Who Killed Goliath? David or Elhanan?

Who killed Goliath? David or Elhanan?

1 Samuel 17:50 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. KJV

2 Samuel 21:19 And there was again a battle in Gob with the Philistines, where Elhanan the son of Jaareoregim, a Bethlehemite, slew the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam. KJV

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Here is a contradiction that is often used against the Bible to demonstrate that it has inconsistencies, errors and contradictions. It is also sometimes used by those that wish to argue against the KJV version of the Bible.  

If you ask most Jews or Christians and I expect almost anyone that has sat through any kind of theology class, who killed Goliath, I would hazard a guess, that the vast majority will answer that David killed Goliath,  and as we can see, in the first of the verses found in 1 Samuel, David is clearly depicted as having killed Goliath, the giant Philistine. However, in the second verse in 2 Samuel the KJV states that Elhanan killed the BROTHER of Goliath. So there is no contradiction at all, case closed. The Bible does not say that two different people killed Goliath. One verse records David having killed Goliath and the other has Elhanan having killed the Brother of Goliath.

So why is this used to demonstrate that there are contradictions and used against the KJV? Well if we look at the verse closely we see that “the brother of” is actually in Italics in the KJV. This means that those words, which appear in the KJV, do NOT appear in the original Hebrew text. They have been added by the translators of the KJV. The actual Hebrew text reads:

וַתְּהִי־עֹ֧וד הַמִּלְחָמָ֛ה בְּגֹ֖וב עִם־פְּלִשְׁתִּ֑ים וַיַּ֡ךְ אֶלְחָנָן֩ בֶּן־יַעְרֵי֙ אֹרְגִ֜ים בֵּ֣ית הַלַּחְמִ֗י אֵ֚ת גָּלְיָ֣ת הַגִּתִּ֔י וְעֵ֣ץ חֲנִיתֹ֔ו כִּמְנֹ֖ור אֹרְגִֽים׃ ס

(And there was again war at Gob with the Philistines and killed where Elhanan son of Jaare-oregim in the Bethlehemite Goliath the Gittite and the shaft of whose spear [was] like a beam of weaver )

There is no “the brother of” in the text.

Many modern versions, just like the KJV,  do include these “added” words, such as: 

The NIV

2 Samuel 21:19 In another battle with the Philistines at Gob, Elhanan son of Jair the Bethlehemite killed the brother of Goliath the Gittite, who had a spear with a shaft like a weaver’s rod. NIV

The NET Bible

2 Samuel 21:19 Yet another battle occurred with the Philistines in Gob. On that occasion Elhanan the son of Jair the Bethlehemite killed the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.

And Young’s literal Bible

2 Samuel 21:19 And the battle is again in Gob with the Philistines, and Elhanan son of Jaare-Oregim, the Beth-Lehemite, smiteth a brother of Goliath the Gittite, and the wood of his spear is like a beam of weavers.

 

The Literal Standard Version has the words “ a brother of” in brackets ( ). 

 

2 Samuel 21:19 And the battle is again in Gob with the Philistines, and Elhanan son of Jaare-Oregim, the Beth-Lehemite, strikes [a brother of] Goliath the Gittite, and the wood of his spear [is] like a weavers’ beam.

 

So this is NOT simply a KJV reading by any means. I will note here that the KJV was the first English version that “added” these words into the text. None of the English translations that preceded the KJV include the words.



However, many modern versions actually do not include these words and so actually read that Elhanan killed Goliath. 

Just a few examples:

The ESV

2 Samuel 21:19 And there was again war with the Philistines at Gob, and Elhanan the son of Jaare-oregim, the Bethlehemite, struck down Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.

 

The NASB

2 Samuel 21:19 And 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’s beam. 

The ISV

2 Samuel 21:19 In yet another battle at Gob, Jaare-oregim the Bethlehemite’s son Elhanan killed Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear resembled that of a weaver’s beam.

Also reading “Elhanan killed Goliath” are the ASV, Brenton’s Septuagint, CEV, Douay-Rheims and NRSV.

Interestingly so does the 1917 JPS Tanakh. 

 

And so it is here, in the modern versions that we find the “contradiction”.  David is said to have killed Goliath in 1 Samuel 17 but then Elhanan is recorded as having killed him in 2 Samuel 21:19. 

Obviously Goliath cannot have been killed by 2 different men in 2 different battles. One of these MUST be incorrect…right? Well maybe not. While I am going to demonstrate that Elhanan did in fact kill the brother of Goliath, there may be a couple of explanations as to why “the brother of” does not actually appear in the Hebrew text of 2 Samuel. 

