1 Samuel 17 English Standard Version David and Goliath 17 Now the Philistines gathered their armies for battle. And they were gathered at Socoh, which belongs to Judah, and encamped between Socoh and Azekah, in Ephes-dammim. 2 And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered, and encamped in the Valley of Elah, and drew up in line of battle against the Philistines. 3 And the Philistines stood on the mountain on the one side, and Israel stood on the mountain on the other side, with a valley between them. 4 And there came out from the camp of the Philistines a champion named Goliath of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. 5 He had a helmet of bronze on his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail, and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of bronze. 6 And he had bronze armor on his legs, and a javelin of bronze slung between his shoulders. 7 The shaft of his spear was like a weaver's beam, and his spear's head weighed six hundred shekels of iron. And his shield-bearer went before him. 8 He stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, “Why have you come out to draw up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me. 9 If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us.” 10 And the Philistine said, “I defy the ranks of Israel this day. Give me a man, that we may fight together.” 11 When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid. 12 Now David was the son of an Ephrathite of Bethlehem in Judah, named Jesse, who had eight sons. In the days of Saul the man was already old and advanced in years. 13 The three oldest sons of Jesse had followed Saul to the battle. And the names of his three sons who went to the battle were Eliab the firstborn, and next to him Abinadab, and the third Shammah. 14 David was the youngest. The three eldest followed Saul, 15 but David went back and forth from Saul to feed his father's sheep at Bethlehem. 16 For forty days the Philistine came forward and took his stand, morning and evening. 17 And Jesse said to David his son, “Take for your brothers an ephah of this parched grain, and these ten loaves, and carry them quickly to the camp to your brothers. 18 Also take these ten cheeses to the commander of their thousand. See if your brothers are well, and bring some token from them.” 19 Now Saul and they and all the men of Israel were in the Valley of Elah, fighting with the Philistines. 20 And David rose early in the morning and left the sheep with a keeper and took the provisions and went, as Jesse had commanded him. And he came to the encampment as the host was going out to the battle line, shouting the war cry. 21 And Israel and the Philistines drew up for battle, army against army. 22 And David left the things in charge of the keeper of the baggage and ran to the ranks and went and greeted his brothers. 23 As he talked with them, behold, the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, came up out of the ranks of the Philistines and spoke the same words as before. And David heard him. 24 All the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him and were much afraid. 25 And the men of Israel said, “Have you seen this man who has come up? Surely he has come up to defy Israel. And the king will enrich the man who kills him with great riches and will give him his daughter and make his father's house free in Israel.” 26 And David said to the men who stood by him, “What shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?” 27 And the people answered him in the same way, “So shall it be done to the man who kills him.” 28 Now Eliab his eldest brother heard when he spoke to the men. And Eliab's anger was kindled against David, and he said, “Why have you come down? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your presumption and the evil of your heart, for you have come down to see the battle.” 29 And David said, “What have I done now? Was it not but a word?” 30 And he turned away from him toward another, and spoke in the same way, and the people answered him again as before. 31 When the words that David spoke were heard, they repeated them before Saul, and he sent for him. 32 And David said to Saul, “Let no man's heart fail because of him. Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.” 33 And Saul said to David, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him, for you are but a youth, and he has been a man of war from his youth.” 34 But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep sheep for his father. And when there came a lion, or a bear, and took a lamb from the flock, 35 I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth. And if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him. 36 Your servant has struck down both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God.” 37 And David said, “The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” And Saul said to David, “Go, and the LORD be with you!” 38 Then Saul clothed David with his armor. He put a helmet of bronze on his head and clothed him with a coat of mail, 39 and David strapped his sword over his armor. And he tried in vain to go, for he had not tested them. Then David said to Saul, “I cannot go with these, for I have not tested them.” So David put them off. 40 Then he took his staff in his hand and chose five smooth stones from the brook and put them in his shepherd's pouch. His sling was in his hand, and he approached the Philistine. 41 And the Philistine moved forward and came near to David, with his shield-bearer in front of him. 42 And when the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him, for he was but a youth, ruddy and handsome in appearance. 