{"id":42029,"date":"2014-03-02T21:36:00","date_gmt":"2014-03-03T03:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=42029"},"modified":"2022-01-16T21:39:13","modified_gmt":"2022-01-17T03:39:13","slug":"why-did-the-translators-add-brother-to-ii-samuel-2119","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-did-the-translators-add-brother-to-ii-samuel-2119\/","title":{"rendered":"Why did the translators add &#8220;brother&#8221; to II Samuel 21:19?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t<h2>Question:<\/h2>\n<p>Nearly everyone is familiar with the account in I Samuel 17 and how David killed Goliath. The King James Version in II Samuel 21:19 says Elhanan killed Goliath&#8217;s brother, but the Hebrew text says\u00a0it was Goliath who was slain. How did the translators deduce this was Goliath&#8217;s brother, or is there a better explanation of this text?<\/p>\n<p>Thanks in advance for your reply.<\/p>\n\t<h2>Answer:<\/h2>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;<em>Again there was war at Gob with the Philistines, where Elhanan the son of Jaare-Oregim the Bethlehemite killed the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver&#8217;s beam<\/em>&#8221; (II Samuel 21:19).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The phrase &#8220;the brother of&#8221; was supplied by the translators of the New King James Version based on &#8220;<em>Again there was war with the Philistines, and Elhanan the son of Jair killed Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver&#8217;s beam<\/em>&#8221; (I Chronicles 20:5). Thus Elhanan killed Lahmi who was Goliath&#8217;s brother.<\/p>\n<p>A more literal translation of II Samuel 21:19 is found in the New American Standard Bible, &#8220;<em>There was war with the Philistines again at Gob, and Elhanan the son of Jaare-oregim the Bethlehemite killed Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver&#8217;s beam.<\/em>&#8221; It is thought that either:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The relationship was accidentally dropped out of the text in II Samuel 21:19<\/li>\n<li>The Jews sometimes left relationships implied in texts (Examples: wife left out of Matthew 1:6 and John 19:25; mother left out of Mark 15:40,47; 16:1; and Luke 24:10).<\/li>\n<li>Some suggest that in II Samuel the emphasis is on the fact that Lahmi (who is not named) was like Goliath the Gittite or a part of a clan of giants.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Question: Nearly everyone is familiar with the account in I Samuel 17 and how David killed Goliath. The King James Version in II Samuel 21:19 says Elhanan killed Goliath&#8217;s brother, but the Hebrew text says\u00a0it was Goliath who was slain. How did the translators deduce this was Goliath&#8217;s brother, or is there a better explanation&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[702,190],"class_list":["post-42029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-ii-samuel","tag-translation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":25868,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/five-stones-in-the-hands-of-a-boy\/","url_meta":{"origin":42029,"position":0},"title":"Five Stones in the Hands of a Boy","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 13, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Text: I Corinthians 1:26-29 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The armies of the Philistines and the Israelites faced each other across a valley - I Samuel 17:1-3 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0With both armies camped on mountains, it became a standoff. Whoever attacked the other would be at a disadvantage. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Thus, the Philistines sent out their champion issue\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Audio&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10358,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/who-was-the-giant-with-six-fingers-and-toes\/","url_meta":{"origin":42029,"position":1},"title":"Who was the giant with six fingers and toes?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 13, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What is the name of the giant that was killed (he had extra fingers and toes)? Answer: \"Yet again there was war at Gath, where there was a man of great stature, who had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, twenty-four in number; and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14676,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-david-a-young-man-when-he-killed-goliath-and-not-a-boy\/","url_meta":{"origin":42029,"position":2},"title":"Was David a young man when he killed Goliath and not a boy?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 18, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In studying I Samuel 17:38-40, I am wondering if David is not a young boy as some stories depict him, but instead, he is a young man. Saul was the tallest man among the children of Israel and we see that he is now giving his armor to David\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31029,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-goliath-six-cubits-and-a-span-or-four-cubits-and-a-span\/","url_meta":{"origin":42029,"position":3},"title":"Was Goliath six cubits and a span or four cubits and a span?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 24, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: The King James Bible reports the giant Goliath as \"six cubits and a span\" in height - over nine feet tall, (over 2.75 m) (I Samuel 17:4), but the Septuagint,\u00a0a Greek Bible, also gives Goliath's height as \"four cubits and a span\" (~2.00 m). So by the interpretation which\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1666,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-many-horsemen-did-david-kill\/","url_meta":{"origin":42029,"position":4},"title":"How many horsemen did David kill?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 3, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: II Samuel 8:4 -- 1,700 horsemen I Chronicles 18:4 -- 7,000 horsemen Are these two passages related to each other? Why the discrepancy? Answer: The two passages do deal with the same event, but they are worded differently. The following is taken from the New King James Version: \"David\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":92861,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-philistine-city-of-gath\/","url_meta":{"origin":42029,"position":5},"title":"The Philistine City of Gath","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 27, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Leon Mauldin via\u00a0Biblical Insights, Vol. 15 No. 2, February 2015 The first biblical mention of the city of Gath is in Joshua 11:22, contextually speaking of the giants (Anakim) who remained in the land after the initial conquest: \"None of the Anakim were left in the land of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42029\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}