2 Samuel 21:15–22

21:15 “There was war again” indicates that these verses (which are not paralleled in Chronicles) are drawn from a longer narrative describing events occurring within a few years of the major victories of 5:17–25, when resurgent Philistines mounted new challenges to Israelite dominance under David. David “went down” with his army from Jerusalem to counter the Philistine raids, and in the subsequent fighting he “grew weary.” This loss of physical strength depicts him as far from an indefatigable champion.

21:16 A Philistine warrior sought to capitalize on David’s fatigue to kill him. Ishbi-benob was descended from the “giants,” the Rephaim, a race of unusual height (Deut. 2:10–11, 20) of whom a few still survived. His bronze spearhead weighed more than 7.5 pounds (3.5 kg), a formidable weapon, though weighing only half that of Goliath’s (1 Sam. 17:7).

21:17 Although David complained about the attitude of the sons of Zeruiah (2 Sam. 3:39; 16:10; 19:22), his nephews were intensely loyal to him, and on this occasion he owed his life to the intervention of Abishai (cf. comment on 1 Sam. 26:6), one of his leading generals (2 Sam. 10:10; 18:2; 20:6). The details of the encounter are not given; what mattered was its outcome—David’s gigantic opponent was slain.

David’s close encounter with death alarmed his men, who declared on oath that it was now too risky for the king to accompany them into battle. “Quench the lamp of Israel” employs the metaphor of snuffing out the wick in an oil lamp and thus extinguishing its light (1 Sam. 3:3; 2 Sam. 14:7). “Putting out a lamp” is used elsewhere as a metaphor for death (Job 18:5–6; 21:17; Prov. 13:9; 20:20; 24:20), but the warriors have more than preserving David’s life in mind. Loss of his leadership would imperil the survival of the nation. Despite the concern expressed here, David did lead his armies in at least one subsequent campaign (2 Sam. 12:29; cf. 18:2–4).

21:18 Another incident in the Philistine wars took place at Gob, which 1 Chronicles 20:4 implies was in the neighborhood of Gezer.¹ Sibbecai, one of David’s mighty men, was from the village of Hushah, just southwest of Bethlehem. He killed Saph (his name is given as Sippai in 1 Chron. 20:4), who was “one of the descendants of the giants,” the same phrase as in 2 Samuel 21:16.

21:19 A third incident also occurred at Gob (cf. v. 18), in a subsequent skirmish with the Philistines. At this point a well-known conundrum develops, because the text of Samuel diverges from that of Chronicles, in which Elhanan kills not Goliath but his brother Lahmi (1 Chron. 20:5), both of whom carried massive spears (cf. 1 Sam. 17:7). Two textual matters are worth noting: in Hebrew “the Bethlehemite” and “Lahmi” are similarly spelled,² and “oregim” in the name Jaare-oregim repeats (wrongly) the last word of the verse, “weavers.” It may be confidently asserted that the original text of Samuel did not have both David (1 Sam. 17:50) and Elhanan killing the same giant. An older critical explanation, that the exploit of an obscure warrior named Elhanan was transferred to enhance David’s status, may also be discounted. Other proposals, such as that there were two giants called Goliath, or that Elhanan was a pre-throne name for David, are equally unconvincing. It seems most probable that Chronicles preserves the original text, while there were errors in the transmission of the text in Samuel.

21:20 A fourth episode took place in Philistine territory at Gath,³ involving an unnamed descendant of the giants (cf. v. 16) who had an extra finger on each hand and an extra toe on each foot.

21:21 This giant displayed Goliath-like arrogance when he “taunted” (“defied”; cf. 1 Sam. 17:10) the Israelite army, uttering cutting words of contempt against them and their God. Jonathan the son of Shimei, David’s brother (called Shammah in 1 Sam. 16:9), was responsible for killing him.

21:22 This summary statement brings together the four preceding incidents, in which gigantic Philistine champions were killed. “By the hand of David” is somewhat surprising, since he was not directly involved in killing any of them, yet all had occurred under his command. This brings out the close cooperation existing between David and his “servants” through whom he was enabled to survive and be victorious.