1 Samuel
17
- Now the Philistines gathered their forces
for war and assembled at Socoh in Judah. They pitched camp at Ephes Dammim,
between Socoh and Azekah.
- Saul and the Israelites assembled and camped
in the Valley of Elah and drew up their battle line to meet the Philistines.
- The Philistines occupied one hill and the
Israelites another, with the valley between them.
- A champion named Goliath, who was from Gath,
came out of the Philistine camp. He was over nine feet tall.
- He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore
a coat of scale armor of bronze weighing five thousand shekels;
- on his legs he wore bronze greaves, and
a bronze javelin was slung on his back.
- His spear shaft was like a weaver's rod,
and its iron point weighed six hundred shekels. His shield bearer went ahead
of him.
- Goliath stood and shouted to the ranks of
Israel, "Why do you come out and line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine,
and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose a man and have him come down
to me.
- If he is able to fight and kill me, we will
become your subjects; but if I overcome him and kill him, you will become
our subjects and serve us."
- Then the Philistine said, "This day
I defy the ranks of Israel! Give me a man and let us fight each other."
- On hearing the Philistine's words, Saul
and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified.
- Now David was the son of an Ephrathite named
Jesse, who was from Bethlehem in Judah. Jesse had eight sons, and in Saul's
time he was old and well advanced in years.
- Jesse's three oldest sons had followed Saul
to the war: The firstborn was Eliab; the second, Abinadab; and the third,
Shammah.
- David was the youngest. The three oldest
followed Saul,
- but David went back and forth from Saul
to tend his father's sheep at Bethlehem.
- For forty days the Philistine came forward
every morning and evening and took his stand.
- Now Jesse said to his son David, "Take
this ephah of roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread for your brothers
and hurry to their camp.
- Take along these ten cheeses to the commander
of their unit. See how your brothers are and bring back some assurance from
them.
- They are with Saul and all the men of Israel
in the Valley of Elah, fighting against the Philistines."
- Early in the morning David left the flock
with a shepherd, loaded up and set out, as Jesse had directed. He reached
the camp as the army was going out to its battle positions, shouting the war
cry.
- Israel and the Philistines were drawing
up their lines facing each other.
- David left his things with the keeper of
supplies, ran to the battle lines and greeted his brothers.
- As he was talking with them, Goliath, the
Philistine champion from Gath, stepped out from his lines and shouted his
usual defiance, and David heard it.
- When the Israelites saw the man, they all
ran from him in great fear.
- Now the Israelites had been saying, "Do
you see how this man keeps coming out? He comes out to defy Israel. The king
will give great wealth to the man who kills him. He will also give him his
daughter in marriage and will exempt his father's family from taxes in Israel."
- David asked the men standing near him, "What
will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace
from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the
armies of the living God ?"
- They repeated to him what they had been
saying and told him, "This is what will be done for the man who kills
him."
- When Eliab, David's oldest brother, heard
him speaking with the men, he burned with anger at him and asked, "Why
have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the
desert? I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is; you came
down only to watch the battle."
- "Now what have I done?" said David.
"Can't I even speak ?"
- He then turned away to someone else and
brought up the same matter, and the men answered him as before.
- What David said was overheard and reported
to Saul, and Saul sent for him.
- David said to Saul, "Let no one lose
heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him."
- Saul replied, "You are not able to
go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a boy, and he has
been a fighting man from his youth."
- But David said to Saul, "Your servant
has been keeping 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 turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck
it and killed it.
- Your servant has killed both the lion and
the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because
he has defied the armies of the living God.
- 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 the LORD be with you."
- Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic.
He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head.
- David fastened on his sword over the tunic
and tried walking around, because he was not used to them. "I cannot
go in these," he said to Saul, "because I am not used to them."
So he took them off.
- Then he took his staff in his hand, chose
five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd's
bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine.
- Meanwhile, the Philistine, with his shield
bearer in front of him, kept coming closer to David.
- He looked David over and saw that he was
only a boy, ruddy and handsome, and he despised him.
- He said to David, "Am I a dog, that
you come at me with sticks?" And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.
- "Come here," he said, "and
I'll give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field !"
- David said to the Philistine, "You
come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in
the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have
defied.
- This day the LORD will hand you over to
me, and I'll strike you down and cut off your head. Today I will give the
carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of
the earth, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel.
- All those gathered here will know that it
is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is the LORD'S,
and he will give all of you into our hands."
- As the Philistine moved closer to attack
him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him.
- Reaching into his bag and taking out a stone,
he slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into
his forehead, and he fell facedown on the ground.
- So David triumphed over the Philistine with
a sling and a stone; without a sword in his hand he struck down the Philistine
and killed him.
- David ran and stood over him. He took hold
of the Philistine's sword and drew it from the scabbard. After he killed him,
he cut off his head with the sword. When the Philistines saw that their hero
was dead, they turned and ran.
- Then the men of Israel and Judah surged
forward with a shout and pursued the Philistines to the entrance of Gath and
to the gates of Ekron. Their dead were strewn along the Shaaraim road to Gath
and Ekron.
- When the Israelites returned from chasing
the Philistines, they plundered their camp.
- David took the Philistine's head and brought
it to Jerusalem, and he put the Philistine's weapons in his own tent.
- As Saul watched David going out to meet
the Philistine, he said to Abner, commander of the army, "Abner, whose
son is that young man?" Abner replied, "As surely as you live, O
king, I don't know."
- The king said, "Find out whose son
this young man is."
- As soon as David returned from killing the
Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul, with David still holding
the Philistine's head.
- "Whose son are you, young man?"
Saul asked him. David said, "I am the son of your servant Jesse of Bethlehem."
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