2 Samuel 21:19

_AND THERE WAS AGAIN A BATTLE IN GOB WITH THE PHILISTINES, WHERE ELHANAN THE SON OF JA'ARE-OREGIM, A BETHLEHEMITE, SLEW THE BROTHER OF GOLIATH THE GITTITE, THE STAFF OF WHOSE SPEAR WAS LIKE A WEAVER'S BEAM._ There was again a battle in Gob. The scene of this contest is not mentioned (1 Chronicles 20:4). [The Septuagint has: en Rom; Alexandrine, en Gob.] WHERE ELHANAN THE SON OF JAARE-OREGIM, A BETH-LEHEMITE, SLEW THE BROTHER OF GOLIATH THE GITTITE, х_ 'ELCHAANAAN_ (H445), God-bestowed] - one of David's warriors. х_ YA`ªREEY-'ORGIYM_ (H3296), forest of weavers. It is evident that 'irgiym, is spurious, and has been introduced by mistake from the eye of a transcriber catching the end of the following line, where oregim (weavers) stands.] This word being reje

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....

Verse 2 Samuel 21:19. _ELHANAN THE SON OF JAARE-OREGIM - SLEW - GOLIATH THE_ _GITTITE_] Here is a most manifest corruption of the text, or gross mistake of the transcriber; _David_, not _Elhanan_, slew _Goliath_. In 1 Chronicles 20:5, the parallel place, it stands thus: "Elhanan, the son of Jair, slew Lahmi, the brother of Goliath the Gittite, whose spear-staff _was_ like a weaver's beam." This is plain; and our translators have _borrowed_ some words from Chronicles to make both texts agree. The corruption may be easily accounted for by considering that ארגים _oregim_, which signifies _weavers_, has slipped out of one line into the other; and that בית הלחמי _beith_ _hallachmi_, the _Beth-lehemite_, is corrupted from את ל...

The Hebrew text is manifestly very corrupt. First, for “Jaare-oregim,” 1 Chronicles 20:5 gives us the reading Jair. “Oregim” has evidently got in by a transcriber’s error from the line below, where “oregim” is the Hebrew for “weavers.” Again, the word the “Bethlehemite” is very doubtful. It is supported by 2 Samuel 23:24, but it is not found in the far purer text of 1 Chronicles 20:5, but instead of it we find the name of the Philistine slain by Elhanan, “Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite.” It is probable, therefore, that either the words “the Bethlehemite,” are a corruption of “Lahmi,” or that the recurrence of “Lahmi,” and the termination of “Beth-lehemite” has confused

EXPOSITION 2 SAMUEL 21:1 THERE WAS A FAMINE IN THE DAYS OF DAVID; Hebrew, _and there was. _There is an entire absence of any mark of time to show in what part of David's reign this famine took place. It does not even follow, from the mention of Mephibosheth's name, that it must have happened at a time subsequent to the sending for that prince from Machir's house; for it may have been the search after the descendants of Saul which made David remember the son of his old friend. The burial, however, of the bones of Saul and Jonathan as an act of respect to the slaughtered king makes it probable that the narrative belongs to the early part of David's reign, as also does the apparent fact that the seven victims were all young and unmarried. Mephibosheth, we read, had a young son when David sent for him. Now, he was five years old whe

AND THERE WAS AGAIN A BATTLE IN GOB WITH THE PHILISTINES,.... Another battle with them in the same place: WHERE ELHANAN THE SON OF JAAREOREGIM, A BETHLEHEMITE, SLEW [THE BROTHER OF] GOLIATH THE GITTITE; the word "brother" is rightly supplied from 1 Chronicles 20:5; where his name is said to be Lahmi, for not Goliath himself was slain, though some so interpret it, and take Elhanan to be David; so Jarchi, and with which agrees the Targum; but he was slain not at Gob, but in the valley of Elah, nor had David any such name as Elhanan; he was one of David's worthies, 2 Samuel 23:24; where he is called the son of Dodo, and in 1 Chronicles 20:5, the son of Jair; and Lahmi the

IV. THE APPENDIX TO THE HISTORY OF DAVID 1. The Famines and the Wars with the Philistines CHAPTER 21 _ 1. The Famine and the Gibeonites (2 Samuel 21:1)_ 2. The Wars with the Philistines (2 Samuel 21:15) The fourth section of the second book of Samuel is an appendix to the history of David. When the great famine happened in the days of David we do not know. After the famine had returned year after year, for three years, David inquired of the Lord. Why did he not inquire in the first year? It is an evidence of the low spiritual state which prevailed at that time. The answer which David received revealed the cause of the judgment which rested upon the land. It was Saul and the blood-guilt in having slain the Gibeonites. The story of the Gibeonites is recorded in...

DAVID'S HEROES (first section). _Cf._ above. (J). These verses are probably from the same source as 2 Samuel 23:8 ff., and the source is no doubt ancient. The events in 2 Samuel 21:15 ff. and 2 Samuel 23:8 ff. belong to various periods in the life of David. 2 SAMUEL 21:15. ABISHAI RESCUES DAVID. The text of 2 Samuel 21:16 is corrupt; the general sense seems to have been: At Gob, some place otherwise unknown, David was in danger from a giant whose name has been lost through corruption of the text....

THE BROTHER OF GOLIATH. Omit the italics, and understand another giant of the same name as the Goliath of 1 Samuel 17. STAFF. Hebrew "wood", put by Figure of speech _Metonymy_ (of Cause) for what was made from it. App-6....

Heroic exploits in the Philistine wars This section is quite unconnected with the preceding narrative. It is perhaps a fragment from some "book of golden deeds" recording the exploits of David and his warriors. From such a chronicle may also be derived ch. 2 Samuel 23:8-39, possibly ch. 2 Samuel 5:17-25, and some other sections of the book. 2 Samuel 21:18 are also preserved in Chronicles, where they are placed immediately after the capture of Rabbah (1 Chronicles 20:4-8)....