(8) These ('?l), a rare word, found eight times in the Pentateuch with the article, here only without; perhaps an error of transcription. Samuel, "these four." The chronicler has omitted one giant. (See 1 Chronicles 20:4.)
The giant.--The Rephaite: that is, the clan or tribe of Rephaim. They need not have been brothers.
Verse 8. - These were born unto the giant in Gath. The parallel place reads, "These four,,' etc. The first of the four in view there is not mentioned here. The account is given in 2 Samuel 21:15-17. And as it was in that encounter that David himself played the chief part (though, apparently, it was Abishai who dealt Ishbi-benob the fatal blow in "succouring" David), the notice of it would have seemed necessary to complete fully the sense of the following clauses, "They fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants." Still this, it may justly be argued, may have been the very reason of the form of expression here chosen, coupling David's work and that of his servants. This brief summary in the last verse of this chapter, as also in the last verse of the corresponding chapter, just serves to reveal to us the nexus that bound together the three or four exploits for narration. It consisted in the common descent of the four giant victims.
20:1-8 David's wars. - Though the Lord will severely correct the sins of his believing people, he will not leave them in the hands of their enemies. His assistance will overcome all advantages of number and strength of those that defy his Israel. All that trust in Christ, shall be made more than conquerors through him that loveth them.
The giant.--The Rephaite: that is, the clan or tribe of Rephaim. They need not have been brothers.