, A.V. These Rephaim dwelt east of Jordan, but may have been akin to the Philistines.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv4, 5, 6, 8 II. This section corresponds to 2Sa_21:18-22. The chronicler has…
II. This section corresponds to 2Sa_21:18-22. The chronicler has omitted the history of Absalom’s rebellion, with all the events which preceded and followed it, as recorded in 2 Samuel 13-20; and, further, the touching story of the sacrifice of seven sous of Saul at the demand of the Gibeonites (2Sa_21:1-14).
(4) And it came to pass after this.—Comp. Notes on 1Ch_18:1; 1Ch_19:1. The chronicler has omitted, whether by accident or design, the account with which, in 2Sa_21:15-17, this fragmentary section begins, and which tells how David was all but slain by the giant Ishbi-benob.
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There arose war.—Literally, there stood, an unique phrase, which perhaps originated in a misreading of that which appears in 2Sa_21:18, “there became again.”
Gezer.—Samuel, “Gob,” an unknown place. Each word (spelling Gôb fully) has three consonants in Hebrew, of which the first is common to both, and the other two are similar enough to make corruption easy. For “Gezer,” see Jos_16:3. The Syriac and Arabic here read “Gaza”; but Gezer (so LXX. and Vulg.) seems right.
Sibbechai the Hushathite.—See 1Ch_11:29; 1Ch_27:11.
Sippai.—Samuel, “Saph.”
Of the children of the giant.—See margin. Render, Sippai, of the offspring (a special term—yĕlîdê—see Num_13:22; Jos_15:14) of the Rephaites. “Rapha” was doubtless the collective tribal designation of the gigantic Rephaim (Gen_14:5).
And they were subdued—Added by chronicler.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv4–8 For the Gezer (rzg) of this verse, the parallel…
For the Gezer (rzg) of this verse, the parallel place (2Sa_21:18) shows Gob (bwOg), a name not known, but which careless transcription may have easily made out of the former. The Syriac Version, however, as well as the Septuagint, has Gath in that verse as well as in the two verses following, (2Sa_21:18-20) another name also easily interchangeable in Hebrew characters with Gezer. The "yet again" of our ver. 6 would well accord with the supposition that the conflict with the Philistines was at Gath, or at the same place, each of the three times. Gezer belonged to Ephraim, and was situated to the north of Philistia. (1Ch_7:28 1Ch_14:16) Sibbechai. (see also 1Ch_11:29 1Ch_27:11) Sippai. In the parallel place spelt Saph. It is remarkable that, in the Peshito Syriac, over Psalm 143, is found the inscription," Of David, when he slew Asaph, the brother of Gulyad, and thanksgiving that he had conquered." Of the children of the giant. The Hebrew word for "giant," rapha (always in these verses spelt with a final aleph , but in the parallel verses always with he final), is here (Authorized Version) translated. "The Rapha, a native of Gath, was the forefather of the Canaanitish Rephaim, mentioned as early as Gen_14:5 Gen_15:20; Deu_2:11; Jos_12:4 Jos_15:8 Jos_17:15. The slaying of Ishbi-benob (2Sa_21:16) is not here given. It is also to be observed that the lengthy account of Samuel, respecting Absalom and his rebellion (2Sa 13-21) is not found here.
Vers. 4-8.
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Little things and great.
How small and insignificant in our esteem are the physical peculiarities of these "children of the giant"! How little we care to treasure their names and deeds in our memories! They probably thought much of themselves, and were made much of by their contemporaries; but they have sunk into entire insignificance now. We feel thatI DISTINCTION BASED ON BODILY PECULIARITY IS OF LITTLE WORTH. Great stature makes its possessor conspicuous among his fellows, if that be a desirable thing; great muscular strength serves in good stead on those rare occasions when a man has to resist by physical force. Unusual beauty of countenance attracts the eye and wins the admiration of the opposite sex. But these visible specialities have their drawbacks, if not their evils. The first of these often secures a most undesirable and even painful notoriety; the second tempts to acts of violence which are regrettable; the last exposes to peculiar perils of its own. And how speedily they perish! In this war with the Philistines these giants "were subdued" (ver. 4). Lahmi"s great spear did not save him from the skill of Elhanan (ver. 5); nor the immense stature of the giant with twenty-four fingers and toes, from the courage and capacity of Jonathan (vers. 6, 7). "They fell by the hand of David"s servants" (ver. 8). Mere size of body, mere power of muscle, mere skill of fence, and even beauty of face and charm of manner, all these are either overmatched with something that is stronger, or they soon fade and fall under the resistless ravages of time. And when they pass, how soon they are forgotten! We hardly recognize some of these names; or, if we remember them, we associate them with other men who bore them, but were distinguished by other and nobler features. The next generation will care little for those who have nothing better to claim than great strength, or commanding stature, or some other bodily peculiarity. On the other hand, we feel that
II DISTINCTION BASED ON SPIRITUAL WORTH IS A DESIRABLE EXCELLENCY.
