Spears

Boyd’s Bible Dictionary:

(spar). In general, a wooden staff with a sharp metallic head. Some were light for throwing, others long and heavy for attack either by footmen or horsemen (1 Sam. 13:22; 17:7; 26:7; 2 Sam. 2:23).

Concise Bible Dictionary:

See ARMS.

“253. Spear Large Shield.” From Manners and Customs of the Bible:

1 Samuel 17:7 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. The chanith, “spear,” was a heavier weapon than the kidon. See preceding note. The word is rendered both “spear,” and “javelin.” It was the chanith with which Saul endeavored to strike David (1 Sam. 18:10-11; 19:9-10) and which at another time he aimed at Jonathan (1 Sam. 20:33). This heavy spear had at its lower extremity a point by which it could be stuck into the ground. It was in this way that the position of Saul was naked while he lay sleeping in the camp at Hachilah, his spear being his standard (1 Sam. 26:7). This lower point of the spear was almost as formidable as the head. The Arab riders of today sometimes use it to strike backward at pursuers, and it was with this “hinder end of the spear” that Abner killed Asahel (2 Sam. 2:23). The size of Goliath’s chanith, is expressed by the description of the staff and of the head; the latter being of iron, in contrast to the brass head of his kidon, and to his brazen helmet, cuirass, and greaves. See also note on Jeremiah 46:4 (#555).
2. The tsinnah, “shield,” was the largest kind of shield, and was designed to protect the whole body. This shield, as represented on the Egyptian monuments, was about five feet high, with a pointed arch above and square below. The great shield of the Assyrians, as is shown by their sculptures, was taller, and of an oblong shape, and sometimes had at the top an inward curve. The large shields were generally made of wicker work or of light wood covered with hides. They were grasped by a handle of wood or of leather. Goliath had man to bear his great shield before him. In the Assyrian sculptures there are representations of warriors fighting in this manner, with men before them holding the large shields, with the bottom resting on the ground, thus forming movable breastworks. The great shields of the Philistines seem to have been of circular shape.
The beauty of the figure used in Psalm 5:12 is heightened by the fact that the tsinnah is the shield there spoken of. The Lord uses the great buckler for the protection of his people.

“555. Spears Scale Armor” From Manners and Customs of the Bible:

Jeremiah 46:4. Furbish the spears and put on the brigandines.
1. Romach is rendered “spear” in Judges 5:8 and in several other texts; “javelin,” in Numbers 25:7; “buckler,” in 1 Chronicles 12:8; (in the plural) “lancets,” in 1 Kings 18:28. It is thought to have been a spear used by heavy-armed troops. Colonel Smith, in Kitto’s Cyclopaedia, (s. v. “Arms,”) says, “Probably the shepherd Hebrews, like nations similarly situated in northern Africa, anciently made use of the horn of an onyx, or a leucoryx, above three feet long, straightened in water, and sheathed upon a thorn-wood staff. When sharpened, this instrument would penetrate the hide of a bull, and, according to Strabo, even of an elephant; it was light, very difficult to break, resisted the blow of a battle-ax, and the animals which furnished it were abundant in Arabia and in the desert east of Palestine. At a later period the head was of brass, and afterward of iron.” These horn spears were probably the original type from which the various kinds of spears were subsequently produced. Precisely how the romach differed from the other heavy spear, the chanith (see note on 1 Sam. 17:7, #253) we cannot say.
2. Siryon (“brigandine” in the text, and in Jeremiah 51:3) was a coat of scale armor; the same as shiryon, which is rendered “coat of mail” in 1 Samuel 17:5, where see the note (#251).

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