1 Samuel 16–17

CHAPTER 16

David Anointed King

¹Then Yahweh said to Samuel, “^aHow long will you be grieving over Saul? ^bI have rejected him from being king over Israel. ^cFill your horn with oil and go; I will send you to ^dJesse the Bethlehemite, for I ^esee among his sons a king for Me.”

²But Samuel said, “How can I go? Saul will hear of it and will kill me.” Then Yahweh said, “^aTake a heifer with you and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to Yahweh.’

³“And you shall invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and ^aI will make you know what you shall do; and ^byou shall anoint for Me the one whom I say to you.”

⁴So Samuel did what Yahweh said and came to ^aBethlehem. And the elders of the city came trembling to meet him and said, “^bDo you come in peace?”

⁵And he said, “In peace; I have come to sacrifice to Yahweh. ^aSet yourselves apart as holy and come with me to the sacrifice.” He also set apart Jesse and his sons as holy and invited them to the sacrifice.

⁶Now it happened, when they entered, he looked at ^aEliab and thought, “Surely the anointed of Yahweh is before Him.”

⁷But Yahweh said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for ¹God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, ^abut Yahweh looks at the heart.”

⁸Then Jesse called ^aAbinadab and made him pass before Samuel. And he said, “Yahweh has not chosen this one either.”

⁹Next Jesse made ^1aShammah pass by. And he said, “Yahweh has not chosen this one either.”

¹⁰Thus Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel. But Samuel said to Jesse, “Yahweh has not chosen these.”

¹¹And Samuel said to Jesse, “Are these all the young men?” And he said, “^aThere remains yet the youngest, and behold, he is shepherding the sheep.” Then Samuel said to Jesse, “Send and ¹bring him, for we will not turn around until he comes here.”

¹²So he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, with ^abeautiful eyes and a handsome appearance. And Yahweh said, “^bArise, anoint him, for this is he.”

¹³Then Samuel took the horn of oil and ^aanointed him in the midst of his brothers; and ^bthe Spirit of Yahweh ¹came mightily upon David from that day forward. And Samuel arose and went to Ramah.

David Becomes Saul’s Armor Bearer

^14aNow the Spirit of Yahweh departed from Saul, and ^ban evil spirit from Yahweh terrorized him.

¹⁵Saul’s servants then said to him, “Behold now, an evil spirit from God is terrorizing you.

¹⁶“Let our lord now speak to your servants who are before you. Let them seek a man who is a skillful musician on the harp; and it shall be that when the evil spirit from God is on you, ^ahe shall play the harp with his hand, and you will be well.”

¹⁷So Saul said to his servants, “Provide for me now a man who can play well and bring him to me.”

¹⁸Then one of the young men answered and said, “Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite who is a skillful musician, ^aa mighty man of valor, a warrior, one who is understanding in speech, and man of fine form; and ^bYahweh is with him.”

¹⁹So Saul sent messengers to Jesse and said, “Send me your son David who is with the flock.”

²⁰And Jesse ^atook a donkey loaded with bread and a wineskin of wine and a young goat and sent them to Saul by David his son.

²¹Then David came to Saul and ^astood before him; and ¹Saul loved him greatly, and he became his armor bearer.

²²So Saul sent to Jesse, saying, “Let David now stand before me, for he has found favor in my sight.”

²³Thus it happened that whenever ^athe evil spirit from God came to Saul, David would take the harp and play it with his hand; and Saul would be refreshed and be well, and the evil spirit would depart from him.

CHAPTER 17

Goliath Challenges Israel

¹Now ^athe Philistines gathered their camps for battle; and they were gathered at Socoh which belongs to Judah, and they camped between ^bSocoh and ^cAzekah, in ^dEphes-dammim.

²But Saul and the men of Israel were gathered and camped in ^athe valley of Elah and arranged themselves for battle to meet the Philistines.

³Now the Philistines stood on the mountain on one side while Israel stood on the mountain on the other side, with the valley between them.

⁴Then a champion came out from the camps of the Philistines named ^aGoliath, from ^bGath, whose height was ¹six cubits and a ²span.

⁵And he had a bronze helmet on his head, and he was clothed with scale-armor, and the weight of that scale-armor was five thousand ¹shekels of bronze.

⁶He also had bronze ¹greaves on his legs and a ^abronze ²javelin slung between his shoulders.

