1 Samuel 17

1The Philistines gathered their armies for battle, and they assembled at Socoh, which belongs to Judah, and camped between Socoh and Azekah, at Ephes-dammim.

2And Saul and the men of Israel gathered together and camped in the Valley of Elah, and they drew up for battle against the Philistines.

3The Philistines were standing on the mountain on one side, and Israel was standing on the mountain on the other side, with the valley between them.

4Then a champion came out from the camps of the Philistines; his name was Goliath, from Gath. His height was four cubits and a span.

5He had a bronze helmet on his head, and he was clothed with a coat of scale armor; and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of bronze.

6And he had bronze greaves on his legs, and a bronze javelin between his shoulders.

7The shaft of his spear was like a weaver’s beam, and the iron head of his spear weighed six hundred shekels; and the bearer of the shield went before him.

8He stood and called out to the battle lines of Israel and said to them, “Why do you come out to array yourselves for battle? Am I not the Philistine, and are you not servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me.”

9If he is able to fight with me and strike me down, then we will be your servants. But if I prevail against him and strike him down, then you will be our servants and serve us.

10Then the Philistine said, “I have defied the ranks of Israel this day. Give me a man, and let us fight together.”

11When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.

12David was the son of an Ephrathite from Bethlehem of Judah, whose name was Jesse, and he had eight sons. In the days of Saul, the man was old, advanced in years.

13The three oldest sons of Jesse had gone after Saul to the battle. And the names of his three sons who had gone to the battle were Eliab the firstborn, his second Abinadab, and the third Shammah.

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

15David went back and forth from Saul to shepherd his father's flock at Bethlehem.

16The Philistine came forward morning and evening and took his stand for forty days.

17And Jesse said to David his son, “Please take to your brothers this ephah of roasted grain and these ten loaves, and run to the camp to your brothers.”

18Also bring these ten cuts of cheese to the commander of the thousand, check on your brothers’ welfare, and bring back some token from them.

19Saul 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, took the supplies, and went, just as Jesse had commanded him. He came to the encampment as the army was going out to the battle line and shouting the war cry.

21And Israel and the Philistines drew up battle line against battle line.

22So David left the supplies with the keeper of the supplies, and ran to the battle line. When he arrived, he asked his brothers how they were.

23While he was speaking with them, behold, the champion came up—the Philistine named Goliath, from Gath, from the ranks of the Philistines—and he spoke these words, and David heard.

24And every man of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from before him and were very afraid.

25And the men of Israel said, “Have you seen this man who is coming up? Surely he is coming up to defy Israel. And it shall be that the man who strikes him down, the king will enrich him with great riches, and will give him his daughter, and will make his father’s house free in Israel.”

26And David said to the men standing with him, “What will be done for the man who strikes down this Philistine and removes disgrace from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, this one who has defied the battle lines of the living God?”

27The people told him the same thing, saying, “This is what will be done for the man who strikes him down.”

28Eliab his oldest brother heard him speaking to the men, and Eliab’s anger burned against David, and he said, “Why have you come down here? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your presumption and the evil of your heart, for you have come down to see the battle.”

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

30Then he turned away from him toward another and said the same thing, and the people answered him as before.

31When the words that David had spoken were heard, they reported them before Saul, and he sent for him.

32And David said to Saul, “Let no man's heart fail because of him. Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.”

33Saul said to David, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him, because you are a youth, and he has been a man of war from his youth.”

34David said to Saul, “Your servant was tending his father’s sheep, and when a lion or a bear would come and carry off a lamb from the flock,”

35I went out after it and struck it and rescued it from its mouth; and when it rose up against me, I seized it by its beard and struck it and killed it.

36Your servant struck down both the lion and the bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the battle lines of the living God.

37David said, “Yahweh, 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.” Then Saul said to David, “Go, and may Yahweh be with you.”

38Then Saul clothed David with his garments, put a bronze helmet on his head, and clothed him with armor.

39And David strapped his sword over his armor and tried to go, for he had not tested them. But David said to Saul, “I cannot go with these, for I have not tested them.” So David removed them from himself.

40He took his staff in his hand and chose for himself five smooth stones from the wadi, and put them in the shepherd’s bag that he had, in the pouch; and his sling was in his hand. Then he approached the Philistine.

41And the Philistine came on, coming closer to David, with the man carrying the shield before him.

42When the Philistine looked and saw David, he despised him, because he was a youth, ruddy and handsome in appearance.

43And the Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.

44And the Philistine said to David, “Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the heavens and to 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, but I come to you in the name of Yahweh of Armies, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.”

46This day Yahweh will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and remove your head from you. And this day I will give the corpses of the Philistine camp to the birds of the sky and to the wild animals of the earth, so that all the earth may know that there is a God for Israel.

47and all this assembly will know that Yahweh does not save by sword or by spear; for the battle belongs to Yahweh, and he will give you into our hand.

48And when the Philistine rose and came and drew near to meet David, David hurried and ran toward the battle line to meet the Philistine.

49Then David reached his hand into the bag, took a stone from there, slung it, and struck the Philistine on his forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the ground.

50So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone; he struck the Philistine and killed him, though there was no sword in David’s hand.

51Then David ran and stood over the Philistine, took his sword, drew it from its sheath, and killed him; then he cut off his head with it. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled.

52Then the men of Israel and Judah rose up and shouted, and they pursued the Philistines as far as Gai and as far as the gates of Ekron. The slain Philistines fell along the road to Shaaraim, as far as Gath and as far as Ekron.

53The sons of Israel returned from pursuing the Philistines, and they plundered their camps.

54David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem, and he put his weapons in his tent.

55When Saul saw David going out to meet the Philistine, he said to Abner, the commander of the army, “Whose son is this young man, Abner?” And Abner said, “As your soul lives, O king, I do not know.”

56And the king said, “You, inquire whose son this young man is.”

57When David returned from striking down the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul, with the Philistine’s head in his hand.

58Saul said to him, “Whose son are you, young man?” And David said, “I am the son of your servant Jesse the Bethlehemite.”