John Gill Commentary 1 Samuel 17:5

"And he had a helmet of brass upon his head, and he was clad with a coat of mail; and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of brass." — 1 Samuel 17:5 (ASV)

And he has 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 ; 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 , 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 ; and so in the age of the Grecian heroes ^F10 .

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FOOTNOTES:

• F7: Vid. Lydium "de re militari": l. 3. c. 5. p. 63.
• F8: "----Rutilum thoraca indutus anis Horrebat squamis----" Virgil. Aeneid. l. 11.
• F9: Hist. l. 1. c. 22.
• F10: Pausan. Messenica, l. 3. p. 163. So Homer frequently describes the Grecians with a coat of mail of brass.