1 Samuele 17:5

5 Aveva in testa un elmo di rame, era vestito d’una corazza a squame il cui peso era di cinquemila sicli di rame,

1 Samuele 17:5 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 17:5

And he had an helmet of brass upon his head
This was a piece of armour, which covered the head in the day of battle; these were usually made of the skins of beasts, of leather, and which were covered with plates of iron, or brass; and sometimes made of all iron, or of brass ^F7; as this seems to have been:

and he was armed with a coat of mail;
which reached from the neck to the middle, and consisted of various plates of brass laid on one another, like the scales of fishes ^F8, so close together that no dart or arrow could pierce between:

and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of brass:
which made one hundred and fifty six pounds and a quarter of zygostatic or avoirdupois weight; and therefore he must be a very strong man indeed to carry such a weight. So the armour of the ancient Romans were all of brass, as this man's; their helmets, shields, greaves, coats of mail, all of brass, as Livy says ^F9; and so in the age of the Grecian heroes ^F10.

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FOOTNOTES:

F7 Vid. Lydium "de re militari": l. 3. c. 5. p. 63.
F8 "----Rutilum thoraca indutus anis Horrebat squamis----" Virgil. Aeneid. l. 11.
F9 Hist. l. 1. c. 22.
F10 Pausan. Messenica, l. 3. p. 163. So Homer frequently describes the Grecians with a coat of mail of brass.

1 Samuele 17:5 In-Context

3 I Filistei stavano sul monte da una parte, e Israele stava sul monte dall’altra parte; e fra loro c’era la valle.

4 Or dal campo de’ Filistei uscì come campione un guerriero per nome Goliath, di Gath, alto sei cubiti e un palmo.

5 Aveva in testa un elmo di rame, era vestito d’una corazza a squame il cui peso era di cinquemila sicli di rame,

6 portava delle gambiere di rame e, sospeso dietro le spalle, un giavellotto di rame.

7 L’asta della sua lancia era come un subbio di tessitore; la punta della lancia pesava seicento sicli di ferro, e colui che portava la sua targa lo precedeva.