1 Samuel 17

KJV · Chapter 17/31

¹Now the Philistines gathered together their armies to battle, and were gathered together at Shochoh, which belongeth to Judah, and pitched between Shochoh and Azekah, in Ephes–dammim.

²And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together, and pitched by the valley of Elah, and set the battle in array against the Philistines.

³And the Philistines stood on a mountain on the one side, and Israel stood on a mountain on the other side: and there was a valley between them.

⁴And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span.

⁵And he had an helmet of brass upon his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail; and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of brass.

⁶And he had greaves of brass upon his legs, and a target of brass between his shoulders.

⁷And the staff of his spear was like a weaver’s beam; and his spear’s head weighed six hundred shekels of iron: and one bearing a shield went before him.

⁸And he stood and cried unto the armies of Israel, and said unto them, Why are ye come out to set your battle in array? am not I a Philistine, and ye servants to Saul? choose you a man for you, and let him come down to me.

⁹If he be able to fight with me, and to kill me, then will we be your servants: but if I prevail against him, and kill him, then shall ye be our servants, and serve us.

¹⁰And the Philistine said, I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that we may fight together.

¹¹When Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistine, they were dismayed, and greatly afraid.

¹²Now David was the son of that Ephrathite of Beth–lehem–judah, whose name was Jesse; and he had eight sons: and the man went among men for an old man in the days of Saul.

¹³And the three eldest sons of Jesse went and followed Saul to the battle: and the names of his three sons that went to the battle were Eliab the firstborn, and next unto him Abinadab, and the third Shammah.

¹⁴And David was the youngest: and the three eldest followed Saul.

¹⁵But David went and returned from Saul to feed his father’s sheep at Beth–lehem.

¹⁶And the Philistine drew near morning and evening, and presented himself forty days.

¹⁷And Jesse said unto David his son, Take now for thy brethren an ephah of this parched corn, and these ten loaves, and run to the camp to thy brethren;

¹⁸And carry these ten cheeses unto the captain of their thousand, and look how thy brethren fare, and take their pledge.

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

²⁰And David rose up early in the morning, and left the sheep with a keeper, and took, and went, as Jesse had commanded him; and he came to the trench, as the host was going forth to the fight, and shouted for the battle.

²¹For Israel and the Philistines had put the battle in array, army against army.

²²And David left his carriage in the hand of the keeper of the carriage, and ran into the army, and came and saluted his brethren.

²³And as he talked with them, behold, there came up the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, out of the armies of the Philistines, and spake according to the same words: and David heard them.

²⁴And all the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him, and were sore afraid.

²⁵And the men of Israel said, Have ye seen this man that is come up? surely to defy Israel is he come up: and it shall be, that the man who killeth him, the king will enrich him with great riches, and will give him his daughter, and make his father’s house free in Israel.

²⁶And David spake to the men that stood by him, saying, What shall be done to the man that killeth this Philistine, and taketh away the reproach from Israel? for who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?

²⁷And the people answered him after this manner, saying, So shall it be done to the man that killeth him.

²⁸And Eliab his eldest brother heard when he spake unto the men; and Eliab’s anger was kindled against David, and he said, Why camest thou down hither? and with whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know thy pride, and the naughtiness of thine heart; for thou art come down that thou mightest see the battle.

²⁹And David said, What have I now done? Is there not a cause?

³⁰And he turned from him toward another, and spake after the same manner: and the people answered him again after the former manner.

³¹And when the words were heard which David spake, they rehearsed them before Saul: and he sent for him.

³²And David said to Saul, Let no man’s heart fail because of him; thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine.

³³And Saul said to David, Thou art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him: for thou art but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth.

³⁴And David said unto Saul, Thy servant kept his father’s sheep, and there came a lion, and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock:

³⁵And I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth: and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him.

³⁶Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear: and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God.

³⁷David said moreover, The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said unto David, Go, and the Lord be with thee.

³⁸And Saul armed David with his armour, and he put an helmet of brass upon his head; also he armed him with a coat of mail.

³⁹And David girded his sword upon his armour, and he assayed to go; for he had not proved it. And David said unto Saul, I cannot go with these; for I have not proved them. And David put them off him.

⁴⁰And he took his staff in his hand, and chose him five smooth stones out of the brook, and put them in a shepherd’s bag which he had, even in a scrip; and his sling was in his hand: and he drew near to the Philistine.

