1 Samuel 17:5

17:5 He had a bronze helmet on his head and was wearing scale body armor. The weight of his bronze body armor was five thousand shekels. ¹ 

1 Samuel 17:58

17:58 Saul said to him, “Whose son are you, young man?” David replied, “I am the son of your servant Jesse in Bethlehem.” ² 

Isaiah 59:17

59:17 He wears his desire for justice ³  like body armor, ⁴ 

and his desire to deliver is like a helmet on his head. ⁵ 

He puts on the garments of vengeance ⁶ 

and wears zeal like a robe.

Isaiah 59:1

Injustice Brings Alienation from God

59:1 Look, the Lord’s hand is not too weak ⁷  to deliver you;

his ear is not too deaf to hear you. ⁸ 

Isaiah 5:8

Disaster is Coming

5:8 Those who accumulate houses are as good as dead, ⁹ 

those who also accumulate landed property ¹⁰ 

until there is no land left, ¹¹ 

and you are the only landowners remaining within the land. ¹² 

[17:5]  ¹ sn Although the exact weight of Goliath’s defensive body armor is difficult to estimate in terms of modern equivalency, it was obviously quite heavy. Driver, following Kennedy, suggests a modern equivalent of about 220 pounds (100 kg); see S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topography of the Books of Samuel, 139. Klein, taking the shekel to be equal to .403 ounces, arrives at a somewhat smaller weight of about 126 pounds (57 kg); see R. W. Klein, 1 Samuel (WBC), 175. But by any estimate it is clear that Goliath presented himself as a formidable foe indeed.

[17:58]  ² map For location see Map5 B1; Map7 E2; Map8 E2; Map10 B4.

[59:17]  ³ tn Or “righteousness” (KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); NCV “goodness.”

[59:17]  ⁴ tn Or “a breastplate” (traditional; so many English versions); TEV “a coat of armour.”

[59:17]  ⁵ tn Heb “and [as] a helmet deliverance on his head.”

[59:17]  ⁶ tn Heb “and he puts on the clothes of vengeance [as] a garment.”

[59:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “short” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[59:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “or his ear too heavy [i.e., “dull”] to hear.”

[5:8]  ⁹ tn Heb “Woe [to] those who make a house touch a house.” The exclamation הוֹי (hoy, “woe, ah”) was used in funeral laments (see 1 Kgs 13:30; Jer 22:18; 34:5) and carries the connotation of death.

[5:8]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “[who] bring a field near a field.”

[5:8]  ¹¹ tn Heb “until the end of the place”; NASB “until there is no more room.”

[5:8]  ¹² tn Heb “and you are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land.”