A common misinterpretation claims this verse contradicts I Samuel 17 by suggesting Elhanan—not David—killed Goliath himself, implying biblical inconsistency or that Elhanan was David's alternate name; however, the text specifies 'the brother of Goliath,' and parallel accounts in I Chronicles 20:5 clarify Elhanan slew Lahmi, Goliath's brother, with the Samuel version likely containing a copyist error that harmonizes upon closer examination, rather than proving textual unreliability.
II Samuel 21:19
King James Version (1769)
19 And there was again a battle in Gob with the Philistines, where Elhanan the son of Jaare–oregim, a Beth–lehemite, slew the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.
This passage recounts a battle in Gob against the Philistines where Elhanan, a Bethlehemite warrior in David's service, killed Goliath's brother, whose massive spear resembled a weaver's beam, underscoring the ongoing conflicts with Israel's enemies even after David's rise and the valor of his mighty men in securing victories through God's strength, paralleling earlier Philistine defeats like Goliath's own fall.