Hebrew word · H4500

מָנוֹר

kimnor

loom-beam

Menor occurs only four times, always in this same phrase: 1 Sam 17:7, 2 Sam 21:19, 1 Chr 11:23 and 1 Chr 20:5. Each time it describes the spear of a foreign giant or champion (Goliath, an Egyptian killed by Benaiah, and the Philistine killed by Elhanan).

Appears 4 times in 4 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) beam

1a) beam (carrying the heddles in a loom)

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of 1 Samuel 17:7

Range of meaning

Menor occurs only four times, always in this same phrase: 1 Sam 17:7, 2 Sam 21:19, 1 Chr 11:23 and 1 Chr 20:5. Each time it describes the spear of a foreign giant or champion (Goliath, an Egyptian killed by Benaiah, and the Philistine killed by Elhanan). So it is a fixed, formula-like phrase for a champion's spear. Lexicons (BDB, HALOT) give "beam" or "rod" of a loom, but which part of the loom is not certain. It could be the heavy beam the woven cloth is rolled onto, or the lighter heddle rod, the bar with loops of string that lifts alternate threads.

Against the English

KJV, ESV, BSB and WEB say "weaver's beam," which makes modern readers picture a large timber. NIV's "weaver's rod" is closer to the likely heddle-rod sense. NLT spells out a size reading ("heavy and thick"), which is an interpretation and not in the Hebrew.

How it drifted

"Beam" in modern English suggests a structural timber, like a house beam. That pushes readers toward a size comparison ("his spear was as thick as a tree"), which is only one of the possible readings.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Septuagint renders it mesaklon hyphainontōn, "the cross-bar of weavers." The Vulgate has liciatorium texentium, the leash-rod or heddle-rod of weavers, the bar that holds the loops. In a classic study, Yigael Yadin (PEQ 1955) noted that Aegean and later Greek javelins had a cord wrapped around the shaft with a loop for the fingers (the Greek ankylē, Latin amentum). The cord made the weapon spin and carry further when thrown, and it made the shaft look like a heddle rod with its loops. He argued that Israelites, who had no word for this foreign device, described it by the nearest familiar object.

Where it appears

1 Samuel · 1

  1. 1 Samuel 17:7 כִּמְנוֹר֙ [was] like a beam of

    The shaft of his spear was like a weaver’s beam, and its iron point weighed six hundred shekels. In addition, his shield bearer went before him.

    Here: "Like the beam/rod of": a wooden bar belonging to a loom. Whether the comparison is about thickness or about a looped, rod-like appearance is debated (see studies).

2 Samuel · 1

  1. 2 Samuel 21:19 כִּמְנ֖וֹר [was] like a beam of

    Once again there was a battle with the Philistines at Gob, and Elhanan son of Jair the Bethlehemite killed the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.

1 Chronicles · 2

  1. 1 Chronicles 11:23 כִּמְנ֣וֹר like a beam of

    He also struck down an Egyptian, a huge man five cubits tall. Although the Egyptian had a spear like a weaver’s beam in his hand, Benaiah went against him with a club, snatched the spear from his hand, and killed the Egyptian with his own spear.

  2. 1 Chronicles 20:5 כִּמְנ֖וֹר [was] like a beam of

    Once again there was a battle with the Philistines, and Elhanan son of Jair killed Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.