1. Mental strength, when gained by diligent self-culture and devoted to useful ends, enjoys a more lasting honour and effects a far greater good.
1. But spiritual worth is the most valuable acquisition; that is the true greatness of man.
1. It raises him highest in the scale of being.
2. It renders nobler and truer service.
3. It yields a finer fragrance in grateful recollection. (Pro_10:7)
4. It lives on to distant generations in benignant influence.
The "good men do" is not "interred with their bones;" it lives and blossoms, and bears precious fruit in the hearts and lives of men. C.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v6 Where was a man of great stature, whose fingers…
1Ch_20:6
Where was a man of great stature, whose fingers and toes were four and twenty?
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Great giants and small
A giant, the son of a giant, children of the giant, a man of great stature. There were giants in those days; there are giants in our day. There is nothing in all history so great as the history of the present; there is no moment of time so pregnant with the meaning of eternity as the moment of our present breathing. You tremble when you read the names of these giants. There is no need to tremble; a deadlier giant is aiming at your heart to-day. The heroics have changed as to apparatus and nomenclature and environment, and all that sort of vanishing vapour; the great fight goes on, the tremendous rush of armies, Philistine and Israelite still meet face to face. And they can make no peace; they represent different worlds, different ideas, atmospheres, purposes, and they never can compromise. June cannot compromise with December. What giants have you been fighting? You have got through the first crude lot. I know it; so have we all. But it was a mere mob of blackguards; the hostility itself was vulgar, coarse, contemptible. The mischief is, lest having got through that mob of scoundrelism and villainy detestable and palpable, we think that therefore the fighting is done. The fighting never ends until the body is in the grave or is laid out on its last bed. You have killed the giant of Falsehood, you would not for the world be thought to be a liar. Long ago you killed the giant Untruth, the black-faced giant Lies. But it does not therefore follow that you are now a true man, that you have escaped the lap and the shame of another falsehood, deeper, subtler, deadlier. Take care! Thou shalt not steal. What is stealing? What is a thief? In the old time the robber despised the thief. A great distinction is drawn in the New Testament between thieves and robbers. Thieves were little, contemptible, mean apers of gigantic, majestic robbery. There is another set of giants to be encountered. What about the giant of Unbelief? But we are rather proud of fighting with the giant Unbelief, and showing thus how extremely intellectual we are. That we have even known the very existence of the word unbelief may show what marvellous giants of might we are. Not until we distinguish between crime and sin can we make any real progress in gospel studies. Have you fought down and conquered the giant of Ingratitude? Who thinks about the spiritual sins? Who is not horrified by crime and draws its garments round it in attestation of its shocked refinement? There may be more sin in ingratitude than in some murders. The murder may have been done in hot blood, in haste to be repented of evermore, through ages eternal to be regretted and deplored as a lasting bruise of the soul. Ingratitude is slow, mean, deliberate, calculating, cruel. The giant of Ingratitude takes a great deal of fighting. Have you overthrown the giant of your Ambition? that sordid, calculating ambition that always wishes to shoulder out some other man and get a foremost place in the race of life? The danger does not lie always along what may be called the line of giants. There are more difficult forces to contend with than the visibly and measurably gigantic. There is not a giant to fight every one of us, but there is a foe that every soul must know and confront and be thrown by or must overthrow. You could shoot an evil beast, but an army could not overtake the Colorado beetle. There would be plenty of people who at other peoples expense would go to distant countries to shoot big game. Poor fools! If they would pay their own waybill I would think a little less harshly of them. So many people are prepared for giants who are not prepared for beetles and bacilli and the germs that sow the air with death. Many people would do heroic things who are only called upon to do little, simple, daily, domestic things. Are you fully aware that there are many assailants and enemies who are not giants by name, but are giants in influence, in obstinacy of purpose, in a cruel determination to ruin your soul? Have you calculated the force of little things? Read me the plagues of Egypt. Lions, tigers, elephants--is that how the story runs? Not a word of it. What were the plagues? Hardly anything bigger than a frog; the