2 Samuel 21:14
Ver. 14. And the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son,.... Together with those who had been hanged:
buried they in the country of Benjamin in Zelah; a city in the tribe of Benjamin, Jos 18:28;
in the sepulchre of Kish his father; the father of Saul, 1Sa 9:1; and which, according to Fuller {w}, and the position of it in his map, was not far from the hill on which the seven sons of Saul were hanged:
and they performed all that the king commanded; that is, David's messengers and servants did; they fetched the bones of Saul and Jonathan from Jabeshgilead, and buried them with those of his seven sons hanged, in the burying place of his father Kish, and made a general mourning for them; for the Jews say {x}, that by David's order Saul's coffin was carried through every tribe, and men, women, and children, came out and expressed concern:
and after that God was entreated for the land; not after the burial of the said persons, but after the seven men were hanged up; by this the wrath of God was appeased, which was seen by his sending rain and fruitful seasons, so that the famine ceased.{w} Pisgah-Sight, B. 2. c. 12. p. 258. {x} Bemidbar Rabba, ut supra. (fol. 190. 1.) 2 Samuel 21:15Ver. 15. Moreover the Philistines had yet war again with Israel,.... Besides what is before recorded in this and the preceding book; being animated to it partly by the number of giants among them, and partly by the decline of David's life, and it may be chiefly by the insurrections and rebellions in Israel; though some think that these battles were not after the rebellions of Absalom and Sheba, and the affair of the Gibeonites, though here recorded; but before, and quickly after the war with the Ammonites, next to which they are placed in 1Ch 20:1; but they seem to be placed here in their proper order:and David went down, and his servants with him; to the borders of the Philistines, perceiving they were preparing to make war against him:and fought against the Philistines; engaged in a battle with them:and David waxed faint; in the battle, not able to bear the fatigues of war, and wield his armour as he had used, being in the decline of life; after he had been engaged a while, his spirits began to fail, not through fear, but through feebleness; but, according to Josephus, it was through weariness in pursuing the enemy put to flight, which the following person perceived, and turned upon him {y}.{y} Antiqu. l. 7. c. 12. sect. 1. 2 Samuel 21:16Ver. 16. And Ishbibenob, which [was] of the sons of the giant,.... Of Goliath, or of a giant, of the race of them:the weight of whose spear [weighed] three hundred [shekels] of brass in weight; which must be understood either of the wood of it, or of the head of it, the flaming point of it, as many interpret it; and if so, it was but half the weight of Goliath's spear, unless there was any difference of the weight of iron and of brass, see 1Sa 17:7;he being girded with a new [sword]; or rather with a new girdle, as the Targum; and so Jarchi, which might be given him as a mark of honour, or as a token of his having a commission in the army:thought to have slain David; his aim was at him, and perceiving him faint and feeble, thought to take the advantage of it, and dispatch him. 2 Samuel 21:17Ver. 17. But Abishai the son of Zeruiah succoured him,.... Observing him in danger, made haste to his relief:and smote the Philistine, and killed him; it seems as if Abishai engaged with the Philistine, and killed him; but inasmuch as it will bear to be interpreted of David, and since the four giants here and hereafter mentioned are said to fall by the hand of David and his servants, 2Sa 21:22, it may be thought that this man fell by his hand; seeing it is clear that all the rest fell by the hands of his servants:then the men of David sware unto him; after they had observed the danger he was exposed unto, and how narrowly he escaped with his life:saying, thou shalt go no more with us to battle; they had persuaded him not to go to the battle with Absalom; they had suffered him to go with them now, he being, no doubt, forward and pressing to it; but now they were resolute, and determined he should never go more:that thou quench not the light of Israel; signifying that their glory and prosperity depended on his life, and that, should he be taken away, they should be in affliction and adversity, their honour and their happiness would be at an end; the Targum is,"thou mayest not extinguish the kingdom