SEV Biblia, Chapter 17:6
Y sobre sus piernas traía grebas de hierro, y un escudo de acero a sus hombros.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - 1 Samuel 17:6
Verse 6. Greaves of brass upon his legs] This species of armour may be seen on many ancient monuments. It was a plate of brass (though perhaps sometimes formed of laminae or plates, like the mail) which covered the shin or fore part of the leg, from the knee down to the instep, and was buckled with straps behind the leg. From ancient monuments we find that it was commonly worn only on one leg. VEGETIUS, de Revelation Militari, says, Pedites Scutati etiam ferreas ocreas in dextris cruribus copebantur accipere. "The foot soldiers, called Scutati, from their particular species of shield, were obliged to use iron greaves on their right legs." One of these may be seen in the monument of the gladiator Buto, in Montfaucon; and another in the Mosaic pavement at Bognor, in Surrey. A target of brass between his shoulders.] When not actually engaged, soldiers threw their shields behind their back, so that they appeared to rest or hang between the shoulders.
There are different opinions concerning this piece of armour, called here wdyk kidon. Some think it was a covering for the shoulders; others, that it was a javelin or dart; others, that it was a lance; some, a club; and others, a sword. It is certainly distinguished from the shield, ver. 41, and is translated a spear, Joshua viii. 18.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 6. And he had greaves of brass upon his legs , etc.] Which were a sort of boots, or leg harnesses, which covered the thighs and legs down to the heels; such as Iolaus and the Grecians usually wore, as described by Homer; which are supposed to be double the weight of the helmet, reckoned at fifteen pounds, so that these must weigh thirty pounds of avoirdupois weight: and a target of brass between his shoulders ; the Targum is, “a spear or shield of brass, which came out of the helmet, and a weight of brass upon his shoulders.”
Jarchi says the same, and that it was in the form of a spear to defend the neck from the sword; it seems to be a corslet of brass, worn between the helmet and the coat of mail for the defence of the neck, supposed to weigh thirty pounds f354 Ver. 7 . And the staff of his spear was like a weaver’s beam , etc.] The wooden part of it, held in the hand; this for thickness was like the beam in the weaver’s loom, about which the warp, or else the web, is rolled; and it is conjectured that, in proportion to the stature of Goliath, his spear must be twenty six feet long, since Hector’s in Homer was eleven cubits, or sixteen feet and a half: and his spear’s head weighed six hundred shekels of iron ; the iron part of the spear, the point of it, which has its name in Hebrew from a flame of fire, because when brandished it looks shining and flaming; and being the weight of six hundred shekels, amounted to eighteen pounds and three quarters of avoirdupois weight, and the whole spear is supposed to weigh thirty seven pounds and a half; and the whole of this man’s armour is thought to weigh two hundred and seventy two pounds, thirteen ounces f356 ; which was a prodigious weight for a man to carry, and go into battle with; and one may well wonder how he could be able with such a weight about him to move and lay about in an engagement; though this is nothing in comparison of the weight some men have carried. Pliny tells us that he saw one Athanatus come into the theatre clothed with a leaden breastplate of five hundred pounds weight, and shod with buskins of the same weight: and one bearing a shield went before him ; which when engaged in battle he held in his own hand, and his sword in the other; the former was reckoned at thirty pounds, and the latter at four pounds, one ounce; though one would think he had no occasion for a shield, being so well covered with armour all over; so that the carrying of it before him might be only a matter of form and state. His spear is the only piece of armour that was of iron, all the rest were of brass; and Hesiod f358 , writing of the brazen age, says, their arms and their houses were all of brass, for then there was no iron; and so Lucretius affirms that the use of brass was before iron; but both are mentioned together, (see Gill on “ Genesis 4:22”), hence Mars is called calceov arhv f360 .
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 1-11 - Men so entirely depend upon God in all things, that when he withdraw his help, the most valiant and resolute cannot find their hearts of hands, as daily experience shows.
Original Hebrew
ומצחת 4697 נחשׁת 5178 על 5921 רגליו 7272 וכידון 3591 נחשׁת 5178 בין 996 כתפיו׃ 3802
