1 Samuel 17
17
David defeats Goliath
1The Philistines assembled their troops for war at Socoh of Judah. They camped between Socoh and Azekah at Ephes-dammim. 2Saul and the Israelite army assembled and camped in the Elah Valley, where they got organized to fight the Philistines. 3The Philistines took positions on one hill while Israel took positions on the opposite hill. There was a valley between them.
4A champion named Goliath from Gath came out from the Philistine camp. He was more than nine feet tall.#17.4 LXX over six feet tall 5He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore bronze scale-armor weighing one hundred twenty-five pounds.#17.5 Five thousand shekels 6He had bronze plates on his shins, and a bronze scimitar hung on his back. 7His spear shaft#17.7 Qere, LXX, Syr (cf 2 Sam 21:19); Kethib the point of his spear was as strong as the bar on a weaver’s loom, and its iron head weighed fifteen pounds.#17.7 Six hundred shekels His shield-bearer walked in front of him.
8He stopped and shouted to the Israelite troops, “Why have you come and taken up battle formations? I am the Philistine champion,#17.8 MT the Philistine lacks champion. and you are Saul’s servants. Isn’t that right? Select one of your men, and let him come down against me. 9If he is able to fight me and kill me, then we will become your slaves, but if I overcome him and kill him, then you will become our slaves and you will serve us. 10I insult Israel’s troops today!” The Philistine continued, “Give me an opponent, and we’ll fight!” 11When Saul and all Israel heard what the Philistine said, they were distressed and terrified.#17.11 The following verses are absent from LXXB: 17:12-31, 41, 48b, 50, 55-58.
12Now David was Jesse’s son, an Ephraimite from Bethlehem in Judah who had eight sons. By Saul’s time, Jesse was already quite old and far along in age.#17.12 LXX, Syr 13Jesse’s three oldest sons had gone with Saul to war. Their names were Eliab the oldest, Abinadab the second oldest, and Shammah the third oldest. 14(David was the youngest.) These three older sons followed Saul, 15but David went back and forth from Saul’s side to shepherd his father’s flock in Bethlehem.
16For forty days straight the Philistine came out and took his stand, both morning and evening. 17Jesse said to his son David, “Please take your brothers an ephah#17.17 One ephah is approximately twenty quarts. of this roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread. Deliver them quickly to your brothers in the camp. 18And here, take these ten wedges of cheese to their unit commander. Find out how your brothers are doing and bring back some sign that they are okay. 19They are with Saul and all the Israelite troops fighting the Philistines in the Elah Valley.”
20So David got up early in the morning, left someone in charge of the flock, and loaded up and left, just as his father Jesse had instructed him. He reached the camp right when the army was taking up their battle formations and shouting the war cry. 21Israel and the Philistines took up their battle formations opposite each other. 22David left his things with an attendant and ran to the front line. When he arrived, he asked how his brothers were doing. 23Right when David was speaking with them, Goliath, the Philistine champion from Gath, came forward from the Philistine ranks and said the same things he had said before. David listened. 24When the Israelites saw Goliath, every one of them ran away terrified of him. (25Now the Israelite soldiers had been saying to each other: “Do you see this man who keeps coming out? How he comes to insult Israel? The king will reward with great riches whoever kills that man. The king will give his own daughter to him and make his household exempt from taxes#17.25 Heb uncertain in Israel.”)
26David asked the soldiers standing by him, “What will be done for the person who kills that Philistine over there and removes this insult from Israel? Who is that uncircumcised Philistine, anyway, that he can get away with insulting the army of the living God?”
27Then the troops repeated to him what they had been saying. “So that’s what will be done for the man who kills him,” they said.
28When David’s oldest brother Eliab heard him talking to the soldiers, he got very mad at David. “Why did you come down here?” he said. “Who is watching those few sheep for you in the wilderness? I know how arrogant you are and your devious plan: you came down just to see the battle!”
29“What did I do wrong this time?” David replied. “It was just a question!”
30So David turned to someone else and asked the same thing, and the people said the same thing in reply. 31The things David had said were overheard and reported to Saul, who sent for him.
