1 SAMUEL CHAPTER 17

17 And the Philistines went collecting their camps together for war. When they were collected together at Socoh, which belongs to Judah, then they took up camping between Socoh and Azekah, in Ephesdammim. 2 As for Saul and the men of Israel, they collected themselves together and took up camping in the low plain of Elah, and they went drawing up in battle formation to meet the Philistines. 3 And the Philistines were standing on the mountain on this side, and the Israelites were standing on the mountain on that side, with the valley between them. 4 And a champion began to go out from the camps of the Philistines, his name being Goliath, from Gath, his height being six cubits and a span. 5 And there was a helmet of copper on his head, and he was clad with a coat of mail, of overlapping scales, and the weight of the coat of mail was five thousand shekels of copper. 6 And there were greaves of copper above his feet and a javelin of copper between his shoulders. 7 And the wooden shaft of his spear was like the beam of loom workers, and the blades of his spear was six hundred shekels of iron; and the beare of the large shield was marching ahead of him. 8 Then he stood still and began to call to the battle lines of Israel and say to them: "Why do you come out to draw up in battle formation? Am I not the Philistine and you servants belonging to Saul? Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me. 9 If he is able to fight with me and he does strike me down, we must then become servants to you. But if I myself am a match or him and I do strike him down, you must also become servants to us, and you must serve us." 10 And the Philistine went on to say: "I myself do taunt the battle lines of Israel this day. Give me a man, and let us fight together!" 11 When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, then they became terrified and were greatly afraid. 12 Now David was the son of this Ephrathite from Bethlehem of Judah whose name was Jesse. And he had eight sons. And in the days of Saul the man was already old among men. 13 And the three oldest sons of Jesse proceeded to go. They went after Saul to the war, and the names of his three sons that went into the war were Eliab the firstborn, and his second son Abinadab and the third Shammah. 14 And David was the youngest, and the three oldest themselves went after Saul. 15 And David was going and returning from Saul to tend the sheep of his father at Bethlehem. 16 And the Philistine kept coming forward at early morning and at evening and taking his position for forty days. 17 Then Jesse said to David his son: "Take, please, to your brothers this ephah of roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread, and carry them quickly to the camp to your brothers. 18 And these ten portions of milk you should bring to the chief of the thousand, also, you should look after your own brothers as regards their welfare, and a token from them you should take." 19 Meantime, Saul and they and all the other men of Israel were in the low plain of Elah, fighting against the Philistines. 20 Accordingly David got up early in the morning and left the sheep to the keeper's charge and picked up and went just as Jesse had commanded him. When he came to the camp enclosure, the military forces were going out to the battle line, and they raised a shout or the battle. 21 And Israel and the Philistines began drawing up battle line to meet battle line. 22 Immediately David left the baggage from off him to care of the keeper of the baggage and went running to the battle line. When he came he began asking about the welfare of his brothers. 23 While he was speaking with them, why, here the champion, his name being Goliath the Philistine from Gath, was coming up from the battle lines of the Philistines, and he began speaking the same words as before and David got to listen in. 24 As for all the men of Israel, on their seeing the man, why, they went fleeing on account of him and were very much afraid. 25 And the men of Israel began to say: "Have you seen this man that is coming up? For it is to taunt Israel that he is coming up. And it must occur that, the man who strikes him down, the king will enrich him with great riches, and his own daughter he will give him, and the house of his father he will set free in Israel." 26 And David began to say to the men that were standing close by him: "What will be done to the man that strikes down that Philistine over there and actually turns away reproach from upon Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he has to taunt the battle lines of the living God?" 27 Then the people said to him the same words as before, saying: "This is the way it will be done to the man that strikes him down." 28 And Eliab his oldest brother got to hear as he spoke to the men, and Eliab's anger grew hot against David, so that he said: "Why is it that you have come down? And in whose charge did you leave those few sheep behind in the wilderness? I myself well know your presumptuousness and the badness of your heart, because you have come own for the purpose of seeing the battle." 