What I must stress here is that some of the “answers” to this contradiction, cannot be correct. They are not the same story simply told from 2 different viewpoints and neither were there two Goliaths, unlike what some have claimed in order to resolve this supposed contradiction. There was only one Goliath in the Bible. Both these passages reference the same Goliath. And Elhanan is not David. Some have tried to link the two as one person but clearly these are two separate incidents. Another possible answer, usually asserted by Textual Critics, is that there is simply an error in the text at 2 Samuel 21:19. 

Take a look at the footnote in the ESV:

“Contrast 1 Chronicles 20:5, which may preserve the original reading.”

We shall most certainly take a look at this verse in a moment. 

 

One of the world’s leading Christian apologetics websites, GotQuestions.org asserts a scribal error here:

“Why the discrepancy? Why does 2 Samuel 21:19 say that Elhanan killed Goliath? One viable theory is that, somewhere in the chain of copying the text, a scribe made a mistake. The Hebrew word for “the brother of” was miswritten, which changed the grammar of the sentence and led to a problematic sentence structure for the next scribe. The second scribe’s attempt to solve the syntactical puzzle produced a reading that omitted the important detail of Goliath’s brother.”
https://www.gotquestions.org/Goliath-David-Elhanan.html

The site even tells us that “fortunately” we have 1 Chronicles to give us the correct Hebrew wording.

“Fortunately, we have 1 Chronicles 20:5, which contains the correct Hebrew wording and informs us, through implication, that 2 Samuel 21:19 is missing the words the brother of. We can be confident that David killed Goliath. Elhanan later killed Goliath’s brother.”
https://www.gotquestions.org/Goliath-David-Elhanan.html

Matt Slick also claims on his website that the problem here is with a scribal error and that the answer is found in 1 Chronicles 20:5. I shall cite the entire writing of Matt as it is extremely short.

“Was it David or Elhanan who killed Goliath?  Goliath had brothers and Elhanan killed one of them.

1 Samuel 17:50 and 2 Samuel 21:19

1. David did, 1 Samuel 17:50, “Thus David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone, and he struck the Philistine and killed him; but there was no sword in David’s hand.”
2. Elhanan did, 2 Sam. 21:19, “And 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’s beam.”

The answer lies in two areas. 1 Chronicles 20:5 says, “And there was war with the Philistines again, and Elhanan the son of Jair killed Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.” This is the correct answer; namely, that Elhanan killed Goliath’s brother.

Second, it appears there was a copyist error in 2 Samuel 21:19. According to Gleason Archer’s Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties on page 179, it says,

1. The sign of the direct object, which in Chronicles comes just before “Lahmi,” was ‘-t; the copyist mistook it for b-t or b-y-t (“Beth”) and thus got Bet hal-Lahmi (“the Bethlehemite”) out of it.
2. He misread the word for “brother” (‘-h) as the sign of the direct object (‘-t) right before g-l-y-t (“Goliath”). Thus he made “Goliath” the object of “killed” (wayyak), instead of the “brother” of Goliath (as the Chronicles passage does).
3. The copyist misplaced the word for “weavers” (‘-r-g-ym) so as to put it right after “Elhanan” as his patronymic (ben Y-‘-r-y’-r–g-ym, or ben ya ‘arey ‘ore -gim — “the son of the forests of weavers” — a most unlikely name for anyone’s father!). In Chronicles the ‘ore grim (“weavers”) comes right after menor (“a beam of “) — thus making perfectly good sense.

Therefore, we see that 2 Samuel 21:19 had a copyist error and 1 Chronicles 20:5 has the correct information.”
https://carm.org/bible-difficulties/who-killed-goliath-david-or-elhanan/

(Thats it Folks)……The entirety of the post…..

 

On the website Biblestudymagazine.com, there is an article written by Dr Michael Heiser where he asserts the likelihood of a scribal error. After outlining the Hebrew text where he claims there are some suspicious readings, Dr Hesier writes:

“Taking these oddities together suggests very strongly that somewhere along the chain of copying the text of 1 Sam 17 one scribe made a mistake in 2 Sam 21:19 that caused a subsequent scribe some trouble. Most likely, we have a situation where a scribe knew he had a defective text and tried to improvise the best way he could.”
https://www.biblestudymagazine.com/extras-1/2014/10/31/clash-of-the-manuscripts-goliath-the-hebrew-text-of-the-old-testament

Dr Heiser continues his assertion regarding the scribal error and the “solution”.

