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1 Chronicles 11:23 [NIV] ~ And he struck down an Egyptian who was five cubits tall. Although the Egyptian had a spear like a weaver's rod in his hand, Benaiah went against him with a club. He snatched the spear from the Egyptian's hand and killed him with his own spear.

What is so scary about a spear like a weaver's rod? Why weaver's rod? It seems pretty tame to me.

Yeddu
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The whole description of the spear was intended to convey the following:

  • the iron head weighted 600 shekels (about 7 kg or 16 lb) - more than an ordinary man's spear would weigh
  • the shaft or the spear was as thick as a weaver's beam - a somewhat vague term but helpfully clarified by the LXX in 2 Sam 23:21 as "as the side of a ladder"

Thus, the force of the analogy, ":like a weavers beam", or, "like the side of a ladder" suggests that it was too big and think for an ordinary man to pick up, much less throw! It was very heavy and possibly even too big to stop even with a good shield.

Very scary indeed!

Dottard
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