1 Samuel 17

1The Philistines massed their troops for war. They came together at Socoh, a town of Judah, and set up camp between Socoh and Azekah at Ephes-dammim.

2Saul and the men of Israel also gathered. They set up camp in the Valley of Elah and formed their ranks for battle against the Philistines.

3The Philistines took their position on a hill on one side, and Israel took its position on a hill on the other side, and the valley lay between them.

4Then a champion came out from the Philistine camp. His name was Goliath, from Gath, and he was six cubits and a span tall.

5A bronze helmet was on his head, and he wore scale armor that weighed five thousand shekels of bronze.

6Bronze greaves covered his legs, and a bronze javelin hung between his shoulders.

7His spear had a shaft like a weaver’s beam and an iron head weighing six hundred shekels. The man who carried his shield went in front of him.

8He took his stand and called out to Israel’s lines, “Why come out and form ranks for battle? Am I not the Philistine, and you the servants of Saul? Pick a man for your side and have him come down to me.

9If he can fight me and kill me, we will become your servants. But if I prove stronger than he is and kill him, you will become our servants and serve us.”

10Then the Philistine said, “Today I have defied the ranks of Israel. Give me a man so the two of us can fight.”

11Saul and all Israel heard what the Philistine said, and they were filled with dread and very much afraid.

12Now David was the son of this Ephrathite from Bethlehem in Judah, a man called Jesse, who had eight sons. By Saul’s day the man was old, far along in years.

13Jesse’s three oldest sons had gone off with Saul to the war. The three who went to the war were named Eliab, the firstborn; Abinadab, the second; and Shammah, the third.

14David was the youngest son. The three oldest had gone after Saul,

15but David went back and forth between Saul and Bethlehem to shepherd his father’s flock.

16Every morning and every evening for forty days, the Philistine came near and took up his position.

17Jesse told his son David, “Take your brothers this ephah of roasted grain and these ten loaves, and rush them to your brothers in the camp.

18Carry these ten cheeses to the commander of their thousand. Check on your brothers’ welfare and come back with a pledge from them.”

19At that time Saul, David’s brothers, and all the men of Israel were in the Valley of Elah, at war with the Philistines.

20David got up early in the morning, left the flock with someone to watch it, took the supplies, and went as Jesse had instructed him. The army was going out to take up its battle line and was shouting the war cry when he reached the encampment.

21Israel and the Philistines drew up their lines, battle line facing battle line.

22David left his load with the man in charge of the supplies and ran to the battle line. When he got there, he asked how his brothers were doing.

23While he was still speaking with them, the champion, a Philistine from Gath named Goliath, came up out of the Philistine lines. He repeated his words, and David heard.

24At the sight of the man, all the men of Israel ran from him, badly frightened.

25The men of Israel said, “Have you seen this man who is coming up? He is coming up to defy Israel! The king will make the man who kills him very rich, give him his daughter, and free his father’s house from duties in Israel.”

26David asked the men who were standing with him, “What will be done for the one who strikes down this Philistine and takes away Israel’s shame? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he would defy the armies of the living God?”

27The people repeated the same words to him: “That is what the man who kills him will receive.”

28His oldest brother Eliab heard him talking to the men, and Eliab’s anger flared against David. He said, “Why did you come down here? Who did you leave those few sheep with in the wilderness? I know your arrogance and the evil in your heart. You came down just to see the fighting!”

29David said, “What have I done now? Was it not just a word?”

30Then he turned from him to another man and said the same thing, and the people answered him just as they had the first time.

31The words David spoke were heard and passed on to Saul, and Saul had him brought in.

32David told Saul, “No one should lose courage because of that man. Your servant will go out and fight this Philistine.”

33Saul told David, “You cannot go up against this Philistine to fight him. You are just a youth, and he has been a fighting man since his youth.”

34David replied to Saul, “Your servant used to shepherd his father’s flock. When a lion came, or a bear, and took a lamb from the flock,

35I would go out after it and strike it and save the lamb from its mouth. If it rose up against me, I would catch it by its beard, strike it, and kill it.

36Your servant has struck down lion and bear alike, and this uncircumcised Philistine will be just like one of them, since he has defied the armies of the living God.”

37David went on, “Yahweh, who saved me from the lion’s paw and from the bear’s paw, is the one who will save me from this Philistine’s hand.” Then Saul told David, “Go—and may Yahweh be with you.”

38Saul clothed David in his own battle garments, placed a bronze helmet on his head, and put a coat of mail on him.

39David strapped his sword over the garments and tried to walk, but he had never worn them before. So David said to Saul, “I cannot walk in these; I have never worn them before.” And David took them off.

40Then he took his staff in hand, picked out five smooth stones from the streambed, and put them in the shepherd’s bag he carried, in its pouch. Sling in hand, he went toward the Philistine.

41The Philistine came on, drawing nearer and nearer to David, and the man carrying his shield walked ahead of him.

42The Philistine looked, and when he saw David, he held him in contempt, for he was just a youth, ruddy and good-looking.

43He said to David, “Do you think I am a dog, that you come at me with sticks?” Then the Philistine called down curses on David by his gods.

44“Come here to me,” the Philistine said to David, “and I will feed your flesh to the birds of the sky and the animals of the field!”

45David answered the Philistine, “You are coming at me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin. But I am coming at you in the name of Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel’s ranks, the one you have defied.

46This very day Yahweh will hand you over to me. I will strike you down and cut off your head, and this very day I will give the corpses of the Philistine army to the birds of the sky and the wild animals of the earth. Then all the earth will know that Israel has a God,

47and everyone gathered here will know that Yahweh does not save by sword and spear. The battle belongs to Yahweh, and he will hand you over to us.”

48When the Philistine set out and drew near to confront David, David hurried and ran toward the battle line to meet the Philistine.

49David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone. He slung it and hit the Philistine in the forehead. The stone buried itself in his forehead, and he fell face down to the ground.

50In this way David defeated the Philistine with a sling and a stone. He struck the Philistine and killed him, though David had no sword in his hand.

51Then David ran and stood over the Philistine. He grasped the Philistine’s sword, pulled it from its sheath, and killed him. Then he cut off his head with it. When the Philistines saw that their mighty warrior was dead, they fled.

52The men of Israel and Judah sprang up, raised a shout, and chased the Philistines all the way to the entrance of the valley and to the gates of Ekron. Slain Philistines fell along the road from Shaaraim as far as Gath and Ekron.

53The Israelites returned from their hot pursuit of the Philistines and looted their camp.

54David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem. The Philistine’s weapons he placed in his own tent.

55When Saul saw David heading out to face the Philistine, he said to Abner, the army commander, “Abner, whose son is this young man?” Abner replied, “I swear by your life, O king, I do not know.”

56The king said, “You find out whose son this boy is.”

57When David came back from striking down the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul. The Philistine’s head was in David’s hand.

58Saul asked him, “Young man, whose son are you?” And David answered, “The son of your servant Jesse the Bethlehemite.”