⁴¹And the Philistine came on and drew near unto David; and the man that bare the shield went before him.

⁴²And when the Philistine looked about, and saw David, he disdained him: for he was but a youth, and ruddy, and of a fair countenance.

⁴³And the Philistine said unto David, Am I a dog, that thou comest to me with staves? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.

⁴⁴And the Philistine said to David, Come to me, and I will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the field.

⁴⁵Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied.

⁴⁶This day will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand; and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee; and I will give the carcases of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.

⁴⁷And all this assembly shall know that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give you into our hands.

⁴⁸And it came to pass, when the Philistine arose, and came and drew nigh to meet David, that David hasted, and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine.

⁴⁹And David put his hand in his bag, and took thence a stone, and slang it, and smote the Philistine in his forehead, that the stone sunk into his forehead; and he fell upon his face to the earth.

⁵⁰So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and smote the Philistine, and slew him; but there was no sword in the hand of David.

⁵¹Therefore David ran, and stood upon the Philistine, and took his sword, and drew it out of the sheath thereof, and slew him, and cut off his head therewith. And when the Philistines saw their champion was dead, they fled.

⁵²And the men of Israel and of Judah arose, and shouted, and pursued the Philistines, until thou come to the valley, and to the gates of Ekron. And the wounded of the Philistines fell down by the way to Shaaraim, even unto Gath, and unto Ekron.

⁵³And the children of Israel returned from chasing after the Philistines, and they spoiled their tents.

⁵⁴And David took the head of the Philistine, and brought it to Jerusalem; but he put his armour in his tent.

⁵⁵And when Saul saw David go forth against the Philistine, he said unto Abner, the captain of the host, Abner, whose son is this youth? And Abner said, As thy soul liveth, O king, I cannot tell.

⁵⁶And the king said, Enquire thou whose son the stripling is.

⁵⁷And as David returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, Abner took him, and brought him before Saul with the head of the Philistine in his hand.

⁵⁸And Saul said to him, Whose son art thou, thou young man? And David answered, I am the son of thy servant Jesse the Beth–lehemite.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

The Philistine giant Goliath defies Israel for forty days. Young David, visiting his brothers at the camp, accepts the challenge in faith in God, defeats him with a sling and a stone, and beheads him with his own sword.

Explanation

Goliath, standing over nine and a half feet tall and wearing extremely heavy armor, represented not only physical strength but a direct challenge to the honor and faith of Israel's entire army, which was paralyzed by fear before him for forty days. David's confidence did not come from naivety but from prior practical experience — he had already killed a lion and a bear while defending his flock, and he interpreted those episodes as proof that the same God who had delivered him from those dangers would deliver him from Goliath as well. His declaration that he came 'in the name of the Lord of hosts,' while Goliath trusted in physical weapons, establishes the central theme of the victory: it is not the size of the opponent or the sophistication of the weapons that determines the outcome, but the one on whom victory depends.

Fun facts

Goliath's height in the oldest Hebrew text (the Qumran manuscript and the Septuagint) is recorded as 'four cubits and a span' (about 6.5 feet), while the traditional Masoretic text gives 'six cubits and a span' (nearly 9.5 feet) — a difference scholars attribute to ancient textual variation.
The smooth river stone used by David, hurled from a shepherd's sling, could reach speeds comparable to a modern light firearm projectile in the hands of an experienced user, making the feat physically plausible and not merely miraculous.

