Bible Commentaries

The Siege of Rabbah. The Slaughter of three Philistine Giants

This chapter corresponds, with some unimportant differences, to several distinct sections in 2 S, viz. 2 Samuel 11:1; 2 Samuel 12:26-31; 2 Samuel 21:18-22.

2. David took, etc.] This implies David's presence at Rabbah, and as it stands here is inconsistent with the previous verse. In 2 Samuel 12 the discrepancy is explained by a passage which Chronicles omits, relating that Joab summoned David to Rabbah and that the king went thither.

5. Elhanan the son of Jair, etc.] Both this passage and the parallel in 2 Samuel 21:19 have undergone corruption, and the true text probably had 'Elhanan the son of Jair, a Bethlehemite, slew Goliath the Gittite.' As Goliath is said in 2 Samuel 17 to have been killed by David, there seems to have been variant accounts of his death, unless there were two giants of the same name.