2 Samuel 21:16

Ishbi-benob Perhaps = "dweller on a height," a name given him because he lived in some inaccessible castle. But there are good reasons for suspecting that there is some corruption in the text, and that the giant's real name has been lost.

of the sons of the giant The word for sonsis one specially used of the progeny of the giant races of Canaan (Numbers 13:22; Numbers 13:28; Joshua 15:14). Râphâh, or with the article ha-Râphâh, translated "the giant," may be a quasi proper-name for the father of the four giants here mentioned, or, more probably, for the founder of the tribe of Rephaim. The Vulg. has Arapha, and hence comes Harapha, the name of the giant introduced in Milton's Samson Agonistes.

three hundred shekels About nine pounds: half the weight of Goliath's spear head.

brass See note on ch. 2 Samuel 8:8.

with a newsword] There is no substantive expressed in the Hebrew: the Vulg. supplies sword: others suit of armour: the Sept. reads a mace instead of the word new, and this suggests the probability that the original reading was some rare word, denoting a specially formidable kind of weapon.