1 Samuel 17

1The Philistines gathered their armies for battle and assembled at Socoh in Judah, encamping between Socoh and Azekah in Ephes-dammim.

2Saul and the men of Israel assembled, encamped in the Elah Valley, and drew up for battle against the Philistines.

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

4A champion went out from the Philistine camp, Goliath of Gath, six cubits and a span in height.

5A bronze helmet covered his head, and he wore scale mail weighing five thousand shekels of bronze.

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

7The wooden shaft of his spear resembled a weaver's beam, its spearhead weighed six hundred shekels of iron, and his shield-bearer walked before him.

8He stood and called to Israel's ranks and said to them, "Why do you come out to line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and you Saul's servants? Select a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me."

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

10The Philistine said, "I have reproached Israel's ranks today. Give me a man, and we will fight together."

11Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, and they were dismayed and feared greatly.

12David was the son of that Ephrathite from Bethlehem in Judah whose name was Jesse, who had eight sons and was an old man, well advanced among men, in the days of Saul.

13Jesse's three oldest sons went after Saul to the battle, and the names of his three sons who went to the battle were Eliab the firstborn, Abinadab his second, and Shammah the third.

14David himself was the youngest, and the three eldest went after Saul.

15David went to and from Saul to tend his father's sheep at Bethlehem.

16The Philistine came close morning and evening, and took his stand for forty days.

17Jesse said to his son David, “Take now an ephah of this parched grain for your brothers, these ten loaves, and run to the camp to your brothers.”

18And take these ten cheeses to the captain of their thousand, see to your brothers' welfare, and take their pledge.

19Saul and they and all the men of Israel were in the valley of Elah, fighting against the Philistines.

20David rose early in the morning, left the flock with a keeper, took up his journey, and went as Jesse had commanded him, arriving at the baggage train just as the army advanced to the battle line and raised the battle cry.

21Israel and the Philistines drew up their battle lines to meet each other.

22David left his baggage in the charge of the baggage keeper, ran to the battle line, came and asked his brothers how they were.

23While he was speaking with them, there came the champion, Goliath the Philistine from Gath by name, up out of the Philistine army's ranks, and he spoke according to these words; David heard.

24When they saw the man, all the men of Israel fled before 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. Whoever strikes him down, the king will enrich him with great riches, give him his daughter, and make his father's house free in Israel."

26David said to the men standing with him, "What will be done for the man who strikes this Philistine and removes the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he defies the armies of the living God?"

27The people answered him like this, saying, "So it shall be done to the man who kills him."

28Eliab his eldest brother heard him speaking to the men, and Eliab's anger burned against David, and he said, "Why have you come down here? With whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your pride and the evil of your heart, for you have come down to see the battle."

29David said, "What have I done now? Is it not a matter?"

30He turned away from him toward another and spoke in the same way, and the people answered him again like the first time.

31When they heard the words that David spoke, they reported them before Saul, and he sent for him.

32David said to Saul, “Let no man lose heart because of him; your servant will go and fight this Philistine.”

33Saul said to David, "You cannot go against this Philistine to fight him, because you are a youth, and he is a warrior from his youth."

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

35I went after it and struck it, rescuing it from its mouth. When it rose against me, I seized it by its beard, struck it, and killed it.

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

37David said, “Yahweh who rescued me from the lion's hand and from the bear's hand—he will rescue me from this Philistine's hand.” Saul said to David, “Go, and Yahweh will be with you.”

38Saul clothed David with his armor, put a bronze helmet on his head, and clothed him with a coat of mail.

39David fastened his sword over his armor and tried to go, for he had not tested it. David said to Saul, "I cannot go with these, for I have not tested them." David removed them from himself.

40He took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the brook for himself, put them in the shepherd's bag he had—his scrip—with his sling in his hand, and approached the Philistine.

41The Philistine went on, approaching and drawing near to David, and the man carrying the shield went ahead of him.

42The Philistine looked around and saw David, and he scorned him because he was a youth, ruddy with a handsome appearance.

43The Philistine said to David, "Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?" 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 sky and to the beasts of the field."

45David said to the Philistine, "You come against me with sword, spear, and shield, but I come against you in the name of Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel's armies, whom you have defied."

46Today Yahweh will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and sever your head from you, and give the corpses of the Philistine army this day to the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth, so all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.

47All this assembly will know that Yahweh does not save by sword and spear, for the battle belongs to Yahweh, and he will give you into our hand.

48When the Philistine rose up and advanced to confront David, David hurried and ran toward the battle line to meet the Philistine.

49David put his hand into the bag, took a stone from it, slung it, and struck the Philistine in the forehead; the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell facedown to the ground.

50David overpowered the Philistine with a sling and a stone, struck the Philistine, and killed him, though there was no sword in David's hand.

51David ran to the Philistine and stood over him, seized his sword, drew it from its scabbard, put him to death, and severed his head with it. The Philistines saw that their champion lay dead and fled.

52The men of Israel and Judah arose and shouted and pursued the Philistines until reaching the valley and the gates of Ekron, while slain Philistines fell along the road to Shaaraim, to Gath, and to Ekron.

53The sons of Israel returned from pursuing the Philistines and plundered their camps.

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

55When Saul saw David going out to meet the Philistine, he said to Abner, the army's commander, "Abner, whose son is this youth?" Abner replied, "As your soul lives, O king, if I know."

56The king said, "You ask whose son this young man is."

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

58Saul said to him, "Whose son are you, young man?" David said, "Son of your servant Jesse the Bethlehemite."