The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

Champion

cham'-pi-un ('ish habenayim): In 1Sa 17:4,23 this unusual expression occurs in the description of Goliath. It means literally "the man of the two spaces," "spaces," or "space between," and is perhaps to be explained by the fact that there was a brook flowing through the valley separating the two armies. In 1Sa 17:51 the word champion is the rendering of the Hebrew gibbor, "mighty man."

The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, James Orr (1915). Public domain, from the CrossWire SWORD module.