{"id":61038,"date":"2019-08-13T13:41:51","date_gmt":"2019-08-13T10:41:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=61038"},"modified":"2023-03-06T11:25:59","modified_gmt":"2023-03-06T09:25:59","slug":"beware-the-polydactyl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/beware-the-polydactyl\/","title":{"rendered":"Beware the Polydactyl!"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[893,434],"acf":{"old_id":"61038","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34243,"related_cahpter":"284","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"(not to be confused with a pterodactyl!)\r\nAnd three other giants, Ishbi Benob, Saph, and none other than Goliath Jr.\r\n","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The second half of this chapter (vs. 15-22) describes the encounters between the Davidic forces and four truly outstanding Philistine opponents: the children of Rafah. Assuming that R-P-H is identical with R-P-\u2018, these are four of the race of giants (the Septuagint translates Refa\u2019im as either <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">gigantes<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> or <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">titanon<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">) that we have already encountered on a number of previous occasions, ranging from Og, King of Bashan to Goliath of Gat. Let us look at each of the four escapades.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the first (16-17), Ishbi Benob, \u201cwhose spear was three hundred shekels of brass in weight,\u201d was taken down by the combined efforts of David and Avishai. Second, a giant named Saph was slain by a warrior named Sibkhai of Hushat. Third, Goliath the Gittite (likely named for the earlier Philistine hero to whom, by virtue of his size, he was probably related), \u201cthe staff of whose spear was like a weaver&#8217;s beam,\u201d was slain by a Bethlehemite named Elchanan whose father\u2019s name is given as Ya`rei Orgim, which can fairly be translated into Hebrew as a weaver\u2019s (<\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">orgim<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">) beam (<\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ya`ar<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">=forest=tree=beam).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The fourth matchup, featured in the title of these remarks, pitted David\u2019s own nephew <em>Yehonatan <\/em>(named for\u2026?) against an anonymous giant of whom we have but a key physical description: \u201cHe had six fingers on every hand, and six toes on every foot, twenty four [digits] in number\u201d (20). Poly (many) dactyly (finger\u2014related to digital) is a congenital variance that occurs in 1 of every 3,000 births and can be resolved through surgery. One assumes that in this case it added to the fearsome appearance of the otherwise anonymous giant.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Without treating additional specifics, there is, nevertheless, a significant overall observation to be made here; namely, the mere fact that there were four such giants. As we have noted previously (see our comments to Joshua 14 and 15), Hebron was also known as Kiryat Arba because it was settled (originally?) by four giants named Anaq, Achiman, Sheishai, and Talmai. Either giants come naturally in groups of four (there were 12 Titans, who could have been grouped by fours), or it is just a coincidence. Take your pick.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","image":{"ID":61039,"id":61039,"title":"2sam21-polydactyl","filename":"2sam21-polydactyl.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam21-polydactyl.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/beware-the-polydactyl\/2sam21-polydactyl\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"2sam21-polydactyl","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":61038,"date":"2019-08-13 10:41:32","modified":"2019-08-13 10:41:44","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1220,"height":460,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam21-polydactyl-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam21-polydactyl-300x113.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":113,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam21-polydactyl-768x290.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":290,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam21-polydactyl-1024x386.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":386,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam21-polydactyl.jpg","1536x1536-width":1220,"1536x1536-height":460,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam21-polydactyl.jpg","2048x2048-width":1220,"2048x2048-height":460,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam21-polydactyl-1200x452.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":452,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam21-polydactyl-1114x420.jpg","home_baner-width":1114,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"Beware the Polydactyl!","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"And three other giants, Ishbi Benob, Saph, and none other than Goliath Jr.","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":{"ID":61039,"id":61039,"title":"2sam21-polydactyl","filename":"2sam21-polydactyl.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam21-polydactyl.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/beware-the-polydactyl\/2sam21-polydactyl\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"2sam21-polydactyl","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":61038,"date":"2019-08-13 10:41:32","modified":"2019-08-13 10:41:44","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1220,"height":460,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam21-polydactyl-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam21-polydactyl-300x113.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":113,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam21-polydactyl-768x290.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":290,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam21-polydactyl-1024x386.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":386,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam21-polydactyl.jpg","1536x1536-width":1220,"1536x1536-height":460,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam21-polydactyl.jpg","2048x2048-width":1220,"2048x2048-height":460,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam21-polydactyl-1200x452.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":452,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam21-polydactyl-1114x420.jpg","home_baner-width":1114,"home_baner-height":420}},"preview_video":"","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"links":false,"send_noty":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61038"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61038"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61038\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":113293,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61038\/revisions\/113293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}