Javelin

Boyd’s Bible Dictionary:

A short, light spear
[ARMS.]

Concise Bible Dictionary:

1. chanith, a light, flexible spear, and often translated “spear” (1 Sam. 18:10-11; 1 Sam. 19:9-10; 1 Sam. 20:33).
2. romach, spear or lance used by heavy-armed troops (Num. 25:7).

“252. Greaves Javelin” From Manners and Customs of the Bible:

1 Samuel 17:6. He had greaves of brass upon his legs, and a target of brass between his shoulders.
1. Greaves were coverings for the legs. There are none represented on the Egyptian monuments, but they are seen on the Assyrian sculptures. They were of leather, wood, or, as in the case of Goliath, of brass, and were bound by thongs around the calves and above the ankles.
2. Kidon, here rendered “target,” is translated by the word “shield” in verse 45 of this chapter, and in Job 39:23; “spear” in Joshua 8:18, 26; Job 41:29; Jeremiah 6:23; and “lance” in Jeremiah 50:42. It was probably a light javelin, which could be easily hurled at an enemy. Some suppose it to have been decorated with a flag, like the lances of the Polish lancers. It would seem from this verse that when not in actual use it was carried on the back; for this is the meaning of “between the shoulders.” It was probably slung across he shoulders by means of a leathern strap.

“260. Fleeing From the Dart” From Manners and Customs of the Bible:

1 Samuel 19:10. Saul sought to smite David even to the wall with the javelin; but he slipped away out of Saul’s presence, and he smote the javelin into the wall: and David fled, and escaped that night.
According to an ancient Asiatic custom, when a dart was thrown at a freedman, and he escaped from it by flight, he was thereby absolved from all allegiance to his master. Thus Saul by his murderous fury gave complete liberty to David, whose subsequent acts of war against the king could not be considered rebellion. From that hour he was no longer a subject of King Saul (See Kitto's Cyclopoedia of Biblical Literature, vol.1, p. 225).

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