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1 Samuel 17\n\nDavid and Goliath\n17 Now the Philistines gathered their forces for war and assembled at Sokoh in Judah. They pitched camp at Ephes Dammim, between Sokoh and Azekah. 2 Saul and the Israelites assembled and camped in the Valley of Elah and drew up their battle line to meet the Philistines. 3 The Philistines occupied one hill and the Israelites another, with the valley between them.\n\n4 A champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp. His height was six cubits and a span. 5 He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armor of bronze weighing five thousand shekels; 6 on his legs he wore bronze greaves, and a bronze javelin was slung on his back. 7 His spear shaft was like a weaver\u2019s rod, and its iron point weighed six hundred shekels. His shield bearer went ahead of him.\n\n8 Goliath stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, \u201cWhy do you come out and line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose a man and have him come down to me. 9 If 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.\u201d 10 Then the Philistine said, \u201cThis day I defy the armies of Israel! Give me a man and let us fight each other.\u201d 11 On hearing the Philistine\u2019s words, Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified.\n\n12 Now David was the son of an Ephrathite named Jesse, who was from Bethlehem in Judah. Jesse had eight sons, and in Saul\u2019s time he was very old. 13 Jesse\u2019s three oldest sons had followed Saul to the war: The firstborn was Eliab; the second, Abinadab; and the third, Shammah. 14 David was the youngest. The three oldest followed Saul, 15 but David went back and forth from Saul to tend his father\u2019s sheep at Bethlehem.\n\n16 For forty days the Philistine came forward every morning and evening and took his stand.\n\n17 Now Jesse said to his son David, \u201cTake this ephah of roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread for your brothers and hurry to their camp. 18 Take along these ten cheeses to the commander of their unit. See how your brothers are and bring back some assurance from them. 19 They are with Saul and all the men of Israel in the Valley of Elah, fighting against the Philistines.\u201d\n\n20 Early 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. 21 Israel and the Philistines were drawing up their lines facing each other. 22 David left his things with the keeper of supplies, ran to the battle lines and asked his brothers how they were. 23 As he was talking with them, Goliath, the Philistine champion from Gath, stepped out from his lines and shouted his usual defiance, and David heard it. 24 Whenever the Israelites saw the man, they all fled from him in great fear.\n\n25 Now the Israelites had been saying, \u201cDo 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 in marriage and will exempt his family from taxes in Israel.\u201d\n\n26 David asked the men standing near him, \u201cWhat will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?\u201d\n\n27 They repeated to him what they had been saying and told him, \u201cThis is what will be done for the man who kills him.\u201d\n\n28 When Eliab, David\u2019s oldest brother, heard him speaking with the men, he burned with anger at him and asked, \u201cWhy 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.\u201d\n\n29 \u201cNow what have I done?\u201d said David. \u201cCan\u2019t I even speak?\u201d 30 He then turned away to someone else and brought up the same matter, and the men answered him as before. 31 What David said was overheard and reported to Saul, and Saul sent for him.\n\n32 David said to Saul, \u201cLet no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.\u201d\n\n33 Saul replied, \u201cYou 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.\u201d\n\n34 But David said to Saul, \u201cYour servant has been keeping his father\u2019s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, 35 I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. 36 Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. 37 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.\u201d\n\nSaul said to David, \u201cGo, and the Lord be with you.\u201d\n\n38 Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. 39 David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them.\n\n\u201cI cannot go in these,\u201d he said to Saul, \u201cbecause I am not used to them.\u201d So he took them off. 40 Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd\u2019s bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine.\n\n41 Meanwhile, the Philistine, with his shield bearer in front of him, kept coming closer to David. 42 He looked David over and saw that he was little more than a boy, glowing with health and handsome, and he despised him. 43 He said to David, \u201cAm I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?\u201d And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. 44 \u201cCome here,\u201d he said, \u201cand I\u2019ll give your flesh to the birds and the wild animals!\u201d\n\n45 David said to the Philistine, \u201cYou come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands, and I\u2019ll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. 47 All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord\u2019s, and he will give all of you into our hands.\u201d\n\n48 As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him. 49 Reaching 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.\n\n50 So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone; without a sword in his hand he struck down the Philistine and killed him.\n\n51 David ran and stood over him. He took hold of the Philistine\u2019s sword and drew it from the sheath. After he killed him, he cut off his head with the sword.\n\nWhen the Philistines saw that their hero was dead, they turned and ran. 52 Then the men of Israel and Judah surged forward with a shout and pursued the Philistines to the entrance of Gath and to the gates of Ekron. Their dead were strewn along the Shaaraim road to Gath and Ekron. 53 When the Israelites returned from chasing the Philistines, they plundered their camp.\n\n54 David took the Philistine\u2019s head and brought it to Jerusalem; he put the Philistine\u2019s weapons in his own tent.\n\n55 As Saul watched David going out to meet the Philistine, he said to Abner, commander of the army, \u201cAbner, whose son is that young man?\u201d\n\nAbner replied, \u201cAs surely as you live, Your Majesty, I don\u2019t know.\u201d\n\n56 The king said, \u201cFind out whose son this young man is.\u201d\n\n57 As soon as David returned from killing the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul, with David still holding the Philistine\u2019s head.\n\n58 \u201cWhose son are you, young man?\u201d Saul asked him.\n\nDavid said, \u201cI am the son of your servant Jesse of Bethlehem.\u201d