“The solution to the contradiction between 2 Sam 21:19 and 1 Chr 20:5 is recognizing that 2 Sam 21:19 is a defective reading since it is the result of a scribe’s sincere effort to cope with a problematic manuscript. We can account for the oddities in 2 Sam 21:19, by working our way to the precise reading of 1 Chr 20:5. Doing so erases all the contradictions, and so 1 Chr 20:5 should be used to correct 2 Sam 21:19.”
https://www.biblestudymagazine.com/extras-1/2014/10/31/clash-of-the-manuscripts-goliath-the-hebrew-text-of-the-old-testament

It is a good thing that we have these scholars and apologetic sites to give us this kind of argument……..

 

Others have postulated that the textual error is actually found in 1 Chronicles where it has been changed to try and harmonise the texts of 1and 2 Samuel. This idea would seem far less likely as it would be far easier to have simply added “the brother of” in the account of 2 Samuel or, more likely in both 2 Samuel and 1 Chronicles. 

 

I have even seen the claim that “David might not have killed Goliath”. Yes, this really is a claim that is made, and not only is this a claim that is made, but it is made in an article posted on a world famous Jewish religious teaching website called “My Jewish Learning”.

“David might not have killed Goliath. David is perhaps best known for fighting and killing the giant and Philistine champion Goliath with a slingshot — a suitably awesome feat for the future king of Israel — but the Bible betrays some doubt about who deserves the credit. The Second Book of Samuel states that it was a man named Elhanan, rather than David, who bested the Philistine giant.”
https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/fourteen-things-you-need-to-know-about-king-david/

A site for learning about things Jewish and specifically the Old Testament (Tanakh) actually stating that David may not have killed Goliath. This one really shocked me. 

 

Rabbi Rashi linked David and Elhanan as being the same person.

“Let David, whose mother wove the dividing curtain for the Temple with a weavers’ beam, slay Goliath, whose spear staff was as thick as a weavers’ beam. Now why does Scripture call him Elhanan? Because God favored him”
Rabbi Rashi on 1 Chronicles 20:5

Targum Jonathan on 2 Samuel 21:19 has David not Elhanan having killed Goliath.

וַהֲוַת עוֹד קְרָבָא בְּגוֹב עִם פְּלִשְׁתָּאֵי וּקְטַל דָוִד בַּר יִשַׁי מְחֵי פָּרוֹכֶת בֵּית מַקְדְשָׁא דְמִבֵּית לֶחֶם יַת גָלְיַת גִתָּאָה וְאָעָא דְמוּרְנִיתֵיהּ כְאַכְסַן דְגַרְדָאִין:
Hebrew text of Targum Jonathon on 2 Samuel 21:19 (David in Blue Bold)

Before we try to answer this “contradiction” let’s just demonstrate that these possibilities are incorrect.

We can do this simply by looking at the context of the passages. 

We shall start with the passage in 2 Samuel where Elhanan is said to have killed Goliath.

2 Samuel 21:15 Moreover the Philistines had yet war again with Israel; and David went down, and his servants with him, and fought against the Philistines: and David waxed faint.

So here we have clear attestation that there was ANOTHER war between the Philistines and Israel. There was not just 1 war, the war where David killed Goliath. There, in fact, were many wars between the Philistines and Israel. This particular war was in Gob as clearly stated in verse 19. 

In this verse we also have the added information that David and his SERVANTS with him, went to fight against the Philistines. This obviously cannot be the same battle as the one in which David killed Goliath with the stone as David at that time had no servants. He was not yet King when he fought Goliath. 

Saul was the King when the Philistines along with Goliath came against Israel. Saul sent out David to fight Golith on behalf of Israel.

1 Samuel 17:31 And when the words were heard which David spake, they rehearsed them before Saul: and he sent for him. 32 And David said to Saul, Let no man’s heart fail because of him; thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine. 33 And Saul said to David, Thou art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him: for thou art but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth. 34 And David said unto Saul, Thy servant kept his father’s sheep, and there came a lion, and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock: 35 And I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth: and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him. 36 Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear: and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God. 37 David said moreover, The LORD that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said unto David, Go, and the LORD be with thee.




However, at the time of the war depicted in 2 Samuel 19, David had become King. This is recorded in chapter 5 of 2 Samuel.

