Bible Strands
2 Samuel 21:16
Then Ishbi-benob, a descendant of Rapha, whose bronze spear weighed three hundred shekels and who was bearing a new sword, resolved to kill David.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator describes a moment during a Philistine-Israelite battle where an exhausted David faces a Philistine champion. The text places this encounter immediately after David's fatigue in combat and just before Abishai intervenes to save him.
The words — The Hebrew קֵינְוֹ (qēnô) denotes a spear or javelin, while הָרָפָה (hārāp̄ā) identifies Ishbi-benob as a descendant of the Rapha, a lineage associated with giant warriors. The text explicitly notes the spear's bronze head weighed three hundred shekels and that the warrior carried a new sword.
The thread — This encounter parallels other battles against Philistine giants recorded in 2 Samuel 21:18 and 2 Samuel 21:20, where descendants of Rapha or similar lineages are defeated by David's warriors. The lineage is later connected to the pre-flood figures mentioned in Genesis 6:4.
Why it lands — The passage demands recognition that human strength and heavy weaponry cannot guarantee victory when a warrior is exhausted. It requires the reader to observe that survival depends on divine provision through others rather than personal endurance.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And Ishbi–benob, which was of the sons of the giant, the weight of whose spear weighed three hundred shekels of brass in weight, he being girded with a new sword, thought to have slain David.
Cross-references
- 2 Samuel 21:18 Some time later at Gob, there was another battle with the Philistines. At that time Sibbecai the Hushathite killed Saph, a descendant of Rapha.
- 2 Samuel 21:20 And there was also a battle at Gath, where there was a man of great stature with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot—twenty-four in all. He too was descended from Rapha,
- Genesis 6:4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and afterward as well—when the sons of God had relations with the daughters of men. And they bore them children who became the mighty men of old, men of renown.
- Genesis 14:5 In the fourteenth year, Chedorlaomer and the kings allied with him went out and defeated the Rephaites in Ashteroth-karnaim, the Zuzites in Ham, the Emites in Shaveh-kiriathaim,
- Numbers 13:32 So they gave the Israelites a bad report about the land that they had spied out: “The land we explored devours its inhabitants, and all the people we saw there are great in stature.
- Deuteronomy 1:28 Where can we go? Our brothers have made our hearts melt, saying: ‘The people are larger and taller than we are; the cities are large, with walls up to the heavens. We even saw the descendants of the Anakim there.’”
- Deuteronomy 2:10 (The Emites used to live there, a people great and many, as tall as the Anakites.
- Deuteronomy 2:21 They were a people great and many, as tall as the Anakites. But the LORD destroyed them from before the Ammonites, who drove them out and settled in their place,
- Deuteronomy 3:11 (For only Og king of Bashan had remained of the remnant of the Rephaim. His bed of iron, nine cubits long and four cubits wide, is still in Rabbah of the Ammonites.)
- Deuteronomy 9:2 The people are strong and tall, the descendants of the Anakim. You know about them, and you have heard it said, “Who can stand up to the sons of Anak?”