Verse-by-verse explanation

1 Samuel 17:1The battle site was in the Shephelah, a region of hills between the Philistine coast and the mountains of Judah — a strategic corridor the Philistines often used to try to push further inland.
1 Samuel 17:2Forming the battle line, to “set the battle in array,” was the formal first step before a clash — the two armies take up position, but still without actually fighting.
1 Samuel 17:3The geography of the valley between two hills naturally creates the setting for the duel: neither side wants to go down first and lose the advantage of the high ground.
1 Samuel 17:4Six cubits and a span makes Goliath nearly nine feet tall — a cubit measured about eighteen inches. Some ancient manuscripts (such as a Qumran scroll and the Greek translation) record four cubits and a span, a much more modest height; scholars disagree on which number is original.
1 Samuel 17:5Goliath’s scale armor weighed five thousand shekels of bronze — a shekel ran about 11 to 12 grams, which comes to roughly 125 to 130 pounds of chest armor alone, not counting the helmet, greaves, and spear.
1 Samuel 17:6The “greaves” were leg guards, covering from the shin to the knee — a rare piece of armor that underscores how thoroughly Goliath was armored from head to foot.
1 Samuel 17:7Comparing the spear’s shaft to a weaver’s beam suggests an unusual thickness — and the iron head alone weighed about 15 pounds, an enormous weight just for the blade.
1 Samuel 17:8Proposing a duel between champions, instead of all-out battle, was a known practice in the ancient world — it avoided total losses by deciding the war through a single representative one-on-one fight.
1 Samuel 17:9The stakes of the duel are crystal clear: the individual outcome would decide the subjugation of one whole people to the other, with no further battles.
1 Samuel 17:10The challenge repeating day after day, as verse 16 will reveal, shows how much Goliath kept it up without anyone accepting — a public, humiliating challenge that dragged on.
1 Samuel 17:11The general fear, including the king’s own, contrasts with the attitude David will show later on — no one in the whole army of Israel is willing to accept the challenge.
1 Samuel 17:12The text picks up the introduction of David’s family again, already told in similar form in chapter 16, a common device in biblical narrative of reintroducing characters when the scene shifts.
1 Samuel 17:13These are the same three brothers who passed before Samuel in chapter 16 without being chosen — now they appear serving in the army, a more conventional role for older sons.
1 Samuel 17:14Stressing that David “was the youngest” among his brothers sets up the dramatic contrast between his age and Goliath’s battle experience, mentioned right afterward.
1 Samuel 17:15Even though he was already the king’s armor-bearer in chapter 16, David still went back and forth between court service and shepherding duties at home — a back-and-forth that explains why he reappears tending sheep here.
1 Samuel 17:16Forty days of the challenge repeating twice a day show the psychological toll Goliath inflicted on the Israelite army before any fight even took place.
1 Samuel 17:17Sending food from home to sons at the front was a practical custom, since ancient armies depended on supplies brought from home, without any guaranteed central logistics.
1 Samuel 17:18Asking for a “pledge” (proof) that the brothers were well was common when the family had no other way of getting news from the battlefield.
1 Samuel 17:19This locational reminder places the reader back in the scene of the war right before David arrives at the camp.
1 Samuel 17:20David arrives just as the armies are already taking position for the day’s confrontation — timing that automatically places him in the middle of the tension of Goliath’s daily challenge.
1 Samuel 17:21The organized formation, rank against rank, shows both sides were still following formal battle protocol, even with no one actually advancing.
1 Samuel 17:22David first carries out his father’s errand before getting involved in anything else — his arrival at Goliath’s challenge begins as a coincidence of being there delivering food.
1 Samuel 17:23It is by chance, in the middle of an ordinary conversation with his brothers, that David witnesses for the first time the challenge that had already been repeating for forty days.
1 Samuel 17:24The widespread reaction of dread, with grown soldiers fleeing at the mere sight of Goliath approaching, contrasts even more with the calm response David will give next.
1 Samuel 17:25The reward offered by Saul — riches, marriage to his daughter, tax exemption for the family — shows how desperate he was for someone willing to accept the duel.
1 Samuel 17:26Calling someone “uncircumcised” was about the harshest insult an Israelite could use against a foreigner: circumcision marked the covenant with God, and lacking it placed the Philistine outside any sacred bond.
1 Samuel 17:27The reward promise being repeated, now directly to David, confirms he had not misheard — the prize was real and enormous.
1 Samuel 17:28The oldest brother’s hostile reaction, accusing David of arrogance just for asking questions, may reveal an old jealousy — Eliab was the one Samuel almost anointed king in the previous chapter, before being rejected.
1 Samuel 17:29David’s calm reply, without returning his brother’s hostility, shows remarkable emotional maturity for someone so young being unjustly accused.
