1 Samuel 17:5

And he had an helmet of brass upon his head ,.... This was a piece of armour, which covered the head in the day of battle; these were usually made of the skins of beasts, of leather, and which were covered with plates of iron, or brass; and sometimes made of all iron, or of brass F7 Vid. Lydium "de re militari": l. 3. c. 5. p. 63. ; as this seems to have been:

and he was armed with a coat of mail ; which reached from the neck to the middle, and consisted of various plates of brass laid on one another, like the scales of fishes F8 "----Rutilum thoraca indutus aYnis Horrebat squamis----" Virgil. Aeneid. l. 11. , so close together that no dart or arrow could pierce between:

and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of brass : which made one hundred and fifty six pounds and a quarter of zygostatic or avoirdupois weight; and therefore he must be a very strong man indeed to carry such a weight. So the armour of the ancient Romans were all of brass, as this man's; their helmets, shields, greaves, coats of mail, all of brass, as Livy says F9 Hist. l. 1. c. 22. ; and so in the age of the Grecian heroes F10 Pausan. Messenica, l. 3. p. 163. So Homer frequently describes the Grecians with a coat of mail of brass. .