43 And the Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. 44 The Philistine said to David, “Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field.” 45 Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, 47 and that all this assembly may know that the LORD saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the LORD's, and he will give you into our hand.” 48 When the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine. 49 And David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone and slung it and struck the Philistine on his forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the ground. 50 So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and struck the Philistine and killed him. There was no sword in the hand of David. 51 Then David ran and stood over the Philistine and took his sword and drew it out of its sheath and killed him and cut off his head with it. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled. 52 And the men of Israel and Judah rose with a shout and pursued the Philistines as far as Gath and the gates of Ekron, so that the wounded Philistines fell on the way from Shaaraim as far as Gath and Ekron. 53 And the people of Israel came back from chasing the Philistines, and they plundered their camp. 54 And David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem, but he put his armor in his tent. 55 As soon as Saul saw David go out against the Philistine, he said to Abner, the commander of the army, “Abner, whose son is this youth?” And Abner said, “As your soul lives, O king, I do not know.” 56 And the king said, “Inquire whose son the boy is.” 57 And as soon as David returned from the striking down of the Philistine, Abner took him, and brought him before Saul with the head of the Philistine in his hand. 58 And Saul said to him, “Whose son are you, young man?” And David answered, “I am the son of your servant Jesse the Bethlehemite.” Once again, the Philistines gathered their armies for battle, only this time they brought a giant with them--the one we know named Goliath. The text tells us that Goliath was about 9' 9" tall (each cubit is 1.5 feet or half a yard, and a span is about nine inches). I don't doubt these measurements because they are actual measurements. This is no "fish story" where every time you tell it, the fish gets bigger and bigger. Goliath's armor and weapons were made of bronze, and his coat of armor was weighed to be 5,000 shekels (more than 125 pounds). He had bronze armor for his legs and he had a javelin slung between his shoulders. He had a spear that had a shaft that was made from a weaver's beam and the tip of the spear was made of iron and weighed 600 shekels (about 15 pounds). Suffice it to say that the Israelites had good reason to be scared of Goliath when he came out and taunted them every morning and evening.
The Philistines tried to change the rules of battle and no longer have all the armies of the Philistines fight all the armies of Israel, for they had seen that didn't work well for them in the past--even Jonathan and his armor-bearer were able to take on an entire Philistine garrison not that long ago. However, the Philistines think that there is no one among the Israelites that is a champion who can fight Goliath one-on-one and win. So, the Philistines are willing to send Goliath out with a challenge--the Israelites were to choose a man to fight Goliath and if Goliath won, the Israelites would be the slaves of the Philistines forever, but if Israel won, the Philistines would be the slaves of the Israelites forever (note that the Philistines didn't think it was possible for them to lose, and they did not plan on being anyone's slaves). David was still in Saul's service, though at this time he was going back and forth from Saul to his father's house in Bethlehem so that he might help take care of the sheep from time to time (and more likely to check on his father for he was probably getting old now). Jesse wants to hear how his three oldest sons are doing, for they were all called upon to fight, and David is sent to them to bring them food and encouragement and to bring home any news that they might want to share with him and their father. David leaves the provisions that he's brought with the keeper of the baggage for the soldiers and goes to find his brothers so that he mays speak with them. Just as he finds them, Goliath comes out once again to taunt the armies of the living God (this is how David refers to the Israelites when he responds to Goliath's words). David can't believe what he sees from his brothers and from all the other Israelite soldiers, for all of them both great and small are running away and gripped by fear. David doesn't see a giant that needs to be defeated by his own strength, but instead sees an uncircumcised Philistine cursing and mocking the LORD, and that the Israelites should have known that the LORD would fight for them and that killing this Philistine would be no harder than when David killed a lion or a bear that was coming after the sheep. Eliab is not encourages by David's words and has a wicked heart that tells David go back to the sheep where he belongs (in Eliab's mind). Eliab has no respect for David as Saul's armor-bearer or a mighty man of valor or man of war as he was described earlier by the advisors who told Saul that David was the perfect man to soothe his spirit. No, Eliab is still angry that David was anointed to be king, and he was not. The last thing that Eliab wants now is for David to make him look like a coward (because he is) and he especially