1 Samuel 17:34–58

³⁴David answered 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 after it, struck it down, and rescued the lamb from its mouth.^a If it reared up against me, I would grab it by its fur,^A strike it down, and kill it. ³⁶Your servant has killed lions and bears; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God.” ³⁷Then David said, “The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.”^b

Saul said to David, “Go, and may the Lord be with you.”^c

³⁸Then Saul had his own military clothes put on David. He put a bronze helmet on David’s head and had him put on armor. ³⁹David strapped his sword on over the military clothes and tried to walk, but he was not used to them. “I can’t walk in these,” David said to Saul, “I’m not used to them.” So David took them off. ⁴⁰Instead, he took his staff in his hand^d and chose five smooth stones from the wadi and put them in the pouch, in his shepherd’s bag. Then, with his sling in his hand, he approached the Philistine.

⁴¹The Philistine came closer and closer to David, with the shield-bearer in front of him. ⁴²When the Philistine looked and saw David, he despised him^e because he was just a youth, healthy^Bf and handsome. ⁴³He said to David, “Am I a dog^g that you come against me with sticks?”^C Then he cursed David by his gods.^{h 44}“Come here,” the Philistine called to David, “and I’ll give your flesh to the birds of the sky and the wild beasts!”ⁱ

⁴⁵David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with a sword, spear, and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord of Armies, the God of the ranks of Israel—you have defied him.^{j 46}Today, the Lord will hand you over to me. Today, I’ll strike you down, remove your head, and give the corpses^D of the Philistine camp to the birds of the sky and the wild creatures of the earth. Then all the world will know that Israel has a God,^{k 47}and this whole assembly will know that it is not by sword or by spear that the Lord saves,^l for the battle is the Lord’s.^m He will hand you over to us.”

⁴⁸When the Philistine started forward to attack him, David ran quickly to the battle line to meet the Philistine.^{n 49}David put his hand in the bag, took out a stone, slung it, and hit the Philistine on his forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell facedown to the ground. ⁵⁰David defeated the Philistine with a sling and a stone. David overpowered the Philistine and killed him without having a sword. ⁵¹David ran and stood over him. He grabbed the Philistine’s sword,^o pulled it from its sheath, and used it to kill him. Then he cut off his head. When the Philistines saw that their hero was dead, they fled.^{p 52}The men of Israel and Judah rallied, shouting their battle cry, and chased the Philistines to the entrance of the valley and to the gates of Ekron.^Aq Philistine bodies were strewn all along the Shaaraim road^r to Gath and Ekron.

⁵³When the Israelites returned from the pursuit of the Philistines, they plundered their camps. ⁵⁴David took Goliath’s^B head and brought it to Jerusalem, but he put Goliath’s weapons in his own tent.

⁵⁵ When Saul had seen David going out to confront the Philistine, he asked Abner the commander of the army, “Whose son is this youth, Abner?”^s

“Your Majesty, as surely as you live, I don’t know,” Abner replied.

⁵⁶The king said, “Find out whose son this young man is!”

⁵⁷When David returned from killing the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul with the Philistine’s head still in his hand.^{t 58}Saul said to him, “Whose son are you, young man?”

“The son of your servant Jesse of Bethlehem,”^u David answered.