Bede : However, the shaft of his spear, etc. For indeed the work of those whom the devil brings forth against the Church for battle seems most fitting to the eyes of the foolish, as if to weave a garment of righteousness and holiness. But the sharpness of their speech knows how neither to look beyond nor to speak beyond the boundaries of this world, which persists through six ages. Although they are of such great ingenuity as to be able to judge the age, they do not know how to find its Creator. But truly, their webs are not in the garment that might warm the soul; for as Isaiah said, they have woven spider webs (Isaiah 59). And as in the one hundred and forty-third psalm, which is specifically written against Goliath, the victor of the same Goliath, the Psalmist testifies: "Whose mouth has spoken vanity, and their right hand is the right hand of iniquity" (Psalms 143). — Commentary on Samuel Bede : And his armor-bearer went before him. The armor-bearer precedes Goliath as he goes out against Israel, just as the weapons of iniquity and the examples of the wicked precede and assist the devil as he tries to deceive the faithful. — Commentary on Samuel