lice, the flies, the little things, these excited the alarms of Egypt, and brought Egypt to her knees. You and I are not called upon to fight the giant of Gath, or his son, or the monster referred to in the text, but we are called upon to fight many insects, bacilli, germs of poison, things that require a microscope to discover, so minute as to be to the naked eye actually invisible, and vet on the tip of your finger you may have as many of them as would people any city in Europe as to mere number. To that fight we are called--the fight of spirit with spirit, soul with influence. A tremendous battle is ours! Do you suppose that an eagle fears any foes? Think of those pinions of steel, those eyes of fire, that beak of brass. And yet the eagle is maddened to death by a humming-bird no bigger than the joint of a finger. We have often told of the insect in certain countries that eats away all the woodwork of the door and leaves nothing but a coat of paint, so that going to the door and endeavouring to open it, it falls to pieces under the slightest pressure. That is translated into the life of to-day and into the life of every day. The paint is right, the externalism is beyond criticism, all seems to be well; but take care, for the white ant has eaten up all the interior character, and nothing is left but some flake of paint. We have to fight these things in various forms, but principally I think to-day in the forms of books and tracts and publications. (J. Wolfendale.)
Hindering superfluities
The anxieties and annoyances of those whose estates have become plethoric can only be told by those who possess them. It will be a good thing when, through your industry and prosperity, you can own the house in which you live. But suppose you own fifty houses, and you have all those rents to collect, and all those tenants to please. Suppose you have branched out in business successes until in almost every direction you have investments. The fire-bell rings at night, you rush upstairs to look out of the window, to see if it is any of your mills. Epidemic of crime comes, and there are embezzlements and abscondings in all directions, and you wonder whether any of your bookkeepers will prove recreant. A panic strikes the financial world, and you are like a hen under a sky full of hawks, and trying with anxious cluck to get your overgrown chicken safely under wing. After a certain stage of success has been reached, you have to trust so many important things to others that you are apt to become the prey of others, and you are swindled and defrauded, and the anxiety you had on your brow when you were earning your first thousand dollars is not equal to the anxiety on your brow now that you have won your three hundred thousand. The trouble with such a one is, he is spread out like the unfortunate one in my text. You have more fingers and toes than you know what to do with. Twenty were useful, twenty-four is a hindering superfluity. Disraeli says that a king of Poland abdicated his throne and joined the people, and became a porter to carry burdens. And some one asked him why he did so, and he replied: Upon my honour, gentlemen, the load which I cast off was by far heavier than the one you see me carry. The weightiest is but a straw when compared to that weight under which I laboured. I have slept more in four nights than I have during all my reign. I begin to live and to be a king myself. Elect whom you choose. As for me, I am so well it would be madness to return to court. I am anxious that all who have only ordinary equipment be thankful for what they have and rightly employ it. I think you all have figuratively, as well as literally, fingers enough. Do not long for hindering superfluities. (T. De Witt Talmage.)
The hand
Sir Charles Bell was so impressed with the wondrous construction of the human hand that when the Earl of Bridgewater gave forty thousand dollars for essays on the wisdom and goodness of God, and eight books were written, Sir Charles Bell wrote his entire book on the wisdom and goodness of God as displayed in the human hand. The twenty-seven bones in the hand and wrist with cartilages and ligaments and phalanges of the fingers all made just ready to knit, to sew, to build up, to pull down, to weave, to write, to plough, to pound, to wheel, to battle, to give friendly salutation. The tips of its fingers are so many telegraph offices by reason of their sensitiveness of touch. The bridges, the tunnels, the cities of the whole earth are the victories of the hand. The hands are not dumb, but often speak as distinctly as the lips. With our hands we invite, we repel, we invoke, we entreat, we wring them in grief, or clap them in joy, or spread them abroad in benediction. The malformation of the giants hand in the text glorifies the usual hand. Fashioned of God more exquisitely and wondrously than any human mechanism that was ever contrived, I charge you use it for God and the lifting of the world out of its moral predicament. Employ it in the sublime work of gospel handshaking. (T. De Witt Talmage.)
