(5) A coat of mail.--More accurately, breastplate of scales. This armour has been sometimes understood as "chain armour," but it is more probable that the Philistine armour was made of metal scales, like those of a fish, whose defensive coat was, no doubt, imitated at a very early date by this warlike race, who dwelt on the sea-shore, and whose life and worship were so closely connected with the great sea. This coat of mail, or corselet, was flexible, and covered the back and sides of the wearer. The weight of the different pieces of the giant's panoply largely exceeds the weight of mediaeval suits of armour.
17:1-11 Men so entirely depend upon God in all things, that when he withdraws his help, the most valiant and resolute cannot find their hearts or hands, as daily experience shows.
And he had an helmet of brass upon his head,.... This was a piece of armour, which covered the head in the day of battle; these were usually made of the skins of beasts, of leather, and which were covered with plates of iron, or brass; and sometimes made of all iron, or of brass (g); as this seems to have been:
and he was armed with a coat of mail; which reached from the neck to the middle, and consisted of various plates of brass laid on one another, like the scales of fishes (h), so close together that no dart or arrow could pierce between:
and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of brass: which made one hundred and fifty six pounds and a quarter of zygostatic or avoirdupois weight; and therefore he must be a very strong man indeed to carry such a weight. So the armour of the ancient Romans were all of brass, as this man's; their helmets, shields, greaves, coats of mail, all of brass, as Livy says (i); and so in the age of the Grecian heroes (j).
(g) Vid. Lydium "de re militari": l. 3. c. 5. p. 63. (h) "----Rutilum thoraca indutus anis Horrebat squamis----" Virgil. Aeneid. l. 11. (i) Hist. l. 1. c. 22. (j) Pausan. Messenica, l. 3. p. 163. So Homer frequently describes the Grecians with a coat of mail of brass.
and he was armed with a coat of mail; which reached from the neck to the middle, and consisted of various plates of brass laid on one another, like the scales of fishes (h), so close together that no dart or arrow could pierce between:
and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of brass: which made one hundred and fifty six pounds and a quarter of zygostatic or avoirdupois weight; and therefore he must be a very strong man indeed to carry such a weight. So the armour of the ancient Romans were all of brass, as this man's; their helmets, shields, greaves, coats of mail, all of brass, as Livy says (i); and so in the age of the Grecian heroes (j).
(g) Vid. Lydium "de re militari": l. 3. c. 5. p. 63. (h) "----Rutilum thoraca indutus anis Horrebat squamis----" Virgil. Aeneid. l. 11. (i) Hist. l. 1. c. 22. (j) Pausan. Messenica, l. 3. p. 163. So Homer frequently describes the Grecians with a coat of mail of brass.