1 Samuel 17

The Philistines gathered their armies for battle and assembled at Socoh, which belongs to Judah. They camped between Socoh and Azekah, at Ephes-dammim. Saul and the men of Israel gathered and camped in the Valley of Elah. They drew up their battle lines to meet the Philistines. The Philistines stood on the hill on one side, and Israel stood on the hill on the other, with the valley between them. A champion came out from the Philistine camps, named Goliath, from Gath. He was about nine feet nine inches tall. He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armor. The bronze armor weighed about one hundred twenty-five pounds. He had bronze guards on his legs and a bronze javelin between his shoulders. The shaft of his spear was like a weaver’s beam, and its iron head weighed about fifteen pounds. His shield-bearer walked before him. He stood and called to the battle lines of Israel, “Why have you come out to draw up for battle? Am I not the Philistine, and are you not Saul’s servants? Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me. If he can fight me and strike me down, we will be your slaves. But if I prevail over him and strike him down, you will be our slaves and serve us.” The Philistine said, “I defy the battle lines of Israel this day! Give me a man, so that we may fight each other.” When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid. David was the son of an Ephrathite from Bethlehem in Judah named Jesse, who had eight sons. In Saul’s days the man was old among the people. Jesse’s three oldest sons had gone after Saul to the battle. The names of his three sons who went to the battle were Eliab the firstborn, Abinadab the second, and Shammah the third. David was the youngest, and the three oldest had followed Saul. David would go back and forth from Saul to tend his father’s sheep at Bethlehem. The Philistine came forward morning and evening and took his stand for forty days. Jesse said to his son David, “Take about twenty quarts of this roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread for your brothers, and run to your brothers in the camp. Take these ten cheeses to the commander of their thousand. See how your brothers are faring and bring back a token from them.” Saul, David’s brothers, and all the men of Israel were in the Valley of Elah, fighting the Philistines. David rose early in the morning, left the sheep with a keeper, took the provisions, and went as Jesse had commanded him. He came to the camp as the army was going out to the battle line, raising the battle cry. Israel and the Philistines drew up their battle lines, line facing line. David left his baggage in the care of the baggage keeper and ran to the battle line. He came and asked his brothers how they were. As he was speaking with them, the champion, Goliath the Philistine from Gath, came up from the Philistine battle lines and spoke the same words, and David heard them. When all the men of Israel saw the man, they fled from him and were greatly afraid. The men of Israel said, “Have you seen this man coming up? He comes up to defy Israel. The king will enrich the man who strikes him down with great riches, give him his daughter, and make his father’s house free in Israel.” David said to the men standing with him, “What will be done for the man who strikes down this Philistine and removes the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the battle lines of the living God?” The people answered him with the same words, saying, “This is what will be done for the man who strikes him down.” His oldest brother Eliab heard him speaking with the men. Eliab’s anger burned against David, and he said, “Why have you come down? With whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your arrogance and the evil of your heart, for you have come down to see the battle.” David said, “What have I done now? Was I not just speaking?” He turned away from him toward another and spoke the same way, and the people gave him the same answer as before. When the words David had spoken were heard, they reported them to Saul, and he sent for him. David said to Saul, “Let no one’s heart fail because of him. Your servant will go and fight this Philistine.” Saul said to David, “You cannot go against this Philistine to fight him, for you are a youth, and he has been a man of war from his youth.” David said to Saul, “Your servant was tending his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it, and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it rose against me, I seized it by its jaw, struck it, and killed it. Your servant has struck down both lion and bear. This uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, for he has defied the battle lines of the living God.” David said, “The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” Saul said to David, “Go, and may the LORD be with you.” Saul clothed David in his own garments, put a bronze helmet on his head, and clothed him in armor. David strapped his sword over his garments and tried to walk, for he had not tested them. David said to Saul, “I cannot walk in these, for I have not tested them.” So David took them off. He took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the brook, and put them in his shepherd’s bag, in the pouch. With his sling in his hand, he approached the Philistine. The Philistine kept advancing toward David, with his shield-bearer before him. When the Philistine looked and saw David, he despised him, for he was a youth, ruddy and handsome. The Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come against me with sticks?” The Philistine cursed David by his gods. The Philistine said to David, “Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the sky and the beasts of the field!” David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the battle lines of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the LORD will give you into my hand. I will strike you down and take your head from you. This day I will give the corpses of the Philistine camp to the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth, so that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. All this assembly will know that the LORD does not save by sword or spear, for the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give you into our hand.” When the Philistine rose and advanced to meet David, David hurried and ran toward the battle line to meet the Philistine. David put his hand into his bag, took out a stone, slung it, and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell face down on the ground. David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone. He struck the Philistine and killed him, but David had no sword in his hand. David ran and stood beside the Philistine. He took his sword, drew it from its sheath, put him to death, and cut off his head with it. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled. The men of Israel and Judah rose, shouted, and pursued the Philistines as far as the valley and the gates of Ekron. The slain Philistines fell along the road to Shaaraim, as far as Gath and Ekron. The Israelites returned from pursuing the Philistines and plundered their camps. David took the Philistine’s head and brought it to Jerusalem, but he put his weapons in his tent. When Saul saw David going out to meet the Philistine, he said to Abner, the commander of the army, “Whose son is this youth, Abner?” Abner said, “As you live, O king, I do not know.” The king said, “Find out whose son the young man is.” When David returned from striking down the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul, with the Philistine’s head in his hand. Saul said to him, “Whose son are you, young man?” David said, “I am the son of your servant Jesse of Bethlehem.”

Rights and attribution