302. Small Golden Shields
• 1 min. read • grade level: 8
These shields were of a smaller size than those referred to in the sixteenth verse. The Hebrew magen is in some places rendered “buckler” (2 Sam. 22:3131As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the Lord is tried: he is a buckler to all them that trust in him. (2 Samuel 22:31); 2 Chron. 23:99Moreover Jehoiada the priest delivered to the captains of hundreds spears, and bucklers, and shields, that had been king David's, which were in the house of God. (2 Chronicles 23:9)) and, on the other hand, buckler is sometimes the rendering of tsinnah. See note on 1 Samuel 17:77And 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. (1 Samuel 17:7) (#253). While, however, the two words are thus interchanged by the translators, there was an essential difference in the size and weight of the two objects represented by them. The tsinnah, in verse 16, was for heavy troops, and was large enough to protect the entire person; while the magen, in this verse, was a shield which only protected a part of the person, could be carried on the arm, and was used by light troops. See also 2 Chronicles 9:1616And three hundred shields made he of beaten gold: three hundred shekels of gold went to one shield. And the king put them in the house of the forest of Lebanon. (2 Chronicles 9:16).