Question:
First, who exactly killed Goliath?

Answer:
David killed Goliath.

1 Samuel 17:49-51 "And David put his hand in his bag, and took thence a stone, and slang it, and smote the Philistine in his forhead, that the stone sunk into his forhead; and he fell upon his face to the earth. So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and smote the Philistine, and slew him; but there was no sword in the hand of David. Therefore David ran, and stood upon the Philistine, and took his sword, and drew it out of the sheath thereof, and slew him, and cut off his head therewith. And when the Philistines saw their champion was dead, they fled."

Question:
2 Sa. 21:19, KJV, says Elhanan killed the brother of Goliath. when I return to the hebrew, it simply says that Elhanan killed Goliath, period. What do you think?

Answer:
What you say is true, but is not the whole story. To see it, we must go to more than one place in the Bible.

To begin with, David, just before the fight with Goliath, went to the stream and picked up five smooth stones

1 Samuel 17:40 "And he took his staff in his hand, and chose him five smooth stones out of the brook, and put them in a shepherd's bag which he had. . . . . . "

These stones are not the little pebbles that you may be thinking of; Archaeological findings show these type stones were from two and one half inches to three and one half inches in diameter. About the size of a baseball. The sling is so deadly that there have been whole armies who used nothing but the sling.

We have to ask, Why five stones? The answer is given to us in the Bible, Goliath had four sons, and although David was prepared for them, Goliath's sons did not come out that day. Goliath's sons were killed in later battles by the servants of David.

Now we can return to 2 Samuel 21:19 where it says in the KJV that Elhjanan killed the brother of Goliath.

2 Samuel 21:19 "And there was again a battle in Gob with the Philistines, where Elhanam the son of Jaareoregim, a Bethlehemite, slew the brother of Goliath the Gittite. . . . . "

We must make note that when you look at this verse in the KJV that you will see that the words "the brother of" is in Italics, which is telling you that the words were not in the Hebrew at this place, and was added by the translators for your understanding of the sense and meaning of the verse. The Hebrew Word for Word translation gives it the following way.

Hebrew 2 Samuel 21:19 "And was again the war in Gob with the Philistines; and struck Elhjanan the son of Jaareoregim the Behhlehemite Goliath the Gittie . . . . . . "

Why then did the translators of the KJV add the words "the brother of" ahead of the name "Goliath"?? The answer is in 1 Chronicles 20:5 "And there was war again with the Philistines; and Elhanan the son of Jair slew Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite, . . . . ."

The Hebrew Word for Word translation for 1 Chronicles 20:5 reads "And was again a battle with the Philistines; and struck Elhanan the son of Jair Lahmi, the brother of Goliath the Gittite . . . ."

We now have the name of the brother of Goliath who was slain by Elhanan. We can see that the one that Elhanan killed in 2 Samuel 21:19 and in 1 Chronicles 20:5 are the same person. (1 Chronicles 20 list only three of Goliath's sons.)

So we see that the KJV translators did not just invent this, and did not insert it in 2 Samuel 21:19 just for the fun of it. They put it in there so that you would not have to remember what 1 Chronicles 20:5 said. It is a true statement which helps us to understand, instead of being misled, by the Hebrew statement "slew Goliath" in 2 Samuel 21:19. No language can be reliably translated from one language to another by only a word for word translation, additional words must be added just for some verses to make sense. But remember that the KJV translators always showed the words that they added in Italics. There is no other bible version which does that even though they all add words.

There is another point which many miss. The statement in 2 Samuel 21:22 in speaking of the four giants killed in the above verses, that they were "These four were born to the giant in Gath, and fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants." These four are the sons of Goliath, all four are sons of Goliath. But wait, doesn't it say that one of these four sons is a brother of Goliath? It sure does. So one of Goliath's sons is also Goliath's brother. Goliath had relations with his mother to produce a child who was both a son and a brother to Goliath.

So from all the above, we find that David killed Goliath, (And fell by the hand of David), and the servants of David killed the sons of Goliath, (and by the hand of his servants.).

This is what I think, this is what I believe, because the Word of God says so in the Bible.

May God Lead You into All of His Truth

Rev. Jack Barr