What do you think? Click here to give us your feedback about the new Bible Study Tools!
 
Advanced Search
 
Bible Study ToolsBible VersionsNIV1 Samuel 17

1 Samuel 17 (New International Version)

David and Goliath

1 Now the Philistines gathered their forces for war and assembled1 at Socoh in Judah. They pitched camp at Ephes Dammim, between Socoh2 and Azekah.3 2 Saul and the Israelites assembled and camped in the Valley of Elah4 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. 4 A champion named Goliath,5 who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp. He was over nine feeta tall. 5 He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armor of bronze weighing five thousand shekelsb; 6 on his legs he wore bronze greaves, and a bronze javelin6 was slung on his back. 7 His spear shaft was like a weaver's rod,7 and its iron point weighed six hundred shekels.c His shield bearer8 went ahead of him. 8 Goliath stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, "Why do you come out and line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose9 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." 10 