doesn't want David to be the one to to stand up courageously and fight when no one else would--for he know the heart of his brother and knows that what David says is true--that he took on lions and bears when he was younger and that the size of the foe doesn't matter because the LORD would empower him to deal with Goliath just like the LORD gave him the ability to deal with the lions and bears. David's words made it all the way to Saul so that David stands before Saul and says to the kings face what he has said to all the men. Saul loves David and tries to at least dress him in some armor (the very armor that David usually carried for Saul), but that armor would never fit David, and this would not be a battle of sword versus spear. No, this was a battle the LORD would fight so that it would be clear that He alone won the victory for the people and that He was stronger than the Philistine god Dagon, and He was stronger than any giant, and stronger than all the Philistine army combined. The Philistines should have learned this lesson a long time ago, but they continue to be deceived by the demons they worshiped so that they imagined they could take the Promised Land away from God's people and keep God's plan from moving forward. David lays aside all of Saul's armor and goes and finds five smooth stones in the brook (we later find out that Goliath had four siblings and that David was ready not just to take on Goliath, but this whole family of giants if necessary, and David and his mighty men will take on and kill these giants of Gath later in his reign). David then goes out with his shepherd's staff in one hand and his sling in the other and stands firm and answers Goliath's challenge. Goliath is surprised not only to see someone so young come out to him (he mocks him by calling him a boy, though he is a man by this point) and also surprised by the weapons (or lack of weapons) that David brought with him. Goliath asked if he was a dog that David brought a stick (his shepherd's staff) out with him, but in some ways these uncircumcised Gentiles were exactly like "dogs" to the Israelites, and we'll see that phraseology used in the Bible ("Do not give what is sacred to the dogs," for example). Goliath then says that he will give David's flesh to the birds to eat, but David is not afraid. He says that Goliath may have come with sword, and spear and javelin, but He comes in the name of the LORD of Hosts (the one who commands all the armies of heaven), the God of the armies of Israel, the God which Goliath has blasphemed. David says that the LORD would deliver Goliath into David's hands and that when Goliath had fallen, he would cut off his head and that Goliath and all the Philistine army along with him would be killed and given to the birds of the air and beasts of the field for food (the Israelites are not concerned with taking prisoners or slaves). And by this all Israel would know that the LORD, He is God, and that salvation belongs to Him! That is quite an answer to give to the giant standing before you. The text just starts calling Goliath "The Philistine," at this point, for now he is representing all of his people in battle. So the Philistine approached David and David ran to the battle lines to meet him. David put his hand in his shepherd's bad and took out one of the smooth stones and swung his sling and the stone struck the Philistine in the forehead and sank in so that Goliath fell face down on the field of battle, dead. However, David has a promise to keep and so he goes over and takes Goliath's own sword and cuts off the head of the Philistine so that all the Philistines can see that Goliath did not just trip and fall, or faint, but that he is really dead and that the LORD truly delivered the Philistines into the hand of the Israelites this day. The Israelites saw this too and they gave a battle cry and they started to attack the Philistines and beat them down as they retreated and they chased them all the way back to Gath (where Goliath was from) and the gate of Ekron. David brought the head of Goliath back to Jerusalem as a trophy and he kept the armor of Goliath as a prize for himself. Saul did not even recognize David as he was fighting Goliath, nor did Abner, the king's general, because he was out of place to them. They had seen him only as a musician in the king's court, and maybe as a shepherd boy. Even though they had heard he was a mighty man of valor and a mighty warrior, they had not seen that for themselves until today (though he had been entrusted as Saul's armor bearer). They should have known him, but they could not recognize him because just like with David's brothers, he looked so out of place to them that they imagined it had to be someone else. So, Saul inquires who he is and David answers that he is David the son of Jesse of Bethlehem. Soon this will be a name that everyone in Israel will know, and this will infuriate Saul that David will be more popular than him (the people will sing a song "Saul has killed his thousands, but David his tens of thousands.") This will be the beginning of a spark of jealous rage within the heart of the king and this evil spirit that David was once able to sooth with his music will now seek to kill David (and Jonathan and anyone else that might support David's kingship). Comments are closed.
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Daniel WestfallI will mostly use this space for recording my "journal" from my daily devotions as I hope to encourage others to read the Bible along with me and to leave a legacy for others. Archives
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