Coat of Mail

The coat of mail is a flexible body covering of linked or scaled metal worn into battle, and the term shades into the wider vocabulary of breastplate and armor in the rows surveyed here. It surfaces most vividly on Goliath, sits awkwardly on David, and turns up again at the seam where an arrow finds the king of Israel. Beyond the battlefield, the same garment-language is taken up figuratively for righteousness, faith, and love.

Goliath's Mail

The Philistine champion is introduced in the literal vocabulary of mail: "And he had a helmet of bronze on his head, and he was clad with a coat of mail; and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of bronze" (1Sa 17:5). The detail is given by weight, not by image — five thousand shekels of bronze on a single body.

Saul's Armor on David

When Saul tries to outfit David for the same combat, the same garment is named: "And Saul clad David with his apparel, and he put a helmet of bronze on his head, and he clad him with a coat of mail" (1Sa 17:38). The helmet-and-mail pairing matches Goliath's at 1Sa 17:5; the difference is that the wearer here is borrowed into the equipment rather than formed for it.

The Joint in the Armor

The mail's vulnerability is exposed in the death of the king of Israel. A bowman lets fly without aim, and the shaft finds a seam: "And a certain man drew his bow at a venture, and struck the king of Israel between the joints of the armor" (1Ki 22:34). The Chronicles parallel keeps the same wording: "And a certain man drew his bow at a venture, and struck the king of Israel between the joints of the armor" (2Ch 18:33). What the mail covers in plate it must articulate at the joints, and the joints are where it can be pierced.

Stripping the Armor of the Fallen

Adjacent rows extend the picture beyond the wearer to what happens after the battle. Saul's body is treated as a trophy: "And they cut off his head, and stripped off his armor, and sent into the land of the Philistines round about, to carry the good news to the house of their idols, and to the people" (1Sa 31:9). Abner directs Asahel toward the same prize: "Turn yourself aside to your right hand or to your left, and lay yourself hold on one of the young men, and take yourself his armor" (2Sa 2:21). Armor is not only worn — it is taken.

The Sound and Sight of an Army in Mail

Two rows in 1 Maccabees give the auditory and visual impression of mailed troops in formation. Of one approaching host: "And all the inhabitants were moved at the noise of their multitude, and the marching of the company, and the rattling of the armor, for the army was exceedingly great and strong" (1Ma 6:41). And of another camp seen at a distance: "they saw the camp of the nations that it was strong, and the men in breastplates, and the horsemen round about them, and these were trained up to war" (1Ma 4:7). One row gives the sound of mail at the march; the other gives the sight of breastplated infantry on the field.

A third row paces the same vocabulary into a king's panoply: "And he got his people great honor, And put on a breastplate as a giant, And girt his warlike armor about him in battles, And protected the camp with the sword" (1Ma 3:3). And the temple at Elymais is remembered by what its plate yielded: "coverings of gold, and breastplates, and shields which King Alexander, the [son] of Philip the Macedonian who reigned first in Greece, had left there" (1Ma 6:2).

A prophetic vision of Gog uses the same kit on a much larger scale: "all of them clothed in full armor, a great company with buckler and shield, all of them handling swords" (Eze 38:4).

The Priestly Breastplate

A separate strand of the breastplate vocabulary belongs to the high priest, not the soldier. Materials are gathered up front: "onyx stones, and stones to be set, for the ephod, and for the breastplate" (Ex 25:7). The making is specified at length: "And you will make a breastplate of judgment, the work of the skillful workman; like the work of an ephod you will make it; of gold, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, you will make it" (Ex 28:15). Freewill offerings supply the same materials again at Ex 35:9. Once made, the breastplate carries the lots: "And he placed the breastplate on him: and in the breastplate he put the Urim and the Thummim" (Le 8:8). Sirach remembers it together with the rest of the priestly kit: "[With] the holy garments of gold and violet, And purple, the work of the designer; And the breastplate of judgement, and the ephod and belt" (Sir 45:10). This is breastplate as vestment rather than as mail, but the rows name it with the same word.

Righteousness as Mail

The figurative breastplate inherits the protective imagery of the soldier's coat. Yahweh himself takes it on: "And he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation [by his Speech] on his head; and he put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a mantle" (Is 59:17). Paul reuses the same dressing for the church: "Stand therefore, having girded your⁺ loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness" (Ep 6:14). And for the same imperative under a different pairing: "But let us, since we are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for a helmet, the hope of salvation" (1Th 5:8). The pieces of the soldier's panoply — breastplate and helmet — are kept; the metal is replaced with righteousness, faith, love, and the hope of salvation.

Stripping the Armor as Defeat

The figurative reach also runs the other direction. Where stripping the armor of a fallen king signals total defeat (1Sa 31:9), a saying about a stronger man uses the same gesture: "but when a stronger than he will come upon him, and overcome him, he takes from him his whole armor in which he trusted, and divides his spoils" (Lu 11:22). Trust placed in armor — including a coat of mail — is shown to be conditional on whether someone stronger is on the field.