1 Samuel 17:12–31

¹²And David is son of this Ephrathite of Beth-Lehem-Judah, whose name is Jesse, and he hath eight sons, and the man in the days of Saul hath become aged among men; ¹³and the three eldest sons of Jesse go, they have gone after Saul to battle; and the name of his three sons who have gone into battle are Eliab the first-born, and his second Abinadab, and the third Shammah. ¹⁴And David is the youngest, and the three eldest have gone after Saul, ¹⁵and David is going and returning from Saul, to feed the flock of his father at Beth-Lehem. ¹⁶And the Philistine draweth nigh, morning and evening, and stationeth himself forty days. ¹⁷And Jesse saith to David his son, ‘Take, I pray thee, to thy brethren, an ephah of this roasted corn, and these ten loaves, and run to the camp to thy brethren; ¹⁸and these ten cuttings of the cheese thou dost take in to the head of the thousand, and thy brethren thou dost inspect for welfare, and their pledge dost receive.’ ¹⁹And Saul, and they, and all the men of Israel are in the valley of Elah, fighting with the Philistines. ²⁰And David riseth early in the morning, and leaveth the flock to a keeper, and lifteth up, and goeth, as Jesse commanded him, and he cometh in to the path, and to the force which is going out unto the rank, and they have shouted for battle; ²¹and Israel and the Philistines set in array rank to meet rank. ²²And David letteth down the goods from off him on the hand of a keeper of the goods, and runneth into the rank, and cometh and asketh of his brethren of welfare. ²³And he is speaking with them, and lo, a man of the duellists is coming up, Goliath the Philistine is his name, of Gath, out of the ranks of the Philistines, and he speaketh according to those words, and David heareth; ²⁴and all the men of Israel when they see the man flee from his presence, and are greatly afraid. ²⁵And the men of Israel say, ‘Have ye seen this man who is coming up? for, to reproach Israel he is coming up, and it hath been—the man who smiteth him, the king doth enrich him with great riches, and his daughter he doth give to him, and his father’s house doth make free in Israel.’ ²⁶And David speaketh unto the men who are standing by him, saying, ‘What is done to the man who smiteth this Philistine, and hath turned aside reproach from Israel? for who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he hath reproached the ranks of the living God?’ ²⁷And the people speak to him according to this word, saying, ‘Thus it is done to the man who smiteth him.’ ²⁸And Eliab, his eldest brother, heareth when he speaketh unto the men, and the anger of Eliab burneth against David, and he saith, ‘Why is this—thou hast come down! and to whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness? I have known thy pride, and the evil of thy heart—for, to see the battle thou hast come down.’ ²⁹And David saith, ‘What have I done now? is it not a word?’ ³⁰And he turneth round from him unto another, and saith according to this word, and the people return him word as the first word.

³¹And the words which David hath spoken are heard, and they declare before Saul, and he receiveth him;