2 And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together, and they encamped in the Valley of Elah, and drew up in battle array against the Philistines.
3 The Philistines stood on a mountain on one side, and Israel stood on a mountain on the other side, with a valley between them.
4 And a champion went out from the camp of the Philistines, named aGoliath, from bGath, whose height was six cubits and a span.
5Hehad a bronze helmet on his head, and he was1 armed with a coat of mail, and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of bronze.
6 And hehad bronze armor on his legs and a bronze javelin between his shoulders.
7 Now the staff of his spear was like a weaver’s beam, and his iron spearhead weighed six hundred shekels; and a shield-bearer went before him.
8 Then he stood and cried out to the armies of Israel, and said to them, “Why have you come out to line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and you the aservants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me.
9 If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and aserve us.”
10 And the Philistine said, a“I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that we may fight together.”
11 When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.
12 Now David wasathe son of that bEphrathite of Bethlehem Judah, whose name was Jesse, and who had ceight sons. And the man was old, advanced inyears, in the days of Saul.
13 The three oldest sons of Jesse had gone to follow Saul to the battle. The anames of his three sons who went to the battle were Eliab the firstborn, next to him Abinadab, and the third Shammah.
14 David was the youngest. And the three oldest followed Saul.
15 But David occasionally went and returned from Saul ato feed his father’s sheep at Bethlehem.
16 And the Philistine drew near and presented himself forty days, morning and evening.
17 Then Jesse said to his son David, “Take now for your brothers an ephah of this dried grain and these ten loaves, and run to your brothers at the camp.
18 And carry these ten cheeses to the captain of their thousand, and asee how your brothers fare, and bring back news of them.”
19 Now Saul and they and all the men of Israel were in the Valley of Elah, fighting with the Philistines.
20 So David rose early in the morning, left the sheep with a keeper, and took thethings and went as Jesse had commanded him. And he came to the camp as the army was going out to the fight and shouting for the battle.
21 For Israel and the Philistines had drawn up in battle array, army against army.
22 And David left his supplies in the hand of the supply keeper, ran to the army, and came and greeted his brothers.
23 Then as he talked with them, there was the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, coming up from the armies of the Philistines; and he spoke aaccording to the same words. So David heard them.
24 And all the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him and were dreadfully afraid.
25 So the men of Israel said, “Have you seen this man who has come up? Surely he has come up to defy Israel; and it shall be that the man who kills him the king will enrich with great riches, awill give him his daughter, and give his father’s house exemption fromtaxes in Israel.”
26 Then David spoke to the men who stood by him, saying, “What shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away athe reproach from Israel? For who is this buncircumcised Philistine, that he should cdefy the armies of dthe living God?”
27 And the people answered him in this manner, saying, a“So shall it be done for the man who kills him.”
28 Now Eliab his oldest brother heard when he spoke to the men; and Eliab’s aanger was aroused against David, and he said, “Why did you come down here? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your pride and the insolence of your heart, for you have come down to see the battle.”
29 And David said, “What have I done now? aIs there not a cause?”
30 Then he turned from him toward another and asaid the same thing; and these people answered him as the first ones did.
31 Now when the words which David spoke were heard, they reported them to Saul; and he sent for him.
32 Then David said to Saul, a“Let no man’s heart fail because of him; byour servant will go and fight with this Philistine.”
33 And Saul said to David, a“You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are a youth, and he a man of war from his youth.”
34 But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep his father’s sheep, and when a alion or a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock,
35 I went out after it and struck it, and delivered thelamb from its mouth; and when it arose against me, I caught it by its beard, and struck and killed it.
36 Your servant has killed both lion and bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God.”
37 Moreover David said, a“The Lord, who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” And Saul said to David, b“Go, and the Lord be with you!”
38 So Saul clothed David with his1 armor, and he put a bronze helmet on his head; he also clothed him with a coat of mail.
39 David fastened his sword to his armor and tried to walk, for he had not tested them. And David said to Saul, “I cannot walk with these, for I have not tested them.” So David took them off.
40 Then he took his staff in his hand; and he chose for himself five smooth stones from the brook, and put them in a shepherd’s bag, in a pouch which he had, and his sling was in his hand. And he drew near to the Philistine.
