Open English Translation 1SA Chapter 17

17 At that time, the Philistines gathered their army divisions together ready for battle. They assembled at Sokoh in Yehudah, and camped between Sokoh and Azekah in Efes-Dammim. 2 Sha’ul and the Israeli warriors gathered and camped in the Elah valley, then they arranged themselves for battle against the Philistines. 3 So the Philistines stood on one hill and the Israelis on the opposite hill, with the valley between them.

4 Then the Philistines sent a champion out from their camp to represent them. His name was Goliat and he came from Gat, and he was almost three metres[fn] tall. 5 He wore a bronze helmet, and his body armour had overlapping plates weighing a total of some fifty-five kilograms. 6 He had bronze armour on his legs, and a bronze plate[fn] between his shoulders. 7 The wooden shaft of his spear was like a weaver’s beam and his spear time weighed around seven kilograms. His shield-bearer walked in front of him. 8 Goliat stood there and called out to the Israeli warriors, “Why have you all come out to line up for battle? Now, I’m down here as a Philistine, and all of you are Sha’ul’s slaves, so choose a man for yourselves and let him come down here to fight me. 9 If he’s able to fight with me and kill me, then we’ll become your slaves. But if I’m the winner and kill him, then you’ll all become our slaves and work for us.” 10 Then he said, “I personally scoff at Israel’s lines today. Give me a man so we can fight together.” 11 When Sha’ul and the Israelis heard all that, they were discouraged and very afraid.

12 [fn]Now David was the son of Yishay (from the Efrat clan, he lived in Bethlehem in Yehudah) who had eight sons, and by Sha’ul’s time, was quite old compared to other men.[fn] 13 Yishay’s three oldest sons (Eliab, Abinadab, and Shammah) had gone to the battle with Sha’ul, 14 but David was the youngest. While the three oldest were with Sha’ul, 15 David went back and forth between Sha’ul’s camp and looking after his father’s flock at Bethlehem.

16 For forty days, the Philistine champion came out and presented himself in the early morning and again in the evening.

17 One day Yishay said to his son David, “Here’s a sack of roasted grain and ten loaves of bread. Take them straight away to your brothers at the camp. 18 And take these ten cuts of cheese to the commander of their unit. Find out how your brothers are doing and bring back anything they want to send to me. 19 Sha’ul and them and the other warriors are in the Elah valley, fighting against the Philistines.”

20 So David got up early in the morning and left the flock with a shepherd, and set out just like Yishay had told him to. When he got to the battleground and the camp, the warriors were just going out to the battle line and they were shouting the battle cry. 21 The Israelis and the Philistines arranged themselves—battle line to battle line. 22 David left what he’d brought with a guard, and ran into the battle line. Then he caught up with his brothers and asked them how they were doing. 23 While he was talking with them, look, the Philistine champion from Gat was coming out with his challenge. Goliat spoke like he had before and David heard it all. 24 But when the Israelis saw the champion, they were terrified and fled away from him. 25 saying to each other, “Have you seen this man who’s coming out? He’s certainly coming to mock Israel! Any man who can defeat him will be made very wealthy by the king, and he’ll give his daughter to him, plus his extended family will be exempt from paying taxes.”

26 “What was it that’ll be done for the man who kills this Philistine and take’s Israel’s disgrace away?” David asked some of the men standing around him. “Because who does that uncircumcised Philistine think he is that he would taunt the army of the living God?” 27 Then the men told him again what would be given to the man who defeats him.

28 But when David’s oldest brother Eliab heard him talking to the men, he got very angry and scolded him, “Why have you come down here? Who’s looking after those few sheep that you left in the desert? I know you have a big head and you’re just a troublemaker—you just want to watch the battle.”

29 “What have I done now?” David asked. “Wasn’t it just a question?” 30 Then he went over to another group and asked the same question and got the same answer.

31 So it got around what David was saying, and when Sha’ul heard about it, he sent for him. 32 David told the king, “Don’t be discouraged. Your servant will go and fight against this Philistine.”

33 “You can’t go against this Philistine and fight him,” Sha’ul told David. “You’re still a lad, but he’s been a professional warrior since he was young.”

34 “Your servant has been working for his father tending the flock,” David replied. “Sometimes a lion or a bear has come and taken a sheep from the flock 35 and I would go after it and beat it and rescue the sheep from its mouth. If it went to attack me, then I’d grasp it by the jaw and beat it and kill it. 36 Your servant has killed both a lion and a bear, and that uncircumcised Philistine will end up just like them, because he’s insulted the army of the living God.” 37 Then he added, “Yahweh who has saved me from the lion and from the bear, he will be the one to save me from that Philistine.”

“Go then, and Yahweh be with you.” Sha’ul assented. 38 Then Sha’ul had David dressed in his own battle attire, and then in body armour with a bronze helmet. 39 David strapped his sword over the top and then tried to walk because he hadn’t been trained in wearing it. But he told Sha’ul, “I couldn’t walk in all that without practice,” so he took it all off. 40 Then he picked up his staff, and selected five smooth stones from the riverbed. He placed them in the pouch of his shepherd’s bag, and picked up his sling and headed towards the Philistine champion.

41 Then Goliat came closer and closer to David, with his shield-bearer walking in front of him. 42 When he looked and realised that David was a reddish, good-looking lad, he despised him 43 and asked him, “Are you coming to me with a stick because you think I’m a dog?” Then the Philistine cursed David by his gods. 44 “Come over here,” he told David, “and let me give your flesh to the vultures and wild animals.”

45 “You’re coming to me with a sword and spear and dagger,” David shouted back. “But I’m coming to you in the name of commander Yahweh, the God of Israel’s army that you’ve been taunting. 46 Today, Yahweh will help me defeat you and I’ll knock you down and cut off your head. What’s more, I’ll give the Philistine army corpses to the vultures and wild animals today, then everyone will know that there’s a God in Israel. 47 Everyone here will learn that Yahweh doesn’t save with swords or spears, because he’s in charge of the battle and will help us defeat you all.”

48 Then as Goliat went closer to meet David, David ran quickly towards him at the battle line. 49 He slipped his hand into his bag and took out a single stone and slung it towards the Philistine—striking him on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead and he collapsed forwards onto the ground, 50 and so David defeated the Philistine with a sling and a stone—knocking him down and killing him. Not having a sword with him,[ref] 51 David ran and stood over the Philistine—drawing Goliat’s sword out of its sheath to kill him and cut off his head.[ref]

When the Philistines saw that their powerful champion was dead, they fled 52 and the Israeli warriors started yelling and they chased the Philistines into the valley and as far as the gates of Ekron. The dead bodies of the Philistines could be seen on the road all the way from Shaaraim to Gat and Ekron. 53 When the Israelis returned from chasing the Philistines, they raided the valuables from their camp. 54 David put Goliat’s equipment into his own tent, then he carried his head to Jerusalem.

55 When Sha’ul had seen David going out to meet Goliat, he’d asked Abner, the army commander, “Whose son is this lad, Abner?”

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

56 “Find out whose son he is,” the king had commanded.

57 Then when David had returned from killing the Philistine, Abner brought him to stand in front of Sha’ul, and he was holding Goliat’s head. 58 “Whose son are you, lad?” Sha’ul asked.

“I’m the son of your servant Yishay, who lives in Bethlehem,” replied David.