2 Samuel 5:1Then came all the tribes of Israel to David unto Hebron, and spake, saying, Behold, we are thy bone and thy flesh. 2 Also in time past, when Saul was king over us, thou wast he that leddest out and broughtest in Israel: and the LORD said to thee, Thou shalt feed my people Israel, and thou shalt be a captain over Israel. 3 So all the elders of Israel came to the king to Hebron; and king David made a league with them in Hebron before the LORD: and they anointed David king over Israel. 4 David was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years. 5 In Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months: and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty and three years over all Israel and Judah.

 

Also, the war in 1 Samuel did not take place in Gob.

1 Samuel 17: 1 Now the Philistines gathered together their armies to battle, and were gathered together at Shochoh, which belongeth to Judah, and pitched between Shochoh and Azekah, in Ephesdammim. 2 And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together, and pitched by the valley of Elah, and set the battle in array against the Philistines. 3 And the Philistines stood on a mountain on the one side, and Israel stood on a mountain on the other side: and there was a valley between them.

The war in 2 Samuel comes not long after King David was restored back as King which we find in chapter 19 of 2 Samuel.

2 Samuel 19:11 And king David sent to Zadok and to Abiathar the priests, saying, Speak unto the elders of Judah, saying, Why are ye the last to bring the king back to his house? seeing the speech of all Israel is come to the king, even to his house. 12 Ye are my brethren, ye are my bones and my flesh: wherefore then are ye the last to bring back the king? 13 And say ye to Amasa, Art thou not of my bone, and of my flesh? God do so to me, and more also, if thou be not captain of the host before me continually in the room of Joab. 14 And he bowed the heart of all the men of Judah, even as the heart of one man; so that they sent this word unto the king, Return thou, and all thy servants. 15 So the king returned, and came to Jordan. And Judah came to Gilgal, to go to meet the king, to conduct the king over Jordan.

 

There is no denying that these are not the same events depicted in 2 different ways. They are identifiably different wars.  One before David had become king and one after. As they are two separate and distinct events, there is no reason, nor need, unlike Rabbi Rashi to link Elhanan to David in order to make these two records of the death of Goliath,  the same death of Goliath. As Elhanan is identifiably a different person from King David, this line of reasoning is ultimately futile anyway. 

Of course, Elhanan is never called King.

Elhanan was the son of Jaareoregim

2 Samuel 21:19 And there was again a battle in Gob with the Philistines, where Elhanan the son of Jaareoregim, a Bethlehemite, slew the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam. 

King David’s father was Jesse:

1 Samuel 17:12 Now David was the son of that Ephrathite of Bethlehemjudah, whose name was Jesse; and he had eight sons: and the man went among men for an old man in the days of Saul. 

As for the assertion that there are in fact 2 Goliaths, one killed by David and another by Elhanan, this just does not have any biblical support. It is an assertion that is made, in order to try and explain the contradiction.

It was the understanding of Rabbi Rashi

“I believe that Goliath the Gittite is not identical with Goliath the Philistine. “
Rabbi Rashi on 1 Chronicles 20:5

The fact, however, is that there was one Goliath and the Bible attests to such.

An important piece of information in the passage in 2 Samuel is that Goliath is referred to as Goliath the Gittite.

2 Samuel 21:19 And there was again a battle in Gob with the Philistines, where Elhanan the son of Jaareoregim, a Bethlehemite, slew the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.

A Gittite was a person from the city of Gath, a Philistine city. This is shown in 2 Samuel 15:18

2 Samuel 15:18 And all his servants passed on beside him; and all the Cherethites, and all the Pelethites, and all the Gittites, six hundred men which came after him from Gath, passed on before the king.

Goliath is also called a Gittite in the verse in 1 Chronicles.

1 Chronicles 20:5 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’s beam.

 

Goliath is specifically stated as having been from Gath in 1 Samuel 17

1 Samuel 17:4 And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span.

 

All 3 passages attest to the same thing. They are without doubt a reference to the same Goliath. Goliath the Gittite from the city of Gath.

When there is more than one person with a specific name, the Bible will distinguish between them. Just take the name Mary for an example.  There are a number of Mary’s depicted in the New Testament.


We have Mary, the Mother of Jesus, or his mother Mary:

Matthew 1:18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.

Luke 2:34 And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary his mother, Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against

Acts 1: 14 These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.

Then we have Mary Magdalene

Mark 16:9 Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils.

Also Mary, the mother of James the less and Joses:

Mark 15:40 There were also women looking on afar off: among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses, and Salome

 

All have distinguishing names that allow us to know that there are in fact several Mary’s and that they are not all the same Mary. 

