Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents
21:15-22 Philistine Wars. This section recounts four fights of David's men with Philistine giants. "There was war again" suggests that this is an excerpt from some writing about David's wars.
21:19 Elhanan . . . struck down Goliath the Gittite. Since in 1 Samuel 17 David killed Goliath of Gath ("Gittite" means someone from Gath), this statement has caused endless controversy. (1) Some say that the deed of Elhanan was later attributed to David, or that the name "Goliath" only later became attached to David's victim, but these interpretations would deny the truthfulness of 1 Samuel 17, and other solutions are preferable. (2) Based on the parallel passage in 1 Chron. 20:5, some think that "Lahmi the brother of" has been deleted from the text before "Goliath" in this verse, and given some of the challenges encountered in establishing the original text of 1-2 Samuel (see Introduction to 1-2 Samuel: Text), this is a distinct possibility. (3) Another suggestion is that the passages refer to two different men named Goliath. Because there are so many duplicate names in the OT, this is also a possibility. (4) A final suggestion, similar to the third solution, is that "Goliath" was a common noun for a giant, just as "Achish" (1 Sam. 21:10; 27:2) may have been a title or common noun for a Philistine ruler (just as "Pharaoh" is a title of the king of Egypt, not a name). There is therefore no conflict in saying that both David and Elhanan killed [a] "Goliath." The name "Goliath" is traceable back to the non-Semitic Anatolian name Walwatta, and the name has been found in an early Philistine inscription.
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