2 Samuel 21:19

in Gob The Sept. reads Rom(B) or Gob(A), and Chron. omits the name of the place altogether.

where Elhanan, &c. Lit. and Elhanan the son of Jaare-oregim, the Bethlehemite, slew Goliath the Gittite. The words the brother ofare conjecturally inserted in the E. V. from 1 Chron. They are not found here in the Hebrew text, or in any of the ancient versions. The parallel passage in 1 Chronicles 20:5 reads and Elhanan the son of Jair slew Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite. Now (1) the reading Jairis certainly preferable to Jaare-oregim. Oregim, the word for weaversin the line below, was inserted by a careless scribe, and the Hebrew letters of Jair(יעיר) transposed so as to read Jaare(יערי). (2) The letters of the words Beth-lehemite, Goliath, which stand together in the Heb. text, so closely resemble those of Lahmi the brother of Goliath, that it is almost certain that one reading is an accidental corruption of the other. But which is the original it is not easy to decide. There is no difficulty in supposing that another giant, beside the one slain by David, bore the name of Goliath. Another Elhanan of Beth-lehem is mentioned in ch. 2 Samuel 23:24.

There is a curious Jewish tradition, preserved in the Targum and by Jerome (Quaest. Hebr. in libros Regum), identifying Elhanan with David. The Targum here paraphrases thus: "And David, the son of Jesse the weaver of veils for the sanctuary, who was of Beth-lehem, slew Goliath the Gittite." But there is no evidence whatever in support of this idea.

the staff of whose spear, &c. Cp. 1 Samuel 17:7; 1 Chronicles 11:23. The shaft of his spear, short, but extraordinarily stout and heavy, was popularly compared to the "beam" to which the web is fastened in a loom.