2S1-13: Why The Complete Jewish Bible Beats The King James on This Verse

“Mountains of Gilboa — may there be on you
no dew, no rain, no fields with good crops;
because there the shields of the heroes were dishonored,
the shield of Sha’ul was no longer rubbed with oil.“
-2 Samuel 1:21

I wanna show you something interesting in the last part of verse 21.

The Complete Jewish Bible says…

“…the shield of Sha’ul was no longer rubbed with oil.”

Pretty clear, right?

The verse says Saul’s shield was, well…

…”no longer rubbed with oil.”

However, other English Bible translations will say something different.

Here’s what the King James version says:

“…the shield of Saul, as though
he had not been anointed with oil.”

Hmm…

This version says that it was Saul himself and NOT the shield that was anointed with oil.

So which one is it?

In this case, the Complete Jewish Bible is correct, and the King James version is flat-out WRONG.

See, here’s the thing.

Some translators thought it didn’t make any sense that a shield would be anointed with oil.

So what did they do?

They assumed it was a copyist error and rewrote God’s Word to make Saul the anointed object…

DESPITE the grammar plainly saying it was the shield that was anointed with oil, and NOT Saul.

What’s that you say?

You can’t imagine why in the world a shield would be anointed with oil?

Well, lemme explain homie.

Believe it or not, in those days, shields were often made out of leather.

It would take an exceptionally strong man to pound a metal sheet to make it thin enough so it could be used as a shield.

Because of this, folks usually made shields out of leather, which was abundant in those days.

In this sense, the Philistines were more technologically advanced than Israel.

They possessed advanced metal tools that also included metal shields.

If you’ve ever owned a horse, you know you gotta keep a saddle clean and oiled or it will crack and wear out.

Rashi also pointed out that warriors used to oil up their leather shields before going to war.

A greasy shield served as a more effective defense mechanism because when struck by a weapon, it would more easily slide off…

Like raindrops sliding off an umbrella in a heavy storm.

That’s what this passage about Saul and his shield with oil is all about.

So what takeaway can we extract from this?

Simple.

Take the Bible at face value when it says what it says in plain, simple grammar.

Don’t be like those scholars who flippantly and arrogantly change God’s Word because it doesn’t jive with their notions of what they feel is right or wrong or what makes sense and doesn’t.

I leave you with these words of wisdom from the Book of Proverbs:

“Do not add to his words,
or he will rebuke you
and prove you a liar.”
-Proverbs 30:6