2 Samuel 21 · a question people ask
Didn't David kill Goliath?
1 Samuel 17 tells it: the Philistine champion was "named Goliath of Gath" (1 Samuel 17:4), and "David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and struck the Philistine and killed him" (1 Samuel 17:50). Here the WEB reads, "Elhanan the son of Jaare-Oregim the Bethlehemite killed Goliath the Gittite’s brother" (21:19). In the Hebrew of this verse there is no word for "brother": after "the Bethlehemite" comes the name "Goliath the Gittite" as the one Elhanan struck. 1 Chronicles tells three of these battles too (1 Chronicles 20:4-8), and there this verse reads, "Elhanan the son of Jair killed Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite" (1 Chronicles 20:5), with the Hebrew word for "brother". In Hebrew all three verses describe the spear with the same four words; the WEB has "The staff of his spear was like a weaver’s beam" (1 Samuel 17:7), and "the staff of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam" in 21:19 and 1 Chronicles 20:5. 2 Samuel doesn't say how 21:19 and 1 Samuel 17 fit together, and these notes don't either.
The verses
“There was again war with the Philistines at Gob, and Elhanan the son of Jaare-Oregim the Bethlehemite killed Goliath the Gittite’s brother, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.”
“A champion out of the camp of the Philistines named Goliath of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span went out.”
“The staff of his spear was like a weaver’s beam; and his spear’s head weighed six hundred shekels of iron. His shield bearer went before him.”
“So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and struck the Philistine and killed him; but there was no sword in David’s hand.”