CRITICAL AND EXPOSITORY NOTES—
2 Samuel 21:15. “Moreover,” or, and. “Yet,” rather, again. “This refers generally to earlier wars with the Philistines, and has probably been taken without alteration from the chronicles employed by our author, where the account which follows was attached to notices of other wars.” (Keil.) “Probably this fragment belongs chronologically in the group 2 Samuel 5:18-25, in favour of which is the fact that David is here already king of all Israel, since he is called (2 Samuel 21:17) the light of Israel.” (Erdmann.) But see also on 2 Samuel 21:17.
2 Samuel 21:16. “Ishbi-benob.” Many scholars understand this name to mean “the dweller on the rock.” If this rendering be correct, he probably lived in some mountain fastness. “The giant,” rather Raphah, a proper name for the ancestor of the giant race described in Deuteronomy 2:11; Deuteronomy 2:20, etc. “Three hundred shekels.” About eight pounds, half the weight of Goliath’s (1 Samuel 17:7). “A new sword.” The last word is not in the Hebrew and the better rendering is “he was newly armed.”
2 Samuel 21:17. “The light of Israel.” “David had become the light of Israel from the fact that Jehovah was his light (2 Samuel 22:29), or, according to the parallel passage in Psalms 18:29, that Jehovah had lighted his lamp and enlightened his darkness, i.e., had lifted him out of a state of humiliation and obscurity into one of honour and glory.” (Keil.) This address of David’s men seems to be against the assumption that the event here narrated occurred early in David’s reign.
2 Samuel 21:18. “Gob.” In 1 Chronicles 20:4, this is said to have taken place at Gezer. It is generally supposed Gob was a small place near Gezer. “Sibbechai.” According to 1 Chronicles 27:11, the leader of a division of David’s army. “Hushathite.” “In 1 Chronicles 27:11, Sibbecai is said to have belonged to the Zarhites, that is (probably) the descendants of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah. So far this is in accordance with a connection between this and Hushah, a name apparently of a place (1 Chronicles 4:4), in the genealogies of Judah. (Smith’s Biblical Dictionary). It seems quite as probable that Hushah was the name of an ancestor. Josephus says that Sibbechai was a Hittite. “Saph,” or Sippai. (1 Chronicles 20:5). Miss Rogers, in Domestic Life in Palestine, says, “I saw a number of Arabs belonging to the valley of Urtas, with their chief, a tall, powerful man, called Sheikh Saph, whose family, according to social tradition, has for ages been distinguished for the height and strength of its men.”
2 Samuel 21:19. This verse in the original says that Elnathan slew Goliath, etc., but it is evidently a record of the same occurrence as that narrated in 1 Chronicles 20:5, which is most likely the correct reading, although, according to Gesenius, Goliath means simply a stranger, an exile, and might, therefore, have described all the members of a family or tribe.
2 Samuel 21:20. “Six fingers,” etc. Such men have been met with elsewhere. Pliny (Hist. Nat. xi. 43), speaks of certain six-fingered Romans (sedigiti). This peculiarity is even hereditary in some families. (Keil). “Was born,” etc., i.e., was also a descendant of Raphah. Shimeah, or Shammah, Jesse’s third son. (1 Samuel 16:9; 2 Samuel 13:3).
2 Samuel 21:22. A postscript, summing up the preceding verses. “By the hand of David.” Evidently only in the sense that he commanded the heroes who slew these giants.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— 2 Samuel 21:15-22
DAVID’S WARRIORS
I. Men’s qualifications for service differ at different periods of life. When a man is young his body answers to his will as the well-built vessel answers to her helm, going hither and thither in obedience to every behest of the soul as the ship turns to obey every motion of the wheel. But as years pass on the body becomes a less ready instrument of the human will, and we are all made painfully conscious that our ability to perform falls far more below our desires and aims than in the days of youth. At whatever period in David’s life the event took place which is recorded in 2 Samuel 21:15-17, it is certain that it must point to a time when the strength of his outer man was no longer equal to that of his inner, when he lacked neither the courage nor the skill to face and fight a foe, but when he found that his powers of endurance were not so great as they had once been. To will was present with him still, but how to perform what he willed he found not. But if David had no longer the physical gifts which had distinguished his earlier days, he had other and far more needful qualifications for his present duties which he could not have possessed when he was a young man. There is this compensation given to all faithful men when they feel their bodily powers decline, that they now are far richer in all those gifts and graces which can only be gained by a long experience,—that their knowledge of God, of themselves, and of their fellow-men, having grown with their years, they can now serve their generation in a higher capacity than a physical one, inasmuch as wisdom to guide is more rare and precious than ability to act. David was more truly a light to Israel now than when he slew Goliath or captured the stronghold of Zion.
II. Men fall in with the purpose of God when they recognise the fact that a diversity of gifts tends to the common good. David and his warriors seem to have shown true wisdom concerning this matter. The king acknowledged that he was now not able to do as well on the field of battle as they were, and was content to confine himself to other duties, while they, freely rendering such services as they were able, declared that what they could do was as nothing in comparison with the worth of his services. Such a spirit tends to create that bond between men which was doubtless one great end which God had in view when He made them to differ so much in mental and physical endowments. By making it impossible for them to be independent of each other’s services, the Father of the Universe would bring them into that fellowship without which they can not fulfil the destiny which He desires for them.