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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comFausset Bible Dictionary: Goliath
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Perhaps a descendant of the old Rephaim, a remnant of whom, when dispersed by Ammon, took refuge with the Philistines (-21; ). Hebrew golleh means "an exile". Simonis derives it from an Arabic root, "stout." Gath is incidentally mentioned in Samuel as Goliath's city. Now Moses records the spies' report (-33) of Canaan, "there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which came of the giants; and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers." Again in -22 it is written, "Joshua cut off the Anakims from the mountains, from Hebron, ... there was none of the Anakims left in the land of Israel, only in Gath and in Ashdod there remained."
Thus three independent witnesses, Moses, Joshua, and Samuel, in the most undesigned way confirm the fact that Goliath was a giant of Gath. His height, six cubits and a span, would make 9 ft. 2 in. Parisian measure, a height not unparalleled. But Septuagint and Josephus read four cubits and a span. His coat of mail, covering chest, back, and lower parts of the body, was "scale armor," qasqeseth (compare -10). Keil and Delitzsch for "target of brass" translated (kidown) "a brazen lance." Goliath needed no target to cover his back, as this was protected by the coat of mail. On the scene of battle (See ELAH; on the battle, etc., (See DAVID and (See ELHANAN.)