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Thearos
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I must say, I don't understand, Dan, what you're saying. This is the quotation from 2 Samuel 21
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15 Once again there was a battle between the Philistines and Israel. David went down with his men to fight against the Philistines, and he became exhausted. 16 And Ishbi-Benob, one of the descendants of Rapha, whose bronze spearhead weighed three hundred shekels [b] and who was armed with a new sword , said he would kill David. 17 But Abishai son of Zeruiah came to David's rescue; he struck the Philistine down and killed him. Then David's men swore to him, saying, "Never again will you go out with us to battle, so that the lamp of Israel will not be extinguished."
18 In the course of time, there was another battle with the Philistines, at Gob. At that time Sibbecai the Hushathite killed Saph, one of the descendants of Rapha.
19 In another battle with the Philistines at Gob, Elhanan son of Jaare-Oregim [c] the Bethlehemite killed Goliath [d] the Gittite, who had a spear with a shaft like a weaver's rod.
20 In still another battle, which took place at Gath, there was a huge man with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot—twenty-four in all. He also was descended from Rapha. 21 When he taunted Israel, Jonathan son of Shimeah, David's brother, killed him.
22 These four were descendants of Rapha in Gath, and they fell at the hands of David and his men.
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Now it concerns a war of David, when he is king, against the Philistines. We are told that during this war, 4 men from Gath were killed, of the descendants of Rapha (those 4 were born to the giant, leharaphah beGath). It is not about the incident in 1 Samuel where David kills Goliath. These 4 men were not killed by David's sling, but by David's men (beyad avedav) as well as "by his hand".
So which is it:
1. The five stones in David's pouch in 1 Samuel symbolize the future fights by David against the Philistines.
a. The real David had five stones, and they predicted his wars as a king and the further slaying of Philistines, not just Goliath.
b. The author of 1 Samuel introduced this detail to announce the future war.
In any case, it's not a case of David getting five headshots.
2. Goliath the Gittite is in fact the "real Goliath"-- conflated with the nameless six-digits-on every-extremity giant, also from Gath-- and his slaying did occur, but only after David became king; the story was later shifted back to before David became king, as a symbol of David's destiny and the divine favour that he enjoyed. (I suppose this has been noted before, but I don't what the commentaries say on this). Again, no five headshots, but just a story that's been transposed. Perhaps the five stones symbolize, consciously or no, the "future" fights against Philistines when David is king (which is in fact the real context when these killings occurred).
I've not read the book you recommend, Dan. My view ? It's a realistic detail-- what a slinger would do (five stones as a good tactical load for a fight-- this only makes the splendid accuracy of the shot the more striking, and the more impressive as a sign of divine favour; of course, this does contradict the confidence with which David speaks to Goliath, but this very mystery, of the contrast between human precaution and inspired speech is religiously meaningful and challenging);
-- later commentators on the bible, trying to make sense of this, think of the passage in 2 Samuel, and intepret it symbolically.
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Why David chose five stones ,please read ! (Read 53234 times)
