1 Samuel 17–18

David and Goliath

17Now the Philistines gathered their forces for war and assembled^c at Sokoh in Judah. They pitched camp at Ephes Dammim, between Sokoh^d and Azekah.^{e 2}Saul and the Israelites assembled and camped in the Valley of Elah^f and drew up their battle line to meet the Philistines. ³The Philistines occupied one hill and the Israelites another, with the valley between them.

⁴A champion named Goliath,^g who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp. His height was six cubits and a span.^{a 5}He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armor of bronze weighing five thousand shekels^b; ⁶on his legs he wore bronze greaves, and a bronze javelin^h was slung on his back. ⁷His spear shaft was like a weaver’s rod,ⁱ and its iron point weighed six hundred shekels.^c His shield bearer^j went ahead of him.

⁸Goliath stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, “Why do you come out and line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose^k a man and have him come down to me. ⁹If he is able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects; but if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us.” ¹⁰Then the Philistine said, “This day I defy^l the armies of Israel! Give me a man and let us fight each other.^m” ¹¹On hearing the Philistine’s words, Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified.

¹²Now David was the son of an Ephrathiteⁿ named Jesse,^o who was from Bethlehem^p in Judah. Jesse had eight^q sons, and in Saul’s time he was very old. ¹³Jesse’s three oldest sons had followed Saul to the war: The firstborn was Eliab;^r the second, Abinadab;^s and the third, Shammah.^{t 14}David was the youngest. The three oldest followed Saul, ¹⁵but David went back and forth from Saul to tend^u his father’s sheep^v at Bethlehem.

¹⁶For forty days the Philistine came forward every morning and evening and took his stand.

¹⁷Now Jesse said to his son David, “Take this ephah^dw of roasted grain^x and these ten loaves of bread for your brothers and hurry to their camp. ¹⁸Take along these ten cheeses to the commander of their unit. See how your brothers^y are and bring back some assurance^e from them. ¹⁹They are with Saul and all the men of Israel in the Valley of Elah, fighting against the Philistines.”

²⁰Early in the morning David left the flock in the care of a shepherd, loaded up and set out, as Jesse had directed. He reached the camp as the army was going out to its battle positions, shouting the war cry. ²¹Israel and the Philistines were drawing up their lines facing each other. ²²David left his things with the keeper of supplies,^z ran to the battle lines and asked his brothers how they were. ²³As he was talking with them, Goliath, the Philistine champion from Gath, stepped out from his lines and shouted his usual^a defiance, and David heard it. ²⁴Whenever the Israelites saw the man, they all fled from him in great fear.

²⁵Now the Israelites had been saying, “Do you see how this man keeps coming out? He comes out to defy Israel. The king will give great wealth to the man who kills him. He will also give him his daughter^b in marriage and will exempt his family from taxes^c in Israel.”

²⁶David asked the men standing near him, “What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace^d from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised^e Philistine that he should defy^f the armies of the living^g God?”

²⁷They repeated to him what they had been saying and told him, “This is what will be done for the man who kills him.”

²⁸When Eliab, David’s oldest brother, heard him speaking with the men, he burned with anger^h at him and asked, “Why have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the wilderness? I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is; you came down only to watch the battle.”

²⁹“Now what have I done?” said David. “Can’t I even speak?” ³⁰He then turned away to someone else and brought up the same matter, and the men answered him as before. ³¹What David said was overheard and reported to Saul, and Saul sent for him.

³²David said to Saul, “Let no one lose heartⁱ on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.”

³³Saul replied,^j “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a young man, and he has been a warrior from his youth.”

³⁴But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion^k or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, ³⁵I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized^l it by its hair, struck it and killed it. ³⁶Your servant has killed both the lion^m and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. ³⁷The Lord who rescuedⁿ me from the paw of the lion^o and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.”

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

³⁸Then Saul dressed David in his own^q tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. ³⁹David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them.

“I cannot go in these,” he said to Saul, “because I am not used to them.” So he took them off. ⁴⁰Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd’s bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine.

⁴¹Meanwhile, the Philistine, with his shield bearer^r in front of him, kept coming closer to David. ⁴²He looked David over and saw that he was little more than a boy, glowing with health and handsome,^s and he despised^t him. ⁴³He said to David, “Am I a dog,^u that you come at me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. ⁴⁴“Come here,” he said, “and I’ll give your flesh to the birds^v and the wild animals!^w”

⁴⁵David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin,^x but I come against you in the name^y of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.^{z 46}This day the Lord will deliver^a you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will give the carcasses^b of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world^c will know that there is a God in Israel.^{d 47}All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword^e or spear that the Lord saves;^f for the battle^g is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.”

⁴⁸As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him. ⁴⁹Reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell facedown on the ground.

⁵⁰So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling^h and a stone; without a sword in his hand he struck down the Philistine and killed him.

⁵¹David ran and stood over him. He took hold of the Philistine’s sword and drew it from the sheath. After he killed him, he cutⁱ off his head with the sword.^j

When the Philistines saw that their hero was dead, they turned and ran. ⁵²Then the men of Israel and Judah surged forward with a shout and pursued the Philistines to the entrance of Gath^f and to the gates of Ekron.^k Their dead were strewn along the Shaaraim^l road to Gath and Ekron. ⁵³When the Israelites returned from chasing the Philistines, they plundered their camp.

⁵⁴David took the Philistine’s head and brought it to Jerusalem; he put the Philistine’s weapons in his own tent.

⁵⁵As Saul watched David^m going out to meet the Philistine, he said to Abner, commander of the army, “Abner,ⁿ whose son is that young man?”

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

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

⁵⁷As soon as David returned from killing the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul, with David still holding the Philistine’s head.

⁵⁸“Whose son are you, young man?” Saul asked him.

David said, “I am the son of your servant Jesse^o of Bethlehem.”

Saul’s Growing Fear of David

18After David had finished talking with Saul, Jonathan^p became one in spirit with David, and he loved^q him as himself.^{r 2}From that day Saul kept David with him and did not let him return home to his family. ³And Jonathan made a covenant^s with David because he loved him as himself. ⁴Jonathan took off the robe^t he was wearing and gave it to David, along with his tunic, and even his sword, his bow and his belt.^u

⁵Whatever mission Saul sent him on, David was so successful^v that Saul gave him a high rank in the army.^w This pleased all the troops, and Saul’s officers as well.

⁶When the men were returning home after David had killed the Philistine, the women came out from all the towns of Israel to meet King Saul with singing and dancing,^x with joyful songs and with timbrels^y and lyres. ⁷As they danced, they sang:^z

“Saul has slain his thousands,

and David his tens^a of thousands.”

⁸Saul was very angry; this refrain displeased him greatly. “They have credited David with tens of thousands,” he thought, “but me with only thousands. What more can he get but the kingdom?^b” ⁹And from that time on Saul kept a close^c eye on David.

¹⁰The next day an evil^a spirit^d from God came forcefully on Saul. He was prophesying in his house, while David was playing the lyre,^e as he usually^f did. Saul had a spear^g in his hand ¹¹and he hurled it, saying to himself,^h “I’ll pin David to the wall.” But David eludedⁱ him twice.^j

¹²Saul was afraid^k of David, because the Lord^l was with^m David but had departed fromⁿ Saul. ¹³So he sent David away from him and gave him command over a thousand men, and David led^o the troops in their campaigns.^{p 14}In everything he did he had great success,^q because the Lord was with^r him. ¹⁵When Saul saw how successful he was, he was afraid of him. ¹⁶But all Israel and Judah…