1 Samuël 17:7

7 En de schacht zijner spies was als een weversboom, en het lemmer zijner spies was van zeshonderd sikkelen ijzers; en de schilddrager ging voor zijn aangezicht.

1 Samuël 17:7 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 17:7

And the staff of his spear was like a weaver's beam
The wooden part of it, held in the hand; this for thickness was like the beam in the weaver's loom, about which the warp, or else the web, is rolled; and it is conjectured that, in proportion to the stature of Goliath, his spear must be twenty six feet long, since Hector's in Homer ^F13 was eleven cubits, or sixteen feet and a half:

and his spear's head weighed six hundred shekels of iron;
the iron part of the spear, the point of it, which has its name in Hebrew from a flame of fire, because when brandished it looks shining and flaming; and being the weight of six hundred shekels, amounted to eighteen pounds and three quarters of avoirdupois weight, and the whole spear is supposed to weigh thirty seven pounds and a half; and the whole of this man's armour is thought to weigh two hundred and seventy two pounds, thirteen ounces ^F14; which was a prodigious weight for a man to carry, and go into battle with; and one may well wonder how he could be able with such a weight about him to move and lay about in an engagement; though this is nothing in comparison of the weight some men have carried. Pliny ^F15 tells us that he saw one Athanatus come into the theatre clothed with a leaden breastplate of five hundred pounds weight, and shod with buskins of the same weight:

and one bearing a shield went before him;
which when engaged in battle he held in his own hand, and his sword in the other; the former was reckoned at thirty pounds, and the latter at four pounds, one ounce; though one would think he had no occasion for a shield, being so well covered with armour all over; so that the carrying of it before him might be only a matter of form and state. His spear is the only piece of armour that was of iron, all the rest were of brass; and Hesiod {p}, writing of the brazen age, says, their arms and their houses were all of brass, for then there was no iron; and so Lucretius ^F17 affirms that the use of brass was before iron; but both are mentioned together, (See Gill on Genesis 4:22), hence Mars is called (calceov arhv) {r}.

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FOOTNOTES:

F13 Iliad. 18.
F14 Hostius, ut supra.
F15 Nat. Hist. l. 7. c. 20.
F16 Opera & Dies, l. 1. ver. 147, 148.
F17 "De rerum natura". l. 5. & "prior aeris erat"
F18 Homer. Iliad. 5. ver. 704, 859, 864. Pindar. Olymp. Ode 10.

1 Samuël 17:7 In-Context

5 En hij had een koperen helm op zijn hoofd, en hij had een schubachtig pantsier aan; en het gewicht van het pantsier was vijf duizend sikkelen kopers;

6 En een koperen scheenharnas boven zijn voeten, en een koperen schild tussen zijn schouders;

7 En de schacht zijner spies was als een weversboom, en het lemmer zijner spies was van zeshonderd sikkelen ijzers; en de schilddrager ging voor zijn aangezicht.

8 Deze nu stond, en riep tot de slagorden van Israel, en zeide tot hen: Waarom zoudt gijlieden uittrekken, om de slagorde te stellen? Ben ik niet een Filistijn, en gijlieden knechten van Saul? Kiest een man onder u, die tot mij afkome.

9 Indien hij tegen mij strijden en mij verslaan kan, zo zullen wij ulieden tot knechten zijn; maar indien ik hem overwin en hem sla, zo zult gij ons tot knechten zijn, en ons dienen.