Bible Dictionary
GORGET
Gorget is an obsolete translation for part of Goliath’s armor. The Hebrew word more properly means a javelin, as rendered in later English versions.
Definition
Gorget is an obsolete English rendering associated with a piece of armor protecting the throat. In the biblical passage where it appears, the underlying Hebrew word more properly means javelin.
Biblical Usage
The King James Version places gorget in the margin of 1 Samuel 17:6 in the description of Goliath’s armor. Revised versions render the word javelin there and in 1 Samuel 17:45.
Historical Background
Gorget was an established English term for throat armor, but it has been displaced in the revised biblical versions.
Related Figures
Historical Bible Dictionaries
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>gor'-jet: Appears only once in the King James Version (1Sa 17:6), being placed in the margin as an alternative to "target (of brass)" in the description of the armor worn by Goliath of Gath. The Hebrew word thus translated (kidhon) really means a "javelin," and is so rendered in the Revised Version (British and American) and the American Standard Revised Version here and in 1Sa 17:45 ("Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a javelin"). See ARMOR, sec. I, 4, (3). Gorget, though so rarely used in Scripture and now displaced in our revised versions, occurs not infrequently and in various senses in English literature. In the meaning of "a piece of armor for the gorge or throat" which seems to have been in the mind of King James's translators, it is found in early English writers and down to recent times. Spenser has it in Faerie Queene, IV, iii, 12:</p><p>"His weasand-pipe it through his gorget cleft";</p><p>Scott, Marmion, V, ii:</p><p>"Their brigantines and gorgets light";</p><p>and Prescott, Ferdinand and Isabella, III, 47: "The gorget gave way and the sword entered his throat."</p><p>T. Nicol.</p>