Biblical Armour Bearing

10:5 When his armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell on his sword and died.

c. David did not wanted to become Saul's armour-bearer, for He know GOD is His Armour. But in the end, David agreed to become Saul's armor bearer.

1 Samuel 17:38-39 (Amplified Bible)

17:38 Then Saul clothed David with his armor; he put a bronze helmet on his head and clothed him with a coat of mail.

17:39 And David girded his sword over his armor. Then he tried to go, but could not, for he was not used to it. And David said to Saul, I cannot go with these, for I am not used to them. And David took them off.

1 Samuel 16:21 (Amplified Bible)

16:21 And David came to Saul and served him. Saul became very fond of him, and he became his armor-bearer.

d. Finishes what his master has started. Can also be a group of armor-bearers

2 Samuel 18:15 (Amplified Bible)

18:15 And ten young men, Joab’s armor-bearers, surrounded and struck Absalom and killed him.

e. They went before their master to protect them

1 Samuel 17:7 (Amplified Bible)

17:7 And the shaft of his spear was like a weaver’s beam; his spear’s head weighed 600 shekels of iron. And a shield bearer went before him.

f. They can and will kill, even killing their own master - example of Abimelech's armour-bearer

Judges 9:54 (Amplified Bible)

9:54 Then he called hastily to the young man, his armor-bearer, and said to him, Draw your sword and slay me, so that men may not say of me, A woman slew him. And his young man thrust him through, and he died.

g. They are like a shadow of their master.

1 Samuel 14:14 (Amplified Bible)

14:14 And that first slaughter which Jonathan and his armor-bearer made was about twenty men within about a half acre of land [which a yoke of oxen might plow].

1 Samuel 14:17 (Amplified Bible)

14:17 Then Saul said to the men with him, Number and see who is gone from us. When they numbered, behold, Jonathan and his armor-bearer were missing.

1 Samuel 31:5-6 (Amplified Bible)

31:5 When his armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he likewise fell upon his sword and died with him.

31:6 So Saul, his three sons, his armor-bearer, and all his men died that day together.

h. Usually younger than his master

1 Samuel 20:35 (Amplified Bible)

20:35 In the morning Jonathan went out into the field at the time appointed with David, and a little lad was with him.

2. An armor-bearer named in the Old Testament: Zelek the Ammonite

2 Samuel 23:37 (Amplified Bible)

23:37 Zelek the Ammonite, Naharai of Beeroth, armor-bearer of Joab son of Zeruiah,

1 Chronicles 11:39 (Amplified Bible)

11:39 Zelek the Ammonite, Naharai the Berothite, the armor-bearer of Joab son of Zeruiah [David’s half sister],

B. In New Testament/New covenant, we put on our own armour

"Put on God’s whole armor [the armor of a heavy-armed soldier which God supplies], that you may be able successfully to stand up against [all] the strategies and the deceits of the devil."

1. Characteristics of an armour-bearer in the New Testament:

a. An armour is trusted by a strong man - JESUS is the Stronger Man, devil is the strong man.