Commentaria in I Regum (I Samuelis)
4. AND THERE WENT OUT A MAN BASEBORN.—Instead of “baseborn” the Hebrew is benaim, which first Vatablus, Pagninus, Marinus and the Rabbis render, between two armies, as if to say, an intermediary, a go-between of the duel, who namely would place himself in the middle between the two armies of the Hebrews and Philistines, and challenge the Hebrews to a duel to be entered upon with him.
Secondly, others render benaim, like two; for Goliath was equal to two, as well in size as in strength. Whence the Septuagint render: dynatos, that is, mighty.
Thirdly, rightly does our version render, baseborn, for benaim, being a dual, is word for word the same as between two, namely conceived between two fathers, whose father, namely, is uncertain; who of old was called S. P., that is, sine patre, without a father, namely a certain one; and therefore spurius, says Sigonius from Plutarch in the Roman Names. For because the stolen loves of fornicators are wont to be vehement and ardent, they therefore pour out themselves and all that is theirs in generation, and beget giants and monsters. For this was the cause of the origin of the giants, as I said on Genesis 6. Hear St. Isidore, book 9 of the Origins, chap. 5, giving these etymologies of the baseborn: “A nothus is one who is begotten of a noble father and ignoble mother, as of a concubine. This name is Greek, and fails in Latin. Contrary to him is the spurius, who is born of a noble mother and ignoble father. The same, spurius, is begotten of an uncertain father, his mother a widow: as it were the son of the mother only, because the ancients called the female nature spurium, as if from a Greek word for seed, that is, by the name of the seed, not of the father. These also they called Favonian, because certain animals are thought to conceive by drawing in the breath of the west wind. Whence also those who are not of lawful marriage follow the mother rather than the father. In Latin, moreover, spurii, as if outside purity, that is, as if unclean.”
Spurius, then, is said from speirein, that is, to sow, because he has from his father nothing but seed.
Moreover the Rabbis say, or rather feign, that Goliath was sprung from Orpha, David from Ruth. Philo says the same in the Biblical Antiquities; but this is Pseudo-Philo, and Prudentius in the Hamartigenia. See what is said on Ruth chap. 1.
NAMED GOLIATH.—Goliath in Hebrew is the same as galuth, captivity, transmigration, revolution, says Pagninus.
Aptly: for he, taken and slain by David, was the cause that the Philistines his allies were captured and slain by the Hebrews, and so victory and dominion passed and revolved from the Philistines to the Hebrews, the first masters over the Philistines.
WHOSE HEIGHT WAS SIX CUBITS AND A SPAN.—For he was of the race of giants, says Nazianzen, Oration 30, and Philastrius, Heresy 39.
5. AND HE WAS CLOTHED WITH A COAT OF MAIL WITH SCALES.—The Royal [Bible] reads hamata (hooked); but one should read, with the Roman, the Chaldee, Vatablus and Pagninus, squamata, that is, covered and protected with brazen scales, says Vatablus. The Septuagint, however, render hamata, that is, woven of hooks, that is, of little chains, of which Virgil, book 3 of the Aeneid: A coat of mail interlaced with hooks and triple with gold.
Moreover, in 2 Kings 21, 19, Adeodatus the Bethlehemite is said to have smitten Goliath the Gethite, “the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.” Whence the Chaldee, Rabanus, Lyranus, the Gloss and the Rabbis understand David by Adeodatus, so that it is the same history and fight as that described in this chapter.
Better do Josephus, Abulensis, Serarius and others think it to be different, because in 1 Paral. 20, 5, Adeodatus is said to have smitten the brother of Goliath: wherefore as David smote Goliath, so Adeodatus, one of the brave soldiers of David, smote the brother of him who was likewise called Goliath, or at least was called Goliath because in stature and strength, as in pride and boldness, he was like David’s Goliath. So we commonly say of a strong man: That is another Samson, or another Hercules.
7. AND THE SHAFT OF HIS SPEAR WAS LIKE A WEAVER’S BEAM (the Chaldee and Vatablus, like a yoke).—Licia are the threads with which weavers in cloth entwine and weave the warp threads, and that around a thick piece of wood, which from it is called a liciatorium or yoke, because the weavers join the web to it and wind it round it. Whence Ovid, book 6 of the Metamorphoses: “The web is joined to the yoke.”
8. CHOOSE OUT A MAN OF YOU, AND LET HIM COME DOWN AND FIGHT HAND TO HAND.—It is sometimes lawful to turn a war into a duel, when this is done by public authority; that the slaughter of many may be redeemed by the death of one. As the Romans turned the war with the Albans into a duel of the three Horatii with the three Curiatii, triplet brothers on both sides. See the Theologians discoursing on war and duel. But Goliath here unjustly and from arrogance sought this duel, and challenged single Hebrews to it, trusting in his stature, strength and armour, thinking no one could equal or resist him: wherefore God justly laid low his arrogance by David; as often in duels the challengers succumb and are slain by the just judgment of God the avenger. So Radislaus, duke of Curmia, unjustly invading Bohemia, challenged its king St. Wenceslas to a duel; the holy king accepted it, that he might redeem the war by a duel and the danger of the people by his own alone. As he mounted his horse, his adversary saw a spear offered him by an Angel, and himself warned by this heavenly voice: “Do not strike.” At which sight, terrified, he leapt from his horse, fell at the feet of St. Wenceslas, and begged pardon, which the king, mild, readier to spare than to avenge, at once granted. So his Life has it, and Aeneas Sylvius, chap. 15 of Bohemia. Hear St. Ambrose, book 1 of the Duties, chap. 35: “David never made war unless provoked. And so he had prudence as the companion of fortitude in battle. For against Goliath, a man of immense bulk of body, about to fight in single combat, he refused the arms with which he would be burdened; for virtue relies on its own arms rather than on another’s coverings. Then from a distance, that he might strike the harder, he slew the enemy with the blow of a stone: afterwards he never began war except after consulting the Lord. Therefore a victor in all battles up to extreme old age, ready of hand, war being undertaken against the Titans, he mingled as a warrior among fierce bands, eager for glory, careless of safety.”
13. AND HIS THREE ELDEST SONS FOLLOWED SAUL TO THE WAR.—Saul, therefore, had already been freed by David’s harping from the evil spirit: for otherwise he neither would have gone to the battle, nor have sent David away from him.
17. TAKE FOR THY BRETHREN AN EPHI OF PTISAN, etc.
18. AND THESE TEN CHEESES,—that is, as the Chaldee and Vatablus, ten cheeses of milk; for from milk cheeses are curdled into round or square forms, which are called formellae.
Allegorically St. Augustine, sermon 197, which is on David and Goliath, explains this whole chapter and the duel of Christ fighting with the devil: “Isai,” he says, “bore the type of God the Father. Isai sent David to seek his brethren; and God the Father sent His only-begotten, in whose person it is written: I will declare thy name to my brethren. For Christ had come to seek His brethren, when He said: I was not sent but to the sheep that are lost of the house of Israel.” And a little after: “David came, then, with three measures, and ten cheeses, to visit his brethren set in the battle; because Christ was to come with the decalogue of the law and the mystery of the Trinity, to free the human race from the power of the Devil.”