32“Don’t let anyone#17.32 LXX my master (the king) lose courage because of this Philistine!” David told Saul. “I, your servant, will go out and fight him!”
33“You can’t go out and fight this Philistine,” Saul answered David. “You are still a boy. But he’s been a warrior since he was a boy!”
34“Your servant has kept his father’s sheep,” David replied to Saul, “and if ever a lion or a bear came and carried off one of the flock, 35I would go after it, strike it, and rescue the animal from its mouth. If it turned on me, I would grab it at its jaw, strike it, and kill it. 36Your servant has fought both lions and bears. This uncircumcised Philistine will be just like one of them because he has insulted the army of the living God.
37“The LORD,” David added, “who rescued me from the power of both lions and bears, will rescue me from the power of this Philistine.”
“Go!” Saul replied to David. “And may the LORD be with you!”
38Then Saul dressed David in his own gear, putting a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. 39David strapped his sword on over the armor, but he couldn’t walk around well because he’d never tried it before. “I can’t walk in this,” David told Saul, “because I’ve never tried it before.” So he took them off. 40He then grabbed his staff and chose five smooth stones from the streambed. He put them in the pocket of his shepherd’s bag and with sling in hand went out to the Philistine.
41The Philistine got closer and closer to David, and his shield-bearer was in front of him. 42When the Philistine looked David over, he sneered at David because he was just a boy; reddish brown and good-looking.
43The Philistine asked David, “Am I some sort of dog that you come at me with sticks?” And he cursed David by his gods. 44“Come here,” he said to David, “and I’ll feed your flesh to the wild birds and the wild animals!”
45But David told the Philistine, “You are coming against me with sword, spear, and scimitar, but I come against you in the name of the LORD of heavenly forces, the God of Israel’s army, the one you’ve insulted. 46Today the LORD will hand you over to me. I will strike you down and cut off your head! Today I will feed your dead body and the dead bodies of the entire Philistine camp#17.46 LXX; MT lacks your dead body. to the wild birds and the wild animals. Then the whole world will know that there is a God on Israel’s side. 47And all those gathered here will know that the LORD doesn’t save by means of sword and spear. The LORD owns this war, and he will hand all of you over to us.”
48The Philistine got up and moved closer to attack David, and David ran quickly to the front line to face him. 49David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone. He slung it, and it hit the Philistine on his forehead. The stone penetrated his forehead, and he fell facedown on the ground. 50And that’s how David triumphed over the Philistine with just a sling and a stone, striking the Philistine down and killing him—and David didn’t even have a sword! 51Then David ran and stood over the Philistine. He grabbed the Philistine’s sword, drew it from its sheath, and finished him off. Then David cut off the Philistine’s head with the sword.
When the Philistines saw that their hero was dead, they fled. 52The soldiers from Israel and Judah jumped up with a shout and chased the Philistines all the way to Gath#17.52 LXX; MT Gai or a valley and the gates of Ekron. The dead Philistines were littered along the Shaarim road all the way to Gath and Ekron. 53When the Israelites came back from chasing the Philistines, they plundered their camp. 54David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem, but he put the Philistine’s weapons in his own tent.
55Now when Saul saw David go out to meet the Philistine, he asked Abner the army general, “Abner, whose son is that boy?”
“As surely as you live, Your Majesty, I don’t know,” Abner answered.
56“Then find out whose son that young man is,” the king replied.
57So when David came back from killing the Philistine, Abner sent for him and presented him to Saul. The Philistine’s head was still in David’s hand. 58Saul said to him, “Whose son are you, my boy?”
“I’m the son of your servant Jesse from Bethlehem,” David answered.
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1 Samuel 17: CEB
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2011 Common English Bible. All rights reserved.
1 Samuel 17
17
1And the Philistines gather their camps to battle, and are gathered to Shochoh, which [is] to Judah, and encamp between Shochoh and Azekah, in Ephes-Dammim;
2and Saul and the men of Israel have been gathered, and encamp by the valley of Elah, and set the battle in array to meet the Philistines.
