"Some Gadites joined David at the stronghold in the wilderness, mighty men of valor, men trained for battle, who could handle shield and spear, whose faces were like the faces of lions, and were as swift as gazelles on the mountains."
One of the things that caught my attention were the words "could handle shield and spear." I don't know much about ancient Biblical fighting techniques or procedures, but growing up I always heard stories about how Jonathan and his armorbearer beat the Philistines or other stories were armorbearers were included. A couple posts back I wrote about Saul's armorbearer.
Why were there armorbearers? And what did it mean that these guys could handle their own shield and spear? Did only the kings and princes have armorbearers? It's a curious thing to me because it seems like this verse is saying these guys were more skilled because they could handle their weapon and their shield.
Anyone have any ideas on how battles were fought in David's day?
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