1 Samuel 17:30David simply ignores Eliab’s provocation and keeps investigating the matter with other people — he does not let himself be distracted from what he really wanted to know.
1 Samuel 17:31David’s persistent questions about the reward end up drawing enough attention to reach the king’s own ears — a young shepherd unintentionally landing a royal audience.
1 Samuel 17:32David’s offer to face Goliath alone, right after being summoned into the king’s presence, shows an immediate willingness that contrasts with the collective fear of the rest of the army.
1 Samuel 17:33Saul’s objection is entirely reasonable from a military standpoint — comparing a young shepherd to a professional warrior trained his whole life seemed like obvious madness.
1 Samuel 17:34David answers Saul’s military objection not with bravado, but with real experience: he had already faced life-or-death danger protecting his own flock.
1 Samuel 17:35Grabbing a predator by the beard, its jaw, to strike it up close is an account of extreme physical courage — David already had real hand-to-hand combat experience before he ever picked up a sword.
1 Samuel 17:36David reframes the problem: to him, Goliath is not an invincible warrior, just another predator who dared to defy the God of Israel Himself.
1 Samuel 17:37David’s confidence does not come from personal arrogance, but from a concrete track record of God rescuing him — Saul finally gives in, persuaded more by the faith shown than by any military guarantee.
1 Samuel 17:38Offering his own armor was a genuine gesture of support from Saul — but it also shows he was still thinking in terms of conventional weaponry, the very logic he had just admitted would not work.
1 Samuel 17:39David acknowledges with practical humility that borrowed, untested equipment would hinder more than help — he prefers to trust what he already knew how to use well.
1 Samuel 17:40Five stones, not just one, suggests David was prepared for more than one attempt, or even to face Goliath’s brothers, mentioned later in 2 Samuel 21, if he needed to.
1 Samuel 17:41Having a personal shield-bearer just to carry his shield shows Goliath’s elite status — the complete opposite of David, who comes alone with no assistant at all.
1 Samuel 17:42Goliath’s contempt, based only on David’s youthful, pleasant appearance, repeats the same error of judgment Samuel was corrected of in chapter 16 — underestimating someone by their looks.
1 Samuel 17:43Goliath takes David’s shepherd’s staff as an insult, comparing himself to a dog chased off with a stick — without realizing the hidden sling would be the weapon actually used.
1 Samuel 17:44The threat of leaving a body unburied, exposed to birds and animals, was considered one of the worst possible dishonors in the ancient world — even more serious than death itself.
1 Samuel 17:45David directly contrasts Goliath’s physical arsenal with his own real weapon: not the sling, but the name and reputation of the God Goliath had publicly insulted.
1 Samuel 17:46David promises to use against Goliath the same threat of public disgrace Goliath had made against him — but he also turns the duel into a demonstration for “all the earth,” not just the two armies present.
1 Samuel 17:47David publicly declares the real point of the duel: to prove that victories come from God, not from the size or military equipment of the winner.
1 Samuel 17:48Running toward the giant, instead of waiting for the attack, was calculated strategy: David needed to be moving and at the right distance to use the sling before Goliath could close in with his spear.
1 Samuel 17:49The only exposed spot in Goliath’s full armor was his face — David aims exactly there, and one well-thrown stone is enough to bring down a giant warrior before any hand-to-hand combat.
1 Samuel 17:50The narrator deliberately highlights that the victory came without any sword at all — visually reinforcing the message of verse 47 that the battle belongs to the LORD, not to conventional weapons.
1 Samuel 17:51Using Goliath’s own sword to behead him is a detail loaded with irony: the giant is defeated with his own most impressive weapon, wielded by the very man he had just despised.
1 Samuel 17:52The death of the Philistine champion completely turns the tide: the same army that had been paralyzed with fear now chases the fleeing enemies over a long stretch of territory.
1 Samuel 17:53Plundering the camp abandoned by the retreating Philistines was the natural material reward after such a complete victory.
1 Samuel 17:54Bringing Goliath’s head to Jerusalem is a curious detail, since the city would only be conquered by David much later, in 2 Samuel — a sign the account may gather traditions recorded out of strict chronological order.
1 Samuel 17:55Saul’s question about David’s identity sounds strange, since chapter 16 had already told us David was the king’s personal armor-bearer — one sign that chapters 16 and 17 may come from slightly different traditions about how the two men met.
1 Samuel 17:56Saul’s insistence on finding out David’s genealogy is probably tied to the reward promised in verse 25: exempting “his father’s house” required knowing exactly which family would benefit.
1 Samuel 17:57Bringing Goliath’s head as physical proof of the victory ruled out any doubt about who had really killed the giant.
1 Samuel 17:58David’s simple answer closes the chapter by formally confirming his identity — a moment that, in the next chapter, will immediately spark his friendship with Jonathan.