The foot
Yea; the malformation of this fallen giants foot glorifies the ordinary foot, for which I fear you have never once thanked God. The twenty-six bones of the foot are the admiration of the anatomist. The arch of the foot fashioned with a grace and a poise that Trajans arch, or Constantines arch, or any other arch could not equal. Those arches stand where they were planted, but this arch of the foot is an adjustable arch, a yielding arch, a flying arch, and ready for movements innumerable. The human foot so fashioned as to enable man to stand upright as no other creature, and leave the hand that would otherwise have to help in balancing the body free for anything it chooses. The foot of the camel fashioned for the sand, the foot of the bird fashioned for the tree-branch, the foot of the hind fashioned for the slippery rock, the foot of the lion fashioned to rend its prey, the foot of the horse fashioned for the solid earth, but the foot of man made to cross the desert, or climb the tree, or scale the cliff, or walk the earth, or go anywhere he needs to go. With that Divine triumph of anatomy in your possession where do you walk? In what path of righteousness or what path of sin have you set it down? Where have you left the mark of your footsteps? Amid the petrifactions in the rocks have been found the mark of the feet of birds and beasts of thousands of years ago. And God can trace out all the footsteps of your lifetime, and those you made fifty years ago are as plain as those made in the last soft weather, all of them petrified for the Judgment Day. Oh, the foot! Give me the autobiography of your foot from the time you stepped out of the cradle until to.day, and I will tell your exact character now and what are your prospects for the world to come. (T. De Witt Talmage.)
The folly of underestimating our enemies
An easy accommodation of the text and an allowable one, will permit us to see several practical lessons here. Do not under-estimate the powers that are opposed to you; count their fingers, count their toes, measure their stature, take their weight, calculate them to a nicety as to what they can possibly do. He is a fool who calls a giant a dwarf. The powers of this world are not to be sneered at. Your adversary the devil goeth about--like a cripple? like I. weakling? like a thing that may be despised? No--like a roaring lion; and no man has ever sneered at a lion. (J. Parker, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v4 Exploits of Individual Heroes
Exploits of Individual Heroes
v. 4. And it came to pass after this that there arose war at Gezer, it was rekindled, like a fire that has been smoldering, with the Philistines, Gezer being on their northern boundary, in the tribe of Ephraim; at which time Sibbechai the Hushathite slew Sippai (or Saph), that was of the children of the giant, belonging to the Rephaim, the last remnant of the former giant race in this country; and they were subdued.
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v. 5. And there was war again with the Philistines, another uprising; and Elhanan, the son of Jair (or Jaare-oregim), slew Lahmi, the brother of Goliath the Gittite, whose spear-staff was like a weaver’s beam.
v. 6. And yet again there was war at Gath, in the Philistine country proper, where was a man of great stature, whose fingers and toes were four and twenty, six on each hand and six on each foot; and he also was the son of the giant, he, too, belonged to this giant race.
v. 7. But when he defied Israel, reproached and challenged the host of the Lord, Jonathan, the son of Shimea, David’s brother, slew him.
v. 8. These were born unto the giant in Gath, the last of the giant family; and they fell by the hand of David, that is, while he was supreme military chief, although he personally slew Goliath, and by the hand of his servants. The story is typical of the fate which comes upon those who oppose the rule of the great Son of David, Jesus Christ, for they will, if not in this life, eventually receive their punishment, everlasting destruction, by their own fault.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv4, 6 It came about
It came about
This phrase is used here to mark the beginning of a new part of the story. If your language has a way for doing this, you could consider using it here.
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there was a battle at Gezer with the Philistines
"the Israelites battled the Philistines at Gezer"
Gezer ... Gob
These are the names of cities. (See: How to Translate Names)
Sibbekai ... Sippai ... Elhanan ... Jair ... Lahmi
These are the names of men. (See: How to Translate Names)
Hushathite ... Rephaim ... Bethlehemite ... Gittite
These are the names of people groups.
the Philistines were subdued
This can be stated in active form. AT: "they subdued the Philistines" (See: Active or Passive)
the Philistines were subdued
This can be translated in active form. AT: "the Israelites were able to subdue the Philistines" or "the Philistines were brought under the Israelites' control"
staff
a long and thin pole.
the staff of whose spear was like a weaver's beam
A weaver's beam was a very large piece of wood used to stretch strings as the threads of a rug are weaved together around them. This means the handle of Lahmi's spear was very large.
translationWords
Philistines
descend
Bethlehem
Goliath
spear
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.