29 To this David said: "What have I done now? Was it not just a word?" 30 With that he turned about from beside him toward someone else and went saying the same word as before, and, in turn, the people gave him the same reply as formerly. 31 So the words that David spoke came to be heard, andd they went telling them before Saul. Hence he fetched him. 32 And David proceeded to say to Saul: "Do not let the heart of any man collapse with him. Your servant himself will go and actually fight with this Philistine." 33 But Saul said to David: "You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him, for you are but a boy, and he is a man of war from his boyhood." 34 And David went on to say to Saul: "Your servant became a shephed of his father among the flock, and there came a lion, and also a bear, and [each] carried off a sheep from the drove. 35 And I wnt out after it and struck it down and made the rescue from its mouth. When it began rising against me, I grabbed hold of its beard and struck it down and put it to death. 36 Both the lion and the bear your servant struck down; and this uncircumcised Philistine must become like one of them, for he has taunted the battle lines of the living God. 37 Then David added: "Jehovah, who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, he it is who will deliver me from the had of this Philistine." At this Saul said to David: "Go, and may Jehovah himself prove to be with you." 38 Saul now went clothing David with his garments, and he put a copper helmet upon his head, after which he clothed him with a coat of mail. 39 Then David girded his swod on over his garments and undertook to go [but could not], because he had not tried them out. Finally David said to Saul: "I am unable to go in these things, for I have not tried them out." So David removed them off him. 40 And he proceeded to take his staff in his hand and to choose for himself the five smoothest stones from the torrent valley and to place them in his shpherds' bag that served him as a receptacle, and in his hand was his sling. And he began approaching the Philistine. 41 And the Philistine began to come, coming nearer and nearer to David, and the man carrying the large shield was ahead of him. 42 Now when the Philistine looked and saw David, he began despising him because he poved to be a boy and ruddy, of beautiful appearance. 43 So the Philistine said to David: "Am I a dog, so that you are coming to me with staves?" With that the Philistine called down evil upon David by his gods. 44 And the Philistine went on to say to David: "Just come to me, and I will give your flesh to the fowls of the heavens and to the beasts of the field." 45 In turn David said to the Philistine: "You are coming to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I am coming to you with the name of Jehovah of armies, the God of the battle lines of Israel, whom you have taunted. 46 This day Jehovah will surrender you into my hand, and I shall certainly strike you down and remove your head off you; and I shall certainly give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines this day to the fowls of the heavens and to the wild beasts of the earth, ande people of all the earth will know that there exists a God belonging to Israel. 47 And all this congregation will know that neither with sword nor with spear does Jehovah save, ecause to Jehovah belongs the battle, and he must give you men into our hand. 48 And it occurred that the Philistine rose and kept coming and drawing nearer to meet David, and David began hurrying and running toward the battle line to meet the Philistine. 49 Then David thrust his hand into his bag and took a stone from there and slung it, so that he strucdk the Philistine in his forehead and the stone sank into his forehead, and he went falling upon his face to the earth. 50 So David, with a sling and a stone, proved stronger than the Philistine and struck the Philistine down and put him to death; and there was no sword in David's hand. 51 And David continued running and got to stand over the Philistine. Then he took his sword and pulled it out of its sheath and definitely put him to death when he cut his head off with it. And the Philistines got to see that their mighty one had died, and they took to flight. 52 At that the men of Israel and of Judah rose and broke into shouting and went in pursuit of the Philistines clear to [the] valley and as far as the gates of Ekron, and the fatally wounded of the Philistines kept falling on the way from Shaaraim, both as far as Gath and as far as Ekron. 53 Aftereard the sons of Israel returned from hotly pursuing the Philistines and wnt pillaging their camps. 54 Then David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem, and his weapons he put in his tent. 55 Now at the moment that Saul saw David going out to meet the Philistine, he said to Abner the chief of the army: "Whose son is the boy, Abner said: "By the life of your soul, O king, I do not know at all!" 56 So the king said: "You inquire whose son the lad is." 57 Accordingly, as soon as David returned from striking the Philistine down, Abner proceeded to take him and bring him before Saul with the head of the Philistine in his hand. 58 Saul now said to him: "Whose son are you, boy?" to which David said: "The son of your servant Jesse the Bethlehemite."