41 So the Philistine came, and began drawing near to David, and the man who bore the shield went before him.
42 And when the Philistine looked about and saw David, he adisdained him; for he was only a youth, bruddy and good-looking.
43 So the Philistine asaid to David, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.
44 And the Philistine asaid to David, “Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field!”
45 Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. aBut I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have bdefied.
46 This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you. And this day I will give athe carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, bthat all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.
47 Then all this assembly shall know that the Lordadoes not save with sword and spear; for bthe battle is the Lord’s, and He will give you into our hands.”
48 So it was, when the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, that David hurried and aran toward the army to meet the Philistine.
49 Then David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone; and he slung it and struck the Philistine in his forehead, so that the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the earth.
50 So David prevailed over the Philistine with a asling and a stone, and struck the Philistine and killed him. But therewas no sword in the hand of David.
51 Therefore David ran and stood over the Philistine, took his asword and drew it out of its sheath and killed him, and cut off his head with it. And when the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, bthey fled.
52 Now the men of Israel and Judah arose and shouted, and pursued the Philistines as far as the entrance of1 the valley and to the gates of Ekron. And the wounded of the Philistines fell along the road to aShaaraim, even as far as Gath and Ekron.
53 Then the children of Israel returned from chasing the Philistines, and they plundered their tents.
54 And David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem, but he put his armor in his tent.
55 When Saul saw David going out against the Philistine, he said to aAbner, the commander of the army, “Abner, bwhose son is this youth?” And Abner said, “As your soul lives, O king, I do not know.”
56 So the king said, “Inquire whose son this young man is.”
There went out a champion - Our word champion comes from campus, the field; Campio est enim ille qui pugnat in campo, hoc est, in castris , "Champion is he, properly, who fights in the field; i.e., in camps." A man well skilled in arms, strong, brave, and patriotic.
But is this the meaning of the original ish habbenayim , a middle man, the man between two; that is, as here, the man who undertakes to settle the disputes between two armies or nations. So our ancient champions settled disputes between contending parties by what was termed camp fight, hence the campio or champion. The versions know not well what to make of this man. The Vulgate calls him sir spurius , "a bastard;" the Septuagint, , "a strong or powerful man;" the Targum, gabra mibbeyneyhon , "a man from between them;" the Arabic, rujil jibar , "a great or gigantic man;" the Syriac is the same; and Josephus terms him , "an immensely great man." The Vulgate has given him the notation of spurius or bastard, because it considered the original as expressing a son of two, i.e., a man whose parents are unknown. Among all these I consider our word champion, as explained above, the best and most appropriate to the original terms.
Whose height was six cubits and a span - The word cubit signifies the length from cubitus , the elbow, to the top of the middle finger, which is generally rated at one foot six inches. The span is the distance from the top of the middle finger to the end of the thumb, when extended as far as they can stretch on a plain; this is ordinarily nine inches. Were we sure that these were the measures, and their extent, which are intended in the original words, we could easily ascertain the height of this Philistine; it would then be nine feet nine inches, which is a tremendous height for a man.
But the versions are not all agreed in his height. The Septuagint read , four cubits and a span; and Josephus reads the same. It is necessary however to observe that the Septuagint, in the Codex Alexandrinus, read with the Hebrew text. But what was the length of the ancient cubit? This has been variously computed; eighteen inches, twenty inches and a half, and twenty-one inches. If we take the first measurement, he was nine feet nine; if the second, and read palm instead of span, with the Vulgate and others, he was ten feet seven inches and a half; if we take the last, which is the estimate of Graevius, with the span, he was eleven feet three inches; or if we go to the exactest measurement, as laid down in Bishop Cumberland' s tables, where he computes the cubit at 21.888 inches, the span at 10.944 inches, and the palm at 3.684 inches, then the six cubits and the span will make exactly 11 feet 10.272 inches. If we take the palm instead of the span, then the height will be 11 feet 3.012 inches. But I still think that the nine feet nine inches is the most reasonable.
Other Adam Clarke entries containing 1 Samuel 17:4:
DISCLAIMER: Church of the Great God (CGG) provides these resources to aid the individual in studying the Bible. However, it is up to the individual to "prove all things, and hold fast to that which is good" (I Thessalonians 5:21). The content of these resources does not necessarily reflect the views of CGG. They are provided for information purposes only.
