Coat of mail

The coat of mail was a defensive armor garment consisting of overlapping metal scales or rings attached to a leather or fabric base, protecting the torso in battle. The Hebrew term shiryon refers to this scale armor, which appears in accounts of Israelite and enemy warriors. Goliath wore a coat of mail weighing five thousand shekels of bronze — roughly 125 pounds — reflecting the massive protection afforded to heavily armed Philistine warriors (1 Samuel 17:5). Saul attempted to outfit David in his own coat of mail before the encounter with Goliath (1 Samuel 17:38).

Uzziah, king of Judah, equipped his army with coats of mail along with spears, bows, and slings as part of his military modernization (2 Chronicles 26:14). The Nehemiah narrative describes wall-builders carrying weapons during construction, with some wearing coats of mail (Nehemiah 4:16). In 1 Kings 22:34, a soldier draws his bow at a venture and strikes Ahab king of Israel between the joints of his armor — a detail suggesting the coat of mail did not cover all vulnerable points, and the arrow found a gap.