1 Samuel 17:12–31

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.