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1 Samuel 17:1-58 — David and Goliath

1Sam.17.1-58

¹Now the Philistines gathered their forces for war and assembled at Socoh, which belongs to Judah. They camped between Socoh and Azekah, at Ephes-dammim. ²Saul and the men of Israel assembled and camped in the Valley of Elah, and they drew up for battle against the Philistines. ³The Philistines stood on the hill on one side, and Israel stood on the hill on the other side, with the valley between them. ⁴Then a champion came out from the camp of the Philistines; his name was Goliath, from Gath. His height was six cubits and a span . ⁵He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armor, and the weight of the armor was five thousand shekels of bronze . ⁶He had bronze greaves on his legs and a bronze javelin slung between his shoulders. ⁷The shaft of his spear was like a weaver's beam, and the iron head of his spear weighed six hundred shekels . His shield-bearer went before him. ⁸He stood and shouted to the battle lines of Israel, 'Why have you come out to draw up for battle? Am I not the Philistine, and are 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 will be our servants and serve us. ¹⁰Then the Philistine said, 'I defy the battle lines of Israel this day. Give me a man, and let us fight together.' ¹¹When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid. ¹²Now David was the son of an Ephrathite from Bethlehem of Judah whose name was Jesse, and he had eight sons. In the days of Saul, the man was old, advanced in years. ¹³The three oldest sons of Jesse had followed Saul to the battle. The names of his three sons who went to the battle were Eliab the firstborn, Abinadab the second, and Shammah the third. ¹⁴David was the youngest, and the three oldest had followed Saul. ¹⁵David would go back and forth from Saul to tend his father's sheep at Bethlehem. ¹⁶The Philistine came forward morning and evening and took his stand for forty days. ¹⁷Jesse said to his son David, 'Take now for your brothers this ephah of roasted grain and these ten loaves, and hurry to the camp to your brothers.' ¹⁸Bring these ten cheeses to the commander of a thousand, check on your brothers' welfare, and bring back some token from them. ¹⁹Saul, they, and all the men of Israel were in the Valley of Elah, fighting with the Philistines. ²⁰So David rose early in the morning, left the sheep with a keeper, took the provisions, and went as Jesse had commanded him. He came to the encampment just as the army was going out to the battle line, shouting the war cry. ²¹Israel and the Philistines drew up line against line. ²²David left the supplies he was carrying with the keeper of the baggage and ran to the battle line. When he arrived, he asked his brothers how they were. ²³As he was speaking with them, behold, the champion came up, Goliath the Philistine from Gath by name, from the battle lines of the Philistines, and he spoke these same words. And David heard him. ²⁴All the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him and were greatly afraid. ²⁵The men of Israel said, 'Have you seen this man who has come up? Surely he has come up to defy Israel. And the man who strikes him down, the king will enrich with great wealth, and he will give him his daughter, and he will make his father's house free from obligation in Israel .' ²⁶David said to the men who were standing with him, 'What will be done for the man who strikes down this Philistine and removes reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the battle lines of the living God?' ²⁷The people answered him in this way: 'This is what will be done for the man who strikes him down.' ²⁸Now Eliab his oldest brother heard him speaking to the men, and Eliab's anger burned against David. 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 watch the battle.' ²⁹David said, 'What have I done now? Was it not only a question?' ³⁰David turned away from Eliab and, facing another man, said the same thing. And the people answered him as before. ³¹When the words David had spoken were heard, they reported them before Saul, and he sent for him. ³²David said to Saul, 'Let no man's heart fail because of him. Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.' ³³Saul said to David, 'You are not able to go against this Philistine and fight with him, for you are only a youth, and he has been a man of war from his youth.' ³⁴David said to Saul, 'Your servant used to shepherd his father's sheep. And when a lion came, or a bear, and carried off a lamb from the flock,' ³⁵'I went out after it, struck it, and rescued the lamb from its mouth. And when it rose against me, I seized it by its beard, struck it, and killed it.' ³⁶'Your servant has struck down both the lion and the bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the battle lines of the living God.' ³⁷And David said, 'The LORD, who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, he will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.' Then Saul said to David, 'Go, and the LORD be with you.' ³⁸Then Saul clothed David with his own garments, put a bronze helmet on his head, and clothed him with armor. ³⁹David strapped Saul's sword over his garments and tried to go, for he had not tested them. But David said to Saul, 'I cannot go with these, for I have not tested them.' So David removed them from himself. ⁴⁰Then he took his staff in his hand and chose for himself five smooth stones from the stream and put them in the shepherd's bag that he had, in the pouch. And with his sling in his hand, he approached the Philistine. ⁴¹The Philistine came on, drawing nearer to David, with the shield-bearer before him. ⁴²When the Philistine looked and saw David, he despised him, for he was only a youth, ruddy and handsome in appearance. ⁴³And the Philistine said to David, 'Am I a 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 to the birds of the heavens and to the beasts of the field.' ⁴⁵Then David said to the Philistine, 'You come to me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of Armies, the God of the battle lines of Israel, whom you have defied.' ⁴⁶This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and remove your head from you. And I will give the corpses of the Philistine camp this day to the birds of the heavens and to the wild beasts of the earth, so that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. ⁴⁷And all this assembly will know that the LORD does not save by sword and spear, for the battle belongs to the LORD, and he will give you into our hand.' ⁴⁸And when the Philistine rose and came nearer to meet David, David hurried and ran to the battle line to meet the Philistine. ⁴⁹David put his hand into the bag, took from there a stone, slung it, and struck the Philistine on his forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell facedown to the ground. ⁵⁰So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone; he struck the Philistine and killed him, though there was no sword in David's hand. ⁵¹Then David ran and stood over the Philistine, took his sword, drew it out of its sheath, killed him, and cut off his head with it. When the Philistines saw that their mighty warrior was dead, they fled. ⁵²Then the men of Israel and Judah rose with a shout and pursued the Philistines as far as the valley and as far as the gates of Ekron. And the slain of the Philistines fell along the road to Shaaraim, as far as Gath and Ekron. ⁵³Then the sons of Israel returned from pursuing the Philistines and plundered their camp. ⁵⁴David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem, but he put his weapons in his own tent. ⁵⁵As Saul saw David going out to meet the Philistine, he said to Abner, the commander of the army, 'Abner, whose son is this young man?' And Abner said, 'As your soul lives, O king, I do not know.' ⁵⁶And the king said, 'Find out whose son this young man is.' ⁵⁷And when David returned from striking down the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul, with the head of the Philistine in his hand. ⁵⁸Saul said to him, 'Whose son are you, young man?' And David said, 'I am the son of your servant Jesse from Bethlehem.'

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4/11/2026

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