1 Samuel 16–17

David Anointed King

16The Lord said to Samuel, ^r“How long will you grieve over Saul, since ^sI have rejected him from being king over Israel? ^tFill your horn with oil, and go. I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, ^ufor I have provided for myself a king among his sons.” ²And Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hears it, he will kill me.” And the Lord said, “Take a heifer with you and say, ^v‘I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.’ ³And invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do. ^wAnd you shall anoint for me him whom I declare to you.” ⁴Samuel did what the Lord commanded and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city ^xcame to meet him trembling and said, ^y“Do you come peaceably?” ⁵And he said, “Peaceably; I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. ^zConsecrate yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice.” And he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.

⁶When they came, he looked on ^aEliab and thought, “Surely the Lord’s anointed is before him.” ⁷But the Lord said to Samuel, ^b“Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, ^cbut the Lord looks on the heart.” ⁸Then Jesse called ^dAbinadab and made him pass before Samuel. And he said, “Neither has the Lord chosen this one.” ⁹Then Jesse made ^dShammah pass by. And he said, “Neither has the Lord chosen this one.” ¹⁰And Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel. And Samuel said to Jesse, “The Lord has not chosen these.” ¹¹Then Samuel said to Jesse, “Are all your sons here?” And he said, ^e“There remains yet the youngest,¹ but behold, he is keeping the sheep.” And Samuel said to Jesse, ^f“Send and get him, for we will not sit down till he comes here.” ¹²And he sent and brought him in. Now he was ^gruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome. And the Lord said, ^h“Arise, anoint him, for this is he.” ¹³Then Samuel took ⁱthe horn of oil ^jand anointed him in the midst of his brothers. ^kAnd the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward. And Samuel rose up and went to Ramah.

David in Saul’s Service

^14lNow the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, ^mand a harmful spirit from the Lord tormented him. ¹⁵And Saul’s servants said to him, “Behold now, a harmful spirit from God is tormenting you. ¹⁶Let our lord now command your servants ⁿwho are before you to seek out a man who is skillful in playing the lyre, and when the harmful spirit from God is upon you, he will ^oplay it, and you will be well.” ¹⁷So Saul said to his servants, “Provide for me a man who can play well and bring him to me.” ¹⁸One of the young men answered, “Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, who is skillful in playing, ^pa man of valor, a man of war, prudent in speech, and a man of good presence, ^qand the Lord is with him.” ¹⁹Therefore Saul sent messengers to Jesse and said, “Send me David your son, ^rwho is with the sheep.” ^20sAnd Jesse took a donkey laden with bread and a skin of wine and a young goat and sent them by David his son to Saul. ²¹And David came to Saul ^tand entered his service. And Saul loved him greatly, and he became his armor-bearer. ²²And Saul sent to Jesse, saying, “Let David remain in my service, for he has found favor in my sight.” ²³And ^uwhenever the harmful spirit from God was upon Saul, David took the lyre ^oand played it with his hand. So Saul was refreshed and was well, and the harmful spirit departed from him.

David and Goliath

17Now the Philistines ^vgathered their armies for battle. And they were gathered at ^wSocoh, which belongs to Judah, and encamped between Socoh and ^xAzekah, in ^yEphes-dammim. ²And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered, and encamped in ^zthe Valley of Elah, and drew up in line of battle against the Philistines. ³And the Philistines stood on the mountain on the one side, and Israel stood on the mountain on the other side, with a valley between them. ⁴And there came out from the camp of the Philistines a champion named ^aGoliath of ^bGath, whose height was six¹ cubits² and a span. ⁵He had a helmet of bronze on his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail, and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels³ of bronze. ⁶And he had bronze armor on his legs, and a ^cjavelin of bronze slung between his shoulders. ⁷The shaft of his spear was like a weaver’s beam, and his spear’s head weighed six hundred shekels of iron. ^dAnd his shield-bearer went before him. ⁸He stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, “Why have you come out to draw up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and ^eare 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 kill me, then we will be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants ^fand serve us.” ¹⁰And the Philistine said, ^g“I defy the ranks 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 ^hthe son of an ⁱEphrathite of Bethlehem in Judah, ^jnamed Jesse, ^kwho had eight sons. In the days of Saul the man was already old and advanced in years.^{4 13}The three oldest sons of Jesse had followed Saul to the battle. And ^lthe names of his three sons who went to the battle were Eliab the firstborn, and next to him Abinadab, and the third Shammah. ^14mDavid was the youngest. The three eldest followed Saul, ¹⁵but David went back and forth from Saul ⁿto feed his father’s sheep at Bethlehem. ¹⁶For forty days the Philistine came forward and took his stand, morning and evening.

