What Does 1 Chronicles 20:5 Mean in the King James?
And there was war again with the Philistines; and Elhanan the son of Jair slew Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite, whose spear staff was like a weaver’s beam.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The spear is measured against a weaver’s beam, yet the verse ends with the giant’s brother slain.
THE MEANING
War returns, and the danger takes a form so large that its spear is compared to a loom’s beam. Still, the line ends plainly: Lahmi is slain. A returning threat can feel enormous without its scale deciding the outcome.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A threat’s recurrence and size can feel like proof that it cannot be overcome; this verse holds its defeat beside those very details.
THE ROOT
אֹרְגִים
orgim
GROWS FROM
ארג
weave, interlace threads
The Hebrew names the weavers in the comparison: the spear’s shaft is like the beam used in weaving. The verse measures a weapon of war against a structure used to make fabric, then reports the wielder’s death without letting the weapon’s scale settle the ending.
ALSO GROWS
ʾārag: to weave
אָרַג
This verb names the work behind the loom beam used to measure the spear.
ʾoreg: a weaver
אֹרֵג
This singular form shares the root of the verse’s plural “weavers,” tying the beam to the people who work the loom.
אֶלְחָנָן
ʾElḥānān
GROWS FROM
חנן
show favor, be gracious; the name combines this element with “El,” God
Elhanan’s name carries the sense “God has shown favor.” That name-nature stands beside the verse’s unsoftened report of killing: the meaning of the name does not erase the violence of the act.
ALSO GROWS
ḥānan: to show favor
חָנַן
This verb supplies the favor element in Elhanan’s name.
ḥēn: favor
חֵן
This related noun makes the name’s favor-root visible as a quality or gift.
THE PATTERN
A weapon’s scale does not settle the outcome of a fight.
So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and smote the Philistine, and slew him; but there was no sword in the hand of David.And after him was Shamgar the son of Anath, which slew of the Philistines six hundred men with an ox goad: and he also delivered Israel.Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.THE THREAD
And the staff of his spear was like a weaver’s beam; and his spear’s head weighed six hundred shekels of iron: and one bearing a shield went before him.Both verses use אֹרְגִים (orgim), “weavers,” to compare a giant’s spear shaft to a loom beam. In Samuel the image describes Goliath; here it returns with his brother, so the giant-sized weapon itself becomes the thread linking the two encounters.
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