1 Samuel 17:7

Contextual Overview

¹Now the Philistines gathered their forces for war and assembled at Socoh in Judah. They pitched camp at Ephes Dammim, between Socoh and Azekah. ¹ Now the Philistines gathered their forces for war and assembled at Sokoh in Judah. They pitched camp at Ephes Dammim, between Sokoh and Azekah. ¹Now the Philistines gathered their camps for battle; and they were gathered at Socoh which belongs to Judah, and they camped between Socoh and Azekah, in Ephes-dammim. ¹ Now the Philistines gathered their armies for battle; and they were gathered at Socoh which belongs to Judah, and they camped between Socoh and Azekah, in Ephes-dammim. ¹ The Philistines gathered their hoast to battayle, and came together to Socho which is in Iuda, and pytched betweene Socho and Azekah, in the coaste of Dammim. ¹ The Philistines gathered their armies together for war. They met at Socoh in Judah. Their camp was between Socoh and Azekah, at a town called Ephes Dammim. ¹ And the Philistines had gathered their armies for battle, and were gathered at Socoh of Judah. And they camped between Socoh and Azekah in Ephes-dammim. ¹ Now the Philistines gathered their armies for battle; and they were gathered at Socoh, which belongs to Judah, and encamped between Socoh and Aze'kah, in E'phes-dam'mim. ¹ Now the Philistines gathered together their armies to battle; and they were gathered together at Socoh, which belongs to Judah, and encamped between Socoh and Azekah, in Ephes-dammim. ¹ Now the Philistines gathered together their armies to battell, and were gathered together at Shochoh, which belongeth to Iudah, and pitched betweene Shochoh and Azekah, in Ephes-Dammim.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

the staff: 2 Samuel 21:19, 1 Chronicles 11:23, 1 Chronicles 20:5

Cross-References

Genesis 15:18
On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram and said, "To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates-

Genesis 15:18
On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, "To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates—

Genesis 15:18
On that day Yahweh cut a covenant with Abram, saying,"To your seed I have given this land,From the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates:

Genesis 15:18
On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, "To your descendants I have given this land, From the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates:

Genesis 15:18
In that same day the Lorde made a couenaunt with Abram, saying: vnto thy seede haue I geuen this lande, fro the ryuer of Egypt, euen vnto the great ryuer, the ryuer of Euphrates.

Genesis 15:18
So on that day the Lord made a promise and an agreement with Abram. He said, "I will give this land to your descendants. I will give them the land between the River of Egypt and the great river Euphrates.

Genesis 15:18
On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, "To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphra'tes,

Genesis 15:18
In that dai the Lord made a couenaunt of pees with Abram, and seide, Y schal yyue to thi seed this lond, fro the ryuer of Egipt til to the greet ryuer Eufrates; Cyneis,

Genesis 15:18
In that same day the LORD made a couenant with Abram, saying; Unto thy seed haue I giuen this land from the riuer of Egypt vnto the great riuer, the riuer Euphrates:

Genesis 15:18
In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And the staff of his spear was like a weaver's beam,.... The wooden part of it, held in the hand; this for thickness was like the beam in the weaver's loom, about which the warp, or else the web, is rolled; and it is conjectured that, in proportion to the stature of Goliath, his spear must be twenty six feet long, since Hector's in Homer m was eleven cubits, or sixteen feet and a half:

and his spear's head weighed six hundred shekels of iron; the iron part of the spear, the point of it, which has its name in Hebrew from a flame of fire, because when brandished it looks shining and flaming; and being the weight of six hundred shekels, amounted to eighteen pounds and three quarters of avoirdupois weight, and the whole spear is supposed to weigh thirty seven pounds and a half; and the whole of this man's armour is thought to weigh two hundred and seventy two pounds, thirteen ounces n; which was a prodigious weight for a man to carry, and go into battle with; and one may well wonder how he could be able with such a weight about him to move and lay about in an engagement; though this is nothing in comparison of the weight some men have carried. Pliny o tells us that he saw one Athanatus come into the theatre clothed with a leaden breastplate of five hundred pounds weight, and shod with buskins of the same weight:

and one bearing a shield went before him; which when engaged in battle he held in his own hand, and his sword in the other; the former was reckoned at thirty pounds, and the latter at four pounds, one ounce; though one would think he had no occasion for a shield, being so well covered with armour all over; so that the carrying of it before him might be only a matter of form and state. His spear is the only piece of armour that was of iron, all the rest were of brass; and Hesiod p, writing of the brazen age, says, their arms and their houses were all of brass, for then there was no iron; and so Lucretius q affirms that the use of brass was before iron; but both are mentioned together, :-, hence Mars is called χαλχεος αρης r.

m Iliad. 18. n Hostius, ut supra. o Nat. Hist. l. 7. c. 20. p Opera & Dies, l. 1. ver. 147, 148. q "De rerum natura". l. 5. & "prior aeris erat", &c. r Homer. Iliad. 5. ver. 704, 859, 864. Pindar. Olymp. Ode 10.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Spear’s-head - literally, “the flame of his spear,” the metal part which flashed like a flame.

Six hundred shekels - i. e., between seventeen and eighteen pounds avoirdupois.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 1 Samuel 17:7. The staff on his spear was like a weaver's beam — Either like that on which the warp is rolled, or that on which the cloth is rolled. We know not how thick this was, because there were several sorts of looms, and the sizes of the beams very dissimilar. Our woollen, linen, cotton, and silk looms are all different in the size of their beams; and I have seen several that I should not suppose too thick, though they might be too short, for Goliath's spear.

His spear's head weighed six hundred shekels of iron] That is, his spear's head was of iron, and it weighed six hundred shekels; this, according to the former computation, would amount to eighteen pounds twelve ounces.

And one bearing a shield — הצנה hatstsinnah, from צן tsan, pointed or penetrating, if it do not mean some kind of a lance, must mean a shield, with what is called the umbo, a sharp protuberance, in the middle, with which they could as effectually annoy their enemies as defend themselves. Many of the old Highland targets were made with a projecting dagger in the centre. Taking the proportions of things unknown to those known, the armour of Goliath is supposed to have weighed not less than two hundred and seventy-two pounds thirteen ounces! Plutarch informs us that the ordinary weight of a soldier's panoply, or complete armour, was one talent, or sixty pounds; and that one Alcimus, in the army of Demetrius, was considered as a prodigy, because his panoply weighed two talents, or one hundred and twenty pounds.