¹⁷And Jesse said to David his son, “Take for your brothers an ephah⁵ of this parched grain, and these ten loaves, and carry them quickly to the camp to your brothers. ^18oAlso take these ten cheeses to the commander of their thousand. ^pSee if your brothers are well, and bring some token from them.”

¹⁹Now Saul and they and all the men of Israel were in the Valley of Elah, fighting with the Philistines. ²⁰And David rose early in the morning and left the sheep with a keeper and took the provisions and went, as Jesse had commanded him. And he came to ^qthe encampment as the host was going out to the battle line, shouting the war cry. ²¹And Israel and the Philistines drew up for battle, army against army. ²²And David left the ^rthings in charge of the keeper of the ^rbaggage and ran to the ranks and went and greeted his brothers. ²³As he talked with them, behold, ^sthe champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, came up out of the ranks of the Philistines and spoke ^tthe same words as before. And David heard him.

²⁴All the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him and were much afraid. ²⁵And the men of Israel said, “Have you seen this man who has come up? Surely he has come up to ^udefy Israel. And the king will enrich the man who kills him with great riches ^vand will give him his daughter and make his father’s house free in Israel.” ²⁶And David said to the men who stood by him, “What shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away ^wthe reproach from Israel? For who is this ^xuncircumcised Philistine, that he should ^udefy the armies of ^ythe living God?” ²⁷And the people answered him in the same way, ^z“So shall it be done to the man who kills him.”

²⁸Now Eliab his eldest brother heard when he spoke to the men. And Eliab’s anger was kindled against David, and he said, “Why have you come down? 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.” ²⁹And David said, “What have I done now? Was it not but a word?” ³⁰And he turned away from him toward another, and spoke ^bin the same way, and the people answered him again as before.

³¹When the words that David spoke were heard, they repeated them before Saul, and he sent for him. ³²And David said to Saul, ^c“Let no man’s heart fail because of him. ^dYour servant will go and fight with this Philistine.” ³³And Saul said to David, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him, for you are but a youth, and he has been a man of war from his youth.” ³⁴But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep sheep for his father. And when there came a lion, or a bear, and took a lamb from the flock, ³⁵I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth. And if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him. ³⁶Your servant has struck down both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, ^efor he has defied the armies of the living God.” ³⁷And David said, ^f“The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” And Saul said to David, “Go, ^gand the Lord be with you!”

³⁸Then Saul clothed David with his armor. He put a helmet of bronze on his head and clothed him with a coat of mail, ³⁹and David strapped his sword over his armor. And he tried in vain to go, for he had not tested them. Then David said to Saul, “I cannot go with these, for I have not tested them.” So David put them off. ⁴⁰Then he took his staff in his hand and chose five smooth stones from the brook and put them in his shepherd’s pouch. His sling was in his hand, and he approached the Philistine.

⁴¹And the Philistine moved forward and came near to David, ^hwith his shield-bearer in front of him. ⁴²And when the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him, for he was but a youth, ⁱruddy and handsome in appearance. ⁴³And the Philistine said to David, “Am I ^ja dog, that you come to me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. ⁴⁴The Philistine said to David, “Come to me, and I will give your flesh ^kto the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field.” ⁴⁵Then David said to the Philistine, “You come…