3And the Philistines are standing on the mountain on this side, and the Israelites are standing on the mountain on that side, and the valley [is] between them.
4And there goeth out a man of the duellists from the camps of the Philistines, Goliath [is] his name, from Gath; his height [is] six cubits and a span,
5and a helmet of brass [is] on his head, and [with] a scaled coat of mail he [is] clothed, and the weight of the coat of mail [is] five thousand shekels of brass,
6and a frontlet of brass [is] on his feet, and a javelin of brass between his shoulders,
7and the wood of his spear [is] like a beam of weavers', and the flame of his spear [is] six hundred shekels of iron, and the bearer of the buckler is going before him.
8And he standeth and calleth unto the ranks of Israel, and saith to them, ‘Why are ye come out to set in array the battle? [am] not I the Philistine, and ye servants to Saul? choose for you a man, and let him come down unto me;
9if he be able to fight with me, and have smitten me, then we have been to you for servants; and if I am able for him, and have smitten him, then ye have been to us for servants, and have served us.’
10And the Philistine saith, ‘I have reproached the ranks of Israel this day; give to me a man, and we fight together.’
11And Saul heareth — and all Israel — these words of the Philistine, and they are broken down and greatly afraid.
12And David [is] son of this Ephrathite of Beth-Lehem-Judah, whose name [is] Jesse, and he hath eight sons, and the man in the days of Saul hath become aged among men;
13and the three eldest sons of Jesse go, they have gone after Saul to battle; and the name of his three sons who have gone into battle [are] Eliab the first-born, and his second Abinadab, and the third Shammah.
14And David is the youngest, and the three eldest have gone after Saul,
15and David is going and returning from Saul, to feed the flock of his father at Beth-Lehem.
16And the Philistine draweth nigh, morning and evening, and stationeth himself forty days.
17And Jesse saith to David his son, ‘Take, I pray thee, to thy brethren, an ephah of this roasted [corn], and these ten loaves, and run to the camp to thy brethren;
18and these ten cuttings of the cheese thou dost take in to the head of the thousand, and thy brethren thou dost inspect for welfare, and their pledge dost receive.’
19And Saul, and they, and all the men of Israel [are] in the valley of Elah, fighting with the Philistines.
20And David riseth early in the morning, and leaveth the flock to a keeper, and lifteth up, and goeth, as Jesse commanded him, and he cometh in to the path, and to the force which is going out unto the rank, and they have shouted for battle;
21and Israel and the Philistines set in array rank to meet rank.
22And David letteth down the goods from off him on the hand of a keeper of the goods, and runneth into the rank, and cometh and asketh of his brethren of welfare.
23And he is speaking with them, and lo, a man of the duellists is coming up, Goliath the Philistine [is] his name, of Gath, out of the ranks of the Philistines, and he speaketh according to those words, and David heareth;
24and all the men of Israel when they see the man flee from his presence, and are greatly afraid.
25And the men of Israel say, ‘Have ye seen this man who is coming up? for, to reproach Israel he is coming up, and it hath been — the man who smiteth him, the king doth enrich him with great riches, and his daughter he doth give to him, and his father's house doth make free in Israel.’
26And David speaketh unto the men who are standing by him, saying, ‘What is done to the man who smiteth this Philistine, and hath turned aside reproach from Israel? for who [is] this uncircumcised Philistine that he hath reproached the ranks of the living God?’
27And the people speak to him according to this word, saying, ‘Thus it is done to the man who smiteth him.’
28And Eliab, his eldest brother, heareth when he speaketh unto the men, and the anger of Eliab burneth against David, and he saith, ‘Why [is] this — thou hast come down! and to whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness? I have known thy pride, and the evil of thy heart — for, to see the battle thou hast come down.’
29And David saith, ‘What have I done now? is it not a word?’
30And he turneth round from him unto another, and saith according to this word, and the people return him word as the first word.
31And the words which David hath spoken are heard, and they declare before Saul, and he receiveth him;
32and David saith unto Saul, ‘Let no man's heart fall because of him, thy servant doth go, and hath fought with this Philistine.’
33And Saul saith unto David, ‘Thou art not able to go unto this Philistine, to fight with him, for a youth thou [art], and he a man of war from his youth.’
34And David saith unto Saul, ‘A shepherd hath thy servant been to his father among the sheep, and the lion hath come — and the bear — and hath taken away a sheep out of the drove,
35and I have gone out after him, and smitten him, and delivered out of his mouth, and he riseth against me, and I have taken hold on his beard, and smitten him, and put him to death.
36Both the lion and the bear hath thy servant smitten, and this uncircumcised Philistine hath been as one of them, for he hath reproached the ranks of the living God.’
37And David saith, ‘Jehovah, who delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, He doth deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.’ And Saul saith unto David, ‘Go, and Jehovah is with thee.’
38And Saul clotheth David with his long robe, and hath put a helmet of brass on his head, and doth clothe him with a coat of mail.
39And David girded his sword above his long robe, and beginneth to go, for he hath not tried [it]; and David saith unto Saul, ‘I am not able to go with these, for I had not tried;’ and David turneth them aside from off him.
40And he taketh his staff in his hand, and chooseth for him five smooth stones from the brook, and putteth them in the shepherds' habiliments that he hath, even in the scrip, and his sling [is] in his hand, and he draweth nigh unto the Philistine.
41And the Philistine goeth on, going and drawing near unto David, and the man bearing the buckler [is] before him,
42and the Philistine looketh attentively, and seeth David, and despiseth him, for he was a youth, and ruddy, with a fair appearance.
43And the Philistine saith unto David, ‘Am I a dog that thou art coming unto me with staves?’ and the Philistine revileth David by his gods,
44and the Philistine saith unto David, ‘Come unto me, and I give thy flesh to the fowl of the heavens, and to the beast of the field.’
45And David saith unto the Philistine, ‘Thou art coming unto me with sword, and with spear, and with buckler, and I am coming unto thee in the name of Jehovah of Hosts, God of the ranks of Israel, which thou hast reproached.
46This day doth Jehovah shut thee up into my hand — and I have smitten thee, and turned aside thy head from off thee, and given the carcase of the camp of the Philistines this day to the fowl of the heavens, and to the beast of the earth, and all the earth do know that God is for Israel.
47And all this assembly do know that not by sword and by spear doth Jehovah save, that the battle [is] Jehovah's, and He hath given you into our hand.’
48And it hath come to pass, that the Philistine hath risen, and goeth, and draweth near to meet David, and David hasteth and runneth to the rank to meet the Philistine,
49and David putteth forth his hand unto the vessel, and taketh thence a stone, and slingeth, and smiteth the Philistine on his forehead, and the stone sinketh into his forehead, and he falleth on his face to the earth.
50And David is stronger than the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and smiteth the Philistine, and putteth him to death, and there is no sword in the hand of David,
51and David runneth and standeth over the Philistine, and taketh his sword, and draweth it out of its sheath, and putteth him to death, and cutteth off with it his head; and the Philistines see that their hero [is] dead, and flee.
52And the men of Israel rise — also Judah — and shout, and pursue the Philistines till thou enter the valley, and unto the gates of Ekron, and the wounded of the Philistines fall in the way of Shaaraim, even unto Gath, and unto Ekron,
53and the sons of Israel turn back from burning after the Philistines, and spoil their camps.
54And David taketh the head of the Philistine, and bringeth it in to Jerusalem, and his weapons he hath put in his own tent.
55And when Saul seeth David going out to meet the Philistine, he hath said unto Abner, head of the host, ‘Whose son [is] this — the youth, Abner?’ and Abner saith, ‘Thy soul liveth, O king, I have not known.’
56And the king saith, ‘Ask thou whose son this [is] — the young man.’
57And when David turneth back from smiting the Philistine, then Abner taketh him and bringeth him in before Saul, and the head of the Philistine in his hand;
58and Saul saith unto him, ‘Whose son [art] thou, O youth?’ and David saith, ‘Son of thy servant Jesse, the Beth-Lehemite.’
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