Goliath Defies Israel
1The Philistines gathered their forces for war. They assembled at Socoh in Judah and camped between Socoh and Azekah, at Ephes-dammim. 2Saul and the men of Israel assembled and camped in the Valley of Elah, and drew up their battle line to face the Philistines. 3The Philistines stood on one hill and Israel on the other, with the valley between them. 4A champion came out from the Philistine camp named Goliath, from Gath. He was six cubits and a span tall. 5He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armor weighing five thousand shekels of bronze. 6He had bronze greaves on his legs and a bronze javelin slung between his shoulders. 7The shaft of his spear was like a weaver’s beam, and its iron point weighed six hundred shekels. His shield-bearer walked ahead of him. 8He stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, “Why have you come out to line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not servants of Saul? Choose a man and let him come down to me. 9If he is able to fight me and kill me, we will become your servants. But if I win and kill him, you will become our servants and serve us.” 10Then the Philistine said, “I defy the ranks of Israel this day. Give me a man, so we can fight each other!” 11When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and terrified. 12Now David was the son of an Ephrathite named Jesse from Bethlehem in Judah, who had eight sons. In Saul’s days he was already an old man, well along in years. 13The three eldest sons of Jesse had followed Saul into battle. The names of his three sons who went to war were Eliab the firstborn, then Abinadab, and the third, Shammah. 14David was the youngest. The three eldest followed Saul, 15but David went back and forth from Saul to tend his father’s sheep at Bethlehem. 16For forty days the Philistine came forward morning and evening and took his stand.
David Comes to the Battlefield
17Now Jesse said to his son David, “Take this ephah of roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread for your brothers, and hurry to the camp to your brothers. 18Take also these ten portions of cheese to their commander. See how your brothers are doing, and bring back some token from them.” 19Saul and the brothers and all the men of Israel were in the Valley of Elah, fighting against the Philistines. 20Early in the morning David left the flock with a keeper, loaded up, and set out as Jesse had commanded. He arrived at the camp just as the army was going out to the battle line, shouting the war cry. 21Israel and the Philistines drew up their lines, army facing army. 22David left his supplies with the keeper of the baggage, ran to the battle line, and asked his brothers how they were. 23As he was talking with them, the champion came up — Goliath the Philistine of Gath — and spoke the same words as before, and David heard them. 24When the men of Israel saw the man, they all fled from him in great fear. 25The men of Israel were saying, “Have you seen this man who keeps coming out? He comes out to defy Israel. The king will give great wealth to the man who kills him, and give him his daughter, and make his father’s house free in Israel.” 26David 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?” 27The people answered him the same way, saying, “This is what will be done for the man who kills him.” 28When Eliab, his oldest brother, heard him talking with the men, his anger burned against David, and he said, “Why did you come down here? Who did you leave those few sheep with in the wilderness? I know your pride and the wickedness of your heart — you came down only to watch the battle.” 29David said, “What have I done now? Was it not just a question?” 30He turned away from him to someone else and asked the same thing, and the people answered him just as before. 31When David’s words were overheard, they were reported to Saul, and he sent for him.
David Offers to Fight the Philistine
32David said to Saul, “Let no one’s heart fail because of him — your servant will go and fight this Philistine.” 33Saul said to David, “You cannot go fight this Philistine — you are only a boy, and he has been a warrior since his youth.” 34David said to Saul, “Your servant has been tending his father’s sheep. Whenever a lion or a bear came and carried off a lamb from the flock, 35I went out after it, struck it, and rescued the lamb from its mouth. And when it turned on me, I seized it by its jaw, struck it, and killed it. 36Your servant has struck down both lion and bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God.” 37David said, “Yahweh, who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear, will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.” Saul said to David, “Go, and may Yahweh be with you.” 38Then Saul dressed David in his own armor. He put a bronze helmet on his head and dressed him in a coat of armor. 39David strapped his sword over the armor and tried to walk, but he was not used to it. “I cannot go in this,” David said to Saul, “for I am not used to it.” So David took them off. 40Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the streambed, and put them in the pouch of his shepherd’s bag. With his sling in his hand, he approached the Philistine. 41The Philistine came closer and closer to David, with his shield-bearer walking ahead of him. 42When the Philistine looked and saw David, he despised him, for he was only a boy, ruddy and handsome. 43The Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?” And he cursed David by his gods. 44“Come here,” the Philistine said to David, “and I will give your flesh to the birds of the sky and the beasts of the field.” 45David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of Yahweh of Hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46This day Yahweh will hand you over to me. I will strike you down and cut off your head. 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, and all the earth will know that Israel has a God. 47And all this assembly will know that Yahweh saves not by sword or spear — the battle belongs to Yahweh, and he will hand you over to us.”
David Defeats Goliath
48As the Philistine started forward to meet him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him. 49David reached into his bag, took out a stone, slung it, and struck the Philistine in the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell facedown on the ground. 50So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone. He struck the Philistine down and killed him, though David had no sword in his hand. 51David ran and stood over the Philistine. He took hold of his sword, drew it from its sheath, killed him, and cut off his head with it. When the Philistines saw that their hero was dead, they fled. 52Then the men of Israel and Judah rose up with a shout and pursued the Philistines all the way to the entrance of Gath and to the gates of Ekron. The Philistine dead lay along the Shaaraim road, all the way to Gath and Ekron. 53When the Israelites returned from chasing the Philistines, they plundered their camp. 54David took the Philistine’s head and brought it to Jerusalem, and he put the man’s weapons in his own tent. 55When Saul saw David going out to meet the Philistine, he asked Abner, the commander of the army, “Abner, whose son is this young man?” Abner said, “As surely as you live, my king, I do not know.” 56The king said, “Find out whose son this young man is.” 57As soon as David returned from killing the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul, with the head of the Philistine still in his hand. 58“Whose son are you, young man?” Saul asked him. David said, “I am the son of your servant Jesse of Bethlehem.”