^7aAnd the shaft of his spear was like a weaver’s beam, and the head of his spear weighed six hundred shekels of iron; ^bhis shield-carrier also walked before him.

⁸And he stood and called out to the ¹battle lines of Israel and said to them, “Why do you come out to arrange yourselves for battle? Am I not the Philistine and you ^aslaves of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves and let him come down to me.

⁹“^aIf he is able to fight with me and strike me down, then we will become your slaves; but if I prevail against him and strike him down, then you shall become our slaves and serve us.”

¹⁰Again the Philistine said, “^aI openly ¹reproach the battle lines 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 ^athe son of ¹the ^bEphrathite of Bethlehem in Judah, whose name was Jesse, and ^che had eight sons. And ²Jesse was old in the days of Saul, advanced in years among men.

¹³And the three older sons of Jesse had gone. They had gone after Saul to the battle. And ^athe names of his three sons who went to the battle were Eliab the firstborn, and the second to him Abinadab, and the third Shammah.

^14aBut David was the youngest. Now the three oldest had gone after Saul,

^15abut David went back and forth from Saul ^bto shepherd his father’s flock at Bethlehem.

¹⁶Then the Philistine approached, morning and evening, for forty days and took his stand.

¹⁷Then Jesse said to David his son, “^aTake now for your brothers an ephah of this roasted grain and these ten loaves and run to the camp to your brothers.

¹⁸“^aYou shall also bring these ten cuts of cheese to the commander of their thousand, ^band look into the welfare of your brothers, and bring back ¹a token from them.

¹⁹“And Saul and they and all the men of Israel are in the valley of Elah, fighting with the Philistines.”

²⁰So David arose early in the morning and left the flock with a keeper and carried the supplies and went as Jesse had commanded him. And he came to the ^acircle of the camp while the military force was going out in battle lines shouting the war cry.

²¹And Israel and the Philistines arranged themselves in battle lines, battle line ¹against battle line.

²²Then David left his ^abaggage in the ¹care of the baggage keeper and ran to the battle line and entered in order to greet his brothers.

²³As he was speaking with them, behold, the champion, the Philistine from Gath named Goliath, was coming up from the battle lines of the Philistines, and he spoke ^athese same words; and David heard them.

²⁴Now all the men of Israel saw the man, and they fled from him and were greatly afraid.

²⁵And the men of Israel said, “Have you seen this man who is coming up? Surely he is coming up to ¹reproach Israel. And it will be that the king will enrich the man who strikes him down with great riches and ^awill give him his daughter and make his father’s house ²free in Israel.”

²⁶Then David spoke to the men who were standing by him, saying, “What will be done for the man who strikes down this Philistine and takes away ^athe reproach from Israel? For who is this ^buncircumcised Philistine, that he should ^1creproach the battle lines of ^dthe living God?”

²⁷And the people spoke to him in accord with this word, saying, “^aThus it will be done for the man who strikes him down.”

²⁸Then Eliab his oldest brother heard when he spoke to the men; and ^aEliab’s anger burned against David, and he said, “Why have you come down? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I myself know your arrogance and the wickedness of your heart, for you have come down in order to see the battle.”

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

³⁰Then he turned ¹away from him to another and ^asaid the same word; and the people responded to him with the same word as ²before.

David Puts Goliath to Death

³¹Then the words which David spoke were heard. And they told them ¹to Saul, and he sent for him.

³²And David said to Saul, “^aLet no man’s heart fail on account of him; ^byour servant will go and fight with this Philistine.”

³³Then Saul said to David, “^aYou are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are but a youth while he has been a warrior from his youth.”

³⁴But David said to Saul, “Your servant was shepherding his father’s sheep. And a lion and a bear would come and take a lamb from the flock,

³⁵and I would go out after it and strike it and ^arescue the lamb from its mouth. Then it rose up against me, and I would seize it by its beard and strike it down and put it to death.

³⁶“Your servant has struck down both the lion and the bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, since he has ¹reproached the battle lines of the living God.”

³⁷And David said, “^aYahweh, who delivered me from the hand of the lion and from the hand of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” And Saul said to David, “^bGo, and may Yahweh be with you.”

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

³⁹And David girded his sword over his armor and tried to walk, for he had not tested them. So David said to Saul, “I cannot go with these, for I have not tested them.” And David took them ¹off.

⁴⁰Then he took his stick in his hand and chose for himself five smooth stones from the brook and put them in the shepherd’s bag which he had, even in his pouch, and ^ahis…