Shmuel Bais 21:20

20 And there was yet again a milchamah in Gat, where was a man of great stature, that had on every yad six fingers, and on every regel six toes, four and twenty in mispar (number); and he also was born to the Rafah.

Shmuel Bais 21:20 Meaning and Commentary

2 Samuel 21:20

And there was yet a battle in Gath
Besides the battles in the above place or places; for this does not necessarily suppose that one of the said battles had been there, only that this, which was another battle, had been there:

where was a man of [great] stature;
for so the sense of the word appears to be from ( 1 Chronicles 20:6 ) ; though here it signifies a man of strife and contention, a man of war, and both were true of him:

that had on every hand six fingers, and on every foot six toes, four
and twenty in number;
twelve fingers on his two hands, and twelve toes on his two feet. Pliny F1 speaks of one M. Curiatius, a patrician, who had two daughters that had six fingers on an hand, and were called "Sedigitae", six-fingered; and of Volcatius, a famous poet, called "Sedigitus", or six-fingered, for the same reason; and elsewhere, from other writers F2 he makes mention of a people that had eight toes each foot; so Ctesias F3 speaks of a people in the mountains of India, which have eight fingers on each hand, and eight toes on each foot, both men and women:

and he also was born to the giant;
a son of a giant.


FOOTNOTES:

F1 Nat. Hist. l. 11. c. 43.
F2 Megasthenes apud ib. l. 7. c. 2.
F3 In Indicis, c. 31.

Shmuel Bais 21:20 In-Context

18 And it came to pass after this, that there was again milchamah with the Pelishtim at Gov; then Sibbechai the Chushati slaughtered Saph, which was of the banim of the Rafah.
19 And there was again milchamah in Gov with the Pelishtim, where Elchanan Ben Ya’arei-orgim, from Beit-Lechem, slaughtered the brother of Golyat (Goliath) the Gitti, the staff of whose khanit (spear) was like a weaver’s beam.
20 And there was yet again a milchamah in Gat, where was a man of great stature, that had on every yad six fingers, and on every regel six toes, four and twenty in mispar (number); and he also was born to the Rafah.
21 And when he defied Yisroel, Yonatan Ben Shimea the brother of Dovid slaughtered him.
22 These four were born to the Rafah in Gat, and fell by the yad Dovid, and by the yad of his avadim. [T.N. Kapporah is made here by that which is hanged unto Hashem—see 2Sm 21:3,6; Isa 53:10]
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