of Israel,''the light and glory of it. 2 Samuel 21:18Ver. 18. And it came to pass after this,.... After the former battle:that there was again a battle with the Philistines at Gob; in1Ch 20:4 it is called Gezer; either the place had two names, or these two places were near each other; so that the battle may be said to be fought both at the one and at the other, being fought equally near to both:then Sibbechai the Hushathite slew Saph, which [was] of the sons of the giant; who is called Sippai, 1Ch 20:4; he had his name from the lintel of a door, being as high as one, so tall that he could scarce go under one. Sibbechai was one of David's worthies, 1Ch 11:29; perhaps a descendant of Hushah, who sprung from Judah, 1Ch 4:4. 2 Samuel 21:19Ver. 19. And there was again a battle in Gob with the Philistines,.... Another battle with them in the same place:where Elhanan the son of Jaareoregim, a Bethlehemite, slew [the brother of] Goliath the Gittite; the word "brother" is rightly supplied from1Ch 20:5; where his name is said to be Lahmi, for not Goliath himself was slain, though some so interpret it, and take Elhanan to be David; so Jarchi, and with which agrees the Targum; but he was slain not at Gob, but in the valley of Elah, nor had David any such name as Elhanan; he was one of David's worthies, 2Sa 23:24; where he is called the son of Dodo, and in 1Ch 20:5, the son of Jair; and Lahmi there may not be the name of Goliath's brother, but, as here, the country name of Elhanan; for the words {z} there may be rendered,"and Elhanan the son of Jair, the Lehemite (i.e. the Bethlehemite), slew the brother of Goliath the Gittite,''and so perfectly agrees, with this:the staff of whose spear was like a weaver's beam; not of Goliath's brother, but of Goliath himself, 1Sa 17:7.{z} Vid. Buxtorf. Anticritic. par. 2. c. 2. p. 421. 2 Samuel 21:20Ver. 20. And there was yet a battle in Gath,.... Besides the battles in the above place or places; for this does not necessarily suppose that one of the said battles had been there, only that this, which was another battle, had been there:where was a man of [great] stature; for so the sense of the word appears to be from 1Ch 20:6; though here it signifies a man of strife and contention, a man of war, and both were true of him:that had on every hand six fingers, and on every foot six toes, four and twenty in number; twelve fingers on his two hands, and twelve toes on his two feet. Pliny {a} speaks of one M. Curiatius, a patrician, who had two daughters that had six fingers on an hand, and were called "Sedigitae", six-fingered; and of Volcatius, a famous poet, called "Sedigitus", or six-fingered, for the same reason; and elsewhere, from other writers {b} he makes mention of a people that had eight toes each foot; so Ctesias {c} speaks of a people in the mountains of India, which have eight fingers on each hand, and eight toes on each foot, both men and women:and he also was born to the giant; a son of a giant.{a} Nat. Hist. l. 11. c. 43. {b} Megasthenes apud ib. l. 7. c. 2. {c} In Indicis, c. 31. 2 Samuel 21:21Ver. 21. And when he defied Israel,.... The armies of Israel, as Goliath had done some years ago, 1Sa 17:10;Jonathan the son of Shimea the brother of David slew him; this brother of David is called Shammah, 1Sa 16:9; and Shimma, 1Ch 2:13; this son of his is another man from Jonadab his son, who was famous for his subtlety as this was for his valour, 2Sa 13:3. The Jews say {d} this was Nathan the prophet, a son of Shammah.{d} Hieron. Trad. Heb. fol. 76. D. 2 Samuel 21:22Ver. 22. These four were born to the giant in Gath,.... Not to Goliath, for one of them was his brother, but to some giant or another of that place, for which it was famous; they were all of them of the race of the giants; and so the Septuagint version, they were"the offspring of the giants in Gath, whose family was Repha;''and this Repha, or Arepha, as the Vulgate Latin version, according to Abarbinel, was a woman of the daughters of the giants; the Talmudists {e} make her to be the same with Orpah, Ru 1:4. These giants, it is highly probable, were the descendants of the Anakim which remained in Gath after they were cut off by Joshua in other places, Jos 11:22;and fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants; the first, Ishbibenob, fell by the hand of David assisted by Abishai, and the other three by the persons mentioned.{e} T. Bab. Sotah. fol. 42. 2.
John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible.