1 Samuel 17
17
Goliath Challenges the Israelites
1The Philistines gathered for battle in Socoh, a town in Judah; they camped at a place called Ephes Dammim, between Socoh and Azekah. 2Saul and the Israelites assembled and camped in the Valley of Elah, where they got ready to fight the Philistines. 3The Philistines lined up on one hill and the Israelites on another, with a valley between them.
4A man named Goliath, from the city of Gath, came out from the Philistine camp to challenge the Israelites. He was nearly three metres#17.4 Hebrew nearly three metres; one ancient Hebrew manuscript and one ancient translation about two metres. tall 5and wore bronze armour that weighed about 57 kilogrammes and a bronze helmet. 6His legs were also protected by bronze armour, and he carried a bronze javelin slung over his shoulder. 7His spear was as thick as the bar on a weaver's loom, and its iron head weighed about seven kilogrammes. A soldier walked in front of him carrying his shield. 8Goliath stood and shouted at the Israelites, “What are you doing there, lined up for battle? I am a Philistine, you slaves of Saul! Choose one of your men to fight me. 9If he wins and kills me, we will be your slaves; but if I win and kill him, you will be our slaves. 10Here and now I challenge the Israelite army. I dare you to pick someone to fight me!” 11When Saul and his men heard this, they were terrified.
David in Saul's Camp
12David was the son of Jesse, who was an Ephrathite from Bethlehem in Judah. Jesse had eight sons, and at the time Saul was king, he was already a very old man.#17.12 Some ancient translations a very old man; Hebrew unclear. 13His three eldest sons had gone with Saul to war. The eldest was Eliab, the next was Abinadab, and the third was Shammah. 14David was the youngest son, and while the three eldest brothers stayed with Saul, 15David would go back to Bethlehem from time to time, to take care of his father's sheep.
16Goliath challenged the Israelites every morning and evening for forty days.
17One day Jesse said to David, “Take ten kilogrammes of this roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread, and hurry with them to your brothers in the camp. 18And take these ten cheeses to the commanding officer. Find out how your brothers are getting on and bring back something to show that you saw them and that they are well. 19King Saul, your brothers, and all the other Israelites are in the Valley of Elah fighting the Philistines.”
20David got up early the next morning, left someone else in charge of the sheep, took the food, and went as Jesse had told him to. He arrived at the camp just as the Israelites were going out to their battle line, shouting the war cry. 21The Philistine and the Israelite armies took up positions for battle, facing each other. 22David left the food with the officer in charge of the supplies, ran to the battle line, went to his brothers, and asked how they were getting on. 23As he was talking to them, Goliath came forward and challenged the Israelites as he had done before. And David heard him. 24When the Israelites saw Goliath, they ran away in terror. 25“Look at him!” they said to each other. “Listen to his challenge! King Saul has promised to give a big reward to the man who kills him; the king will also give him his daughter to marry and will not require his father's family to pay taxes.”#17.25 to pay taxes; or either to pay taxes or serve him.
26David asked the men who were near him, “What will the man get who kills this Philistine and frees Israel from this disgrace? After all, who is this heathen Philistine to defy the army of the living God?” 27They told him what would be done for the man who killed Goliath.
28Eliab, David's eldest brother, heard David talking to the men. He was angry with David and said, “What are you doing here? Who is taking care of those sheep of yours out there in the wilderness? You cheeky brat, you! You just came to watch the fighting!”
29“Now what have I done?” David asked. “Can't I even ask a question?” 30He turned to another man and asked him the same question, and every time he asked, he got the same answer.
31Some men heard what David had said, and they told Saul, who sent for him. 32David said to Saul, “Your Majesty, no one should be afraid of this Philistine! I will go and fight him.”
33“No,” answered Saul. “How could you fight him? You're just a boy, and he has been a soldier all his life!”
34“Your Majesty,” David said, “I take care of my father's sheep. Whenever a lion or a bear carries off a lamb, 35I go after it, attack it, and rescue the lamb. And if the lion or bear turns on me, I grab it by the throat and beat it to death. 36I have killed lions and bears, and I will do the same to this heathen Philistine, who has defied the army of the living God. 37The LORD has saved me from lions and bears; he will save me from this Philistine.”
“All right,” Saul answered. “Go, and the LORD be with you.” 38He gave his own armour to David for him to wear: a bronze helmet, which he put on David's head, and a coat of armour. 39David strapped Saul's sword over the armour and tried to walk, but he couldn't, because he wasn't used to wearing them. “I can't fight with all this,” he said to Saul. “I'm not used to it.” So he took it all off. 40He took his shepherd's stick and then picked up five smooth stones from the stream and put them in his bag. With his sling ready, he went out to meet Goliath.
David Defeats Goliath
41The Philistine started walking towards David, with his shield-bearer walking in front of him. He kept coming closer, 42and when he got a good look at David, he was filled with scorn for him because he was just a nice, good-looking boy. 43He said to David, “What's that stick for? Do you think I'm a dog?” And he called down curses from his god on David. 44“Come on,” he challenged David, “and I will give your body to the birds and animals to eat.”
45David answered, “You are coming against me with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the Israelite armies, which you have defied. 46This very day the LORD will put you in my power; I will defeat you and cut off your head. And I will give the bodies of the Philistine soldiers to the birds and animals to eat. Then the whole world will know that Israel has a God, 47and everyone here will see that the LORD does not need swords or spears to save his people. He is victorious in battle, and he will put all of you in our power.”
48Goliath started walking towards David again, and David ran quickly towards the Philistine battle line to fight him. 49He put his hand into his bag and took out a stone, which he slung at Goliath. It hit him on the forehead and broke his skull, and Goliath fell face downwards on the ground. 50#2 Sam 21.19And so, without a sword, David defeated and killed Goliath with a sling and a stone! 51#1 Sam 21.9He ran to him, stood over him, took Goliath's sword out of its sheath, and cut off his head and killed him.
When the Philistines saw that their hero was dead, they ran away. 52The men of Israel and Judah shouted and ran after them, pursuing them all the way to Gath#17.52 One ancient translation Gath; Hebrew a valley. and to the gates of Ekron. The Philistines fell wounded all along the road that leads to Shaaraim, as far as Gath and Ekron. 53When the Israelites came back from pursuing the Philistines, they looted their camp. 54David picked up Goliath's head and took it to Jerusalem, but he kept Goliath's weapons in his own tent.
David is Presented to Saul
55When Saul saw David going out to fight Goliath, he asked Abner, the commander of his army, “Abner, whose son is he?”
“I have no idea, Your Majesty,” Abner answered.
56“Then go and find out,” Saul ordered.
57So when David returned to camp after killing Goliath, Abner took him to Saul. David was still carrying Goliath's head. 58Saul asked him, “Young man, whose son are you?”
“I am the son of your servant Jesse from Bethlehem,” David answered.
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1 Samuel 17: GNBDK
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Good News Bible with Deuterocanonicals/Apocrypha. Scripture taken from the Good News Bible (r) (Today's English Version Second Edition, UK/British Edition). Copyright © 1992 British & Foreign Bible Society. Used by permission.
I Samuel 17
17
David and Goliath
1Now the Philistines gathered their armies together to battle, and were gathered at #Gen. 41:46; Prov. 22:29Sochoh, which belongs to Judah; they encamped between Sochoh and Azekah, in Ephes Dammim. 2And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together, and they encamped in the Valley of Elah, and drew up in battle array against the Philistines. 3The Philistines stood on a mountain on one side, and Israel stood on a mountain on the other side, with a valley between them.
4And a champion went out from the camp of the Philistines, named #Josh. 15:35; 2 Chr. 28:18Goliath, from #2 Sam. 21:19Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. 5He had a bronze helmet on his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail, and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of bronze. 6And he had bronze armor on his legs and a bronze javelin between his shoulders. 7Now the staff of his spear was like a weaver’s beam, and his iron spearhead weighed six hundred shekels; and a shield-bearer went before him. 8Then he stood and cried out to the armies of Israel, and said to them, “Why have you come out to line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and you the #Josh. 11:21, 22servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me. 9If 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 #1 Sam. 8:17serve us.” 10And the Philistine said, #1 Sam. 11:1“I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that we may fight together.” 11When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.
12Now David was #1 Sam. 17:26, 36, 45; 2 Sam. 21:21the son of that #Ruth 4:22; 1 Sam. 16:1, 18; 17:58Ephrathite of Bethlehem Judah, whose name was Jesse, and who had #Gen. 35:19eight sons. And the man was old, advanced in years, in the days of Saul. 13The three oldest sons of Jesse had gone to follow Saul to the battle. The #1 Sam. 16:10, 11; 1 Chr. 2:13–15names of his three sons who went to the battle were Eliab the firstborn, next to him Abinadab, and the third Shammah. 14David was the youngest. And the three oldest followed Saul. 15But David occasionally went and returned from Saul #1 Sam. 16:6, 8, 9; 1 Chr. 2:13to feed his father’s sheep at Bethlehem.
16And the Philistine drew near and presented himself forty days, morning and evening.
17Then Jesse said to his son David, “Take now for your brothers an ephah of this dried grain and these ten loaves, and run to your brothers at the camp. 18And carry these ten cheeses to the captain of their thousand, and #1 Sam. 16:11, 19; 2 Sam. 7:8see how your brothers fare, and bring back news of them.” 19Now Saul and they and all the men of Israel were in the Valley of Elah, fighting with the Philistines.
20So David rose early in the morning, left the sheep with a keeper, and took the things and went as Jesse had commanded him. And he came to the camp as the army was going out to the fight and shouting for the battle. 21For Israel and the Philistines had drawn up in battle array, army against army. 22And David left his supplies in the hand of the supply keeper, ran to the army, and came and greeted his brothers. 23Then as he talked with them, there was the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, coming up from the armies of the Philistines; and he spoke #Gen. 37:13, 14according to the same words. So David heard them. 24And all the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him and were dreadfully afraid. 25So the men of Israel said, “Have you seen this man who has come up? Surely he has come up to defy Israel; and it shall be that the man who kills him the king will enrich with great riches, #1 Sam. 17:8–10will give him his daughter, and give his father’s house exemption from taxes in Israel.”
26Then David spoke to the men who stood by him, saying, “What shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away #Josh. 15:16the reproach from Israel? For who is this #1 Sam. 11:2uncircumcised Philistine, that he should #1 Sam. 14:6; 17:36; Jer. 9:25, 26defy the armies of #1 Sam. 17:10the living God?”
27And the people answered him in this manner, saying, #Deut. 5:26; 2 Kin. 19:4; Jer. 10:10“So shall it be done for the man who kills him.”
28Now Eliab his oldest brother heard when he spoke to the men; and Eliab’s #1 Sam. 17:25anger was aroused against David, and he said, “Why did you come down here? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your pride and the insolence of your heart, for you have come down to see the battle.”
29And David said, “What have I done now? #Gen. 37:4, 8–36; (Prov. 18:19; Matt. 10:36)Is there not a cause?” 30Then he turned from him toward another and #1 Sam. 17:17said the same thing; and these people answered him as the first ones did.
31Now when the words which David spoke were heard, they reported them to Saul; and he sent for him. 32Then David said to Saul, #1 Sam. 17:26, 27“Let no man’s heart fail because of him; #Deut. 20:1–4your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.”
33And Saul said to David, #1 Sam. 16:18“You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are a youth, and he a man of war from his youth.”
34But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep his father’s sheep, and when a #Num. 13:31; Deut. 9:2lion or a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock, 35I went out after it and struck it, and delivered the lamb from its mouth; and when it arose against me, I caught it by its beard, and struck and killed it. 36Your servant has killed both lion and bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God.” 37Moreover David said, #Judg. 14:5“The Lord, who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.”
And Saul said to David, #(2 Cor. 1:10; 2 Tim. 4:17, 18)“Go, and the Lord be with you!”
38So Saul clothed David with his armor, and he put a bronze helmet on his head; he also clothed him with a coat of mail. 39David fastened his sword to his armor and tried to walk, for he had not tested them. And David said to Saul, “I cannot walk with these, for I have not tested them.” So David took them off.
40Then he took his staff in his hand; and he chose for himself five smooth stones from the brook, and put them in a shepherd’s bag, in a pouch which he had, and his sling was in his hand. And he drew near to the Philistine. 41So the Philistine came, and began drawing near to David, and the man who bore the shield went before him. 42And when the Philistine looked about and saw David, he #1 Sam. 20:13; 1 Chr. 22:11, 16disdained him; for he was only a youth, #(Ps. 123:4; Prov. 16:18; 1 Cor. 1:27, 28)ruddy and good-looking. 43So the Philistine #1 Sam. 16:12said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. 44And the Philistine #1 Sam. 24:14; 2 Sam. 3:8; 9:8; 16:9; 2 Kin. 8:13said to David, “Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field!”
45Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. #1 Sam. 17:46; 1 Kin. 20:10, 11But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have #2 Sam. 22:33, 35; 2 Chr. 32:8; Ps. 124:8; (2 Cor. 10:4); Heb. 11:33, 34defied. 46This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you. And this day I will give #1 Sam. 17:10the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, #Deut. 28:26that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. 47Then all this assembly shall know that the Lord #Josh. 4:24; 1 Kin. 8:43; 18:36; 2 Kin. 19:19; Is. 52:10does not save with sword and spear; for #1 Sam. 14:6; 2 Chr. 14:11; 20:15; Ps. 44:6; Hos. 1:7; Zech. 4:6the battle is the Lord’s, and He will give you into our hands.”
48So it was, when the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, that David hurried and #2 Chr. 20:15ran toward the army to meet the Philistine. 49Then David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone; and he slung it and struck the Philistine in his forehead, so that the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the earth. 50So David prevailed over the Philistine with a #Ps. 27:3sling and a stone, and struck the Philistine and killed him. But there was no sword in the hand of David. 51Therefore David ran and stood over the Philistine, took his #Judg. 3:31; 15:15; 20:16sword and drew it out of its sheath and killed him, and cut off his head with it.
And when the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, #1 Sam. 21:9; 2 Sam. 23:21they fled. 52Now the men of Israel and Judah arose and shouted, and pursued the Philistines as far as the entrance of the valley and to the gates of Ekron. And the wounded of the Philistines fell along the road to #Heb. 11:34Shaaraim, even as far as Gath and Ekron. 53Then the children of Israel returned from chasing the Philistines, and they plundered their tents. 54And David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem, but he put his armor in his tent.
55When Saul saw David going out against the Philistine, he said to #Josh. 15:36Abner, the commander of the army, “Abner, #1 Sam. 14:50whose son is this youth?”
And Abner said, “As your soul lives, O king, I do not know.”
56So the king said, “Inquire whose son this young man is.”
57Then, as David returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul #1 Sam. 16:21, 22with the head of the Philistine in his hand. 58And Saul said to him, “Whose son are you, young man?”
So David answered, #1 Sam. 17:54“I am the son of your servant Jesse the Bethlehemite.”
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The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Copyright © 1982 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.