The other way the Bible will differentiate between different people with the same name is to call them the son of, and then name their father or mother. 

We do not find this in the case of Goliath. 

It is highly unlikely that there were actually two Goliaths, both from Gath but the Bible does not distinguish between them. 

The final piece of information given in each text that demonstrates that there is only one Goliath is the reference to his spear, which is described as being like a weaver’s beam. 

1 Samuel 17:7 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

2 Samuel 21:19 And there was again a battle in Gob with the Philistines, where Elhanan the son of Jaareoregim, a Bethlehemite, slew the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam

1 Chronicles 20:5 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 Hebrew reads exactly the same in all 3 verses (spear like a weavers beam)
חֲנִיתֹ֗ו כִּמְנֹור֙ אֹֽרְגִ֔ים

 

Again, it is highly unlikely that there are two different Goliaths both being described as having such a spear.

Rather I would argue that the reason such information is given is to explicitly demonstrate that there are not two Goliaths but rather they are the one and same giant.

 

So now we need to demonstrate that Elhanan did, in fact, kill the brother of Goliath, not literally Goliath himself. 

 

Luckily the Bible actually records this fact elsewhere. We find this information in 1 Chronicles 20:5, where we not only find that Elhanan killed Goliath’s brother, but also that the brother is actually named Lahmi.

1 Chronicles 20:5 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.

What is important here is that “Lahmi the brother of” IS part of the Hebrew text in this verse. 

וַתְּהִי־עֹ֥וד מִלְחָמָ֖ה אֶת־פְּלִשְׁתִּ֑ים וַיַּ֞ךְ אֶלְחָנָ֣ן בֶּן־ [יָעוּר כ] (יָעִ֗יר ק) אֶת־לַחְמִי֙ אֲחִי֙ גָּלְיָ֣ת הַגִּתִּ֔י וְעֵ֣ץ חֲנִיתֹ֔ו כִּמְנֹ֖ור אֹרְגִֽים

(And there was again war with the Philistines and killed Elhanan the son of Jair Jair Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite and the shaft of whose spear [was] like a beam of weaver)

The words are included in the Hebrew and form part of the text. There is no “adding” here. 

Every single one of the modern versions that exclude the words “the brother of” in 2 Samuel 21:19 include the words here (Douay- Rheims and NET bible exclude the name Lahmi) 

 

The Bible then gives us clear attestation that Elhanan killed the brother of Goliath, the brothers name being Lahmi.

So obviously we should now ask WHY does 2 Samuel 21:19 not include the words “the brother of “ in 2 Samuel 21:19.

There are actually 2 reasons for this, both are probably correct and both answer the supposed contradiction that we have already seen is answered in 1 Chronicles 20:5. 

Reason 2 is in no way affected by reason 1 and can work along with that reason. Reason 1 is also not dependent on reason 2 and can work even if reason 2 was, in fact, incorrect.

 

Reason 1

Hebrew is an elliptical language. This means that information is often implied within a text that may not be specifically stated within it. English is not an elliptical language and so, this is not the case in English and information that is implied in the Hebrew is required to be “added” in the English translation for the English to make sense.

The Hebrew text has already depicted David as having killed Goliath. It should automatically be understood that 2 Samuel 21:19 is not directly referring to the killing of the actual Goliath. The Hebrew text of 2 Samuel 21:19 should not be read as Elhanan having directly killed Goliath who had already been killed by David. The elliptical implication of just who Elhanan had actually killed is supplied in the passage in 1 Chronicles 20 and so is not needed in the Hebrew whereas in the English it is required and so this is why we find it added to the English text. The English text simply explains what is already understood in the Hebrew text. And this now directly leads us on to reason 2

 

Reason 2 

If the Hebrew text of 2 Samuel 21:19 should not be understood to have directly been Goliath, but rather his brother there is yet another explanation as to why the Hebrew does not include the name of the brother of Goliath, even though 1 Chronicles does include it. 

A number of assumptions do have to be made, but when we understand the way in which family, inheritance and lineage was passed on in ancient times, it is at least a plausible explanation. 

If Goliath was the elder brother,  when he died his family inheritance, and name, would have passed down to his brother who would have continued on this name. If Lahmi was the last remaining brother, when Lahmi was killed by Elhanan, Elhanan killed the family name of Goliath, and so in essence, “killed” Goliath.

We see the Bible referring to a person when a family inheritance or lineage is in reference, throughout the Bible.

For another example of this see my writing on How old was Ahaziah when he became king 

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