2 Samuel 21:19

21:19 Yet another battle occurred with the Philistines in Gob. On that occasion Elhanan the son of Jair ¹  the Bethlehemite killed the brother of Goliath the Gittite, ²  the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.

2 Samuel 21:1

The Gibeonites Demand Revenge

21:1 During David’s reign there was a famine for three consecutive years. So David inquired of the Lord. ³  The Lord said, “It is because of Saul and his bloodstained family, ⁴  because he murdered the Gibeonites.”

1 Tawarikh 11:23

11:23 He even killed an Egyptian who was seven and a half feet ⁵  tall. The Egyptian had a spear as big as the crossbeam of a weaver’s loom; Benaiah attacked ⁶  him with a club. He grabbed the spear out of the Egyptian’s hand and killed him with his own spear.

1 Tawarikh 20:5

20:5 There was another battle with the Philistines in which Elhanan son of Jair the Bethlehemite killed the brother of Goliath the Gittite, ⁷  whose spear had a shaft as big as the crossbeam of a weaver’s loom. ⁸ 

[21:19]  ¹ tn Heb “Jaare-Oregim,” but the second word, which means “weavers,” is probably accidentally included. It appears at the end of the verse. The term is omitted in the parallel account in 1 Chr 20:5, which has simply “Jair.”

[21:19]  ² sn The Hebrew text as it stands reads, “Elhanan son of Jaare-Oregim the Bethlehemite killed Goliath the Gittite.” Who killed Goliath the Gittite? According to 1 Sam 17:4-58 it was David who killed Goliath, but according to the MT of 2 Sam 21:19 it was Elhanan who killed him. Many scholars believe that the two passages are hopelessly at variance with one another. Others have proposed various solutions to the difficulty, such as identifying David with Elhanan or positing the existence of two Goliaths. But in all likelihood the problem is the result of difficulties in the textual transmission of the Samuel passage; in fact, from a text-critical point of view the books of Samuel are the most poorly preserved of all the books of the Hebrew Bible. The parallel passage in 1 Chr 20:5 reads, “Elhanan son of Jair killed Lahmi the brother of Goliath.” Both versions are textually corrupt. The Chronicles text has misread “Bethlehemite” (בֵּית הַלַּחְמִי, bet hallakhmi) as the accusative sign followed by a proper name אֶת לַחְמִי (’et lakhmi). (See the note at 1 Chr 20:5.) The Samuel text misread the word for “brother” (אַח, ’akh) as the accusative sign (אֵת, ’et), thereby giving the impression that Elhanan, not David, killed Goliath. Thus in all probability the original text read, “Elhanan son of Jair the Bethlehemite killed the brother of Goliath.”

[21:1]  ³ tn Heb “sought the face of the Lord.”

[21:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “and the house of bloodshed.”

[11:23]  ⁵ tn Heb “five cubits.” Assuming a length of 18 inches for the standard cubit, this individual would be 7.5 feet (2.3 m) tall.

[11:23]  ⁶ tn Heb “went down to.”

[20:5]  ⁷ tc The Hebrew text reads, “Elchanan son of Jair killed Lachmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite.” But it is likely that the accusative marker in front of לַחְמִי (lakhmiy, “Lachmi”) is a corruption of בֵּית (bet), and that אֶת־לַחְמִי (’et-lakhmiy) should be emended to בֵּית הַלַּחְמִי (bet hallakhmiy, “the Bethlehemite”). See 2 Sam 21:19.

[20:5]  ⁸ tc See tc note on the parallel passage in 2 Sam 21:19.