1 Samuel 17

¹ Now the Philistines gathered their forces for war. They assembled at Socoh in Judah and camped between Socoh and Azekah, at Ephes-dammim.

² Saul and the men of Israel gathered and camped in the Valley of Elah, and they drew up their battle lines to meet the Philistines.

³ The Philistines stood on the hill on one side and Israel stood on the hill on the other side, with the valley between them.

⁴ A champion came out from the Philistine camp. His name was Goliath, from Gath, and he was six cubits and a span tall.

⁵ He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armor; the armor weighed five thousand shekels of bronze.

⁶ He had bronze guards on his legs and a bronze javelin slung between his shoulders.

⁷ The shaft of his spear was like a weaver's beam, and its iron head weighed six hundred shekels. His shield-bearer walked in front of him.

⁸ He stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, "Why have you come out to line up for battle? Am I not the Philistine, and are you not Saul's servants? Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me.

⁹ If he can fight me and kill me, we will become your servants; but if I overcome him and kill him, then you will become our servants and serve us."

¹⁰ Then the Philistine said, "I defy the ranks of Israel this day! Give me a man, and let us fight each other."

¹¹ When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were shattered and terrified.

¹² Now David was the son of an Ephrathite from Bethlehem in Judah named Jesse, who had eight sons. In Saul's day this man was old, advanced in years.

¹³ The three oldest sons of Jesse had followed Saul to the war. The names of his three sons who went to the war were Eliab the firstborn, Abinadab the second, and Shammah the third.

¹⁴ David was the youngest. The three oldest had followed Saul,

¹⁵ but David kept going back and forth from Saul to tend his father's sheep at Bethlehem.

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

¹⁷ Jesse said to his son David, "Take this ephah of roasted grain and these ten loaves to your brothers, and hurry to the camp to your brothers.

¹⁸ Take these ten cuts of cheese to the commander of their unit. See how your brothers are doing, and bring back some token from them.

¹⁹ Saul and they and all the men of Israel are in the Valley of Elah, fighting the Philistines."

²⁰ So David got up early in the morning, left the flock with a keeper, took the supplies, and set out, just as Jesse had told him. He reached the camp as the army was going out to its battle line, shouting the war cry.

²¹ Israel and the Philistines drew up their lines, battle line facing battle line.

²² David left his supplies with the keeper of the supplies, ran to the battle line, and went to ask his brothers how they were.

²³ As he was talking with them, there was the champion, the Philistine from Gath named Goliath, coming up from the Philistine ranks, and he spoke the same words as before, and David heard them.

²⁴ When all the men of Israel saw the man, they fled from him in great fear.

²⁵ The men of Israel were saying, "Do you see this man coming up? He comes up to defy Israel. The king will make the man who kills him very rich, will give him his daughter, and will exempt his father's house from taxes in Israel."

²⁶ David said to the men standing near him, "What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes Israel's disgrace? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?"

²⁷ The people repeated to him what they had said: "This is what will be done for the man who kills him."

²⁸ When Eliab, his oldest brother, heard him speaking to the men, he burned with anger at David and said, "Why have you come down here, and with whom did you leave those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your arrogance and the evil in your heart; you came down just to watch the battle."

²⁹ David said, "Now what have I done? It was only a question!"

³⁰ He turned away from him to someone else and asked the same thing, and the people answered him as before.

³¹ What David said was overheard and reported to Saul, who sent for him.

³² David said to Saul, "Let no one lose heart over him. Your servant will go and fight this Philistine."

³³ But Saul said to David, "You cannot go against this Philistine to fight him. You are only a boy, and he has been a fighting man from his youth."

³⁴ David said to Saul, "Your servant has been tending his father's sheep, and when a lion or a bear came and carried off a lamb from the flock,

³⁵ I would go out after it, strike it down, and rescue the lamb from its mouth. And if it turned on me, I would grab it by its mane, strike it, and kill it.

³⁶ Your servant has killed both lion and bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God."

³⁷ David said, "The LORD, who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear, will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine." Saul said to David, "Go, and may the LORD be with you."

³⁸ Then Saul dressed David in his own armor. He put a bronze helmet on his head and clothed him with a coat of armor.

³⁹ David strapped on his sword over the armor and tried to walk, since he was not used to it. Then David said to Saul, "I cannot go in these, because I am not used to them." So David took them off.

⁴⁰ He took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the streambed, and put them in the pouch of his shepherd's bag. With his sling in his hand, he approached the Philistine.

⁴¹ The Philistine kept coming closer to David, with his shield-bearer in front of him.

⁴² When the Philistine looked and saw David, he despised him, because he was only a boy, ruddy and handsome.

⁴³ The Philistine said to David, "Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?" And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.

⁴⁴ The Philistine said to David, "Come here, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the sky and the beasts of the field."

⁴⁵ David said to the Philistine, "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD of Hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.

⁴⁶ This day the LORD will hand you over to me. I will strike you down and cut off your head, and this day I will give the corpses of the Philistine army to the birds of the sky and the wild animals of the earth, so that all the earth will know that there is a God in Israel.

⁴⁷ And 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 hand all of you over to us."

⁴⁸ As the Philistine rose and came closer to meet David, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine.

⁴⁹ David reached into his bag, took out a stone, slung it, and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell facedown to the ground.

⁵⁰ So David overcame the Philistine with a sling and a stone; he struck the Philistine down and killed him. There was no sword in David's hand.

⁵¹ David ran and stood over the Philistine. He took the Philistine's sword, drew it from its sheath, and killed him, cutting off his head with it. When the Philistines saw that their hero was dead, they fled.

⁵² Then the men of Israel and Judah rose with a shout and pursued the Philistines all the way to the entrance of the valley and to the gates of Ekron. The Philistine dead lay along the Shaaraim road, all the way to Gath and Ekron.

⁵³ When the Israelites returned from chasing the Philistines, they plundered their camp.

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

⁵⁵ When 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?" Abner answered, "As surely as you live, O king, I do not know."

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

⁵⁷ As David returned from killing the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul, with the Philistine's head still in his hand.

⁵⁸ Saul asked him, "Whose son are you, young man?" David answered, "I am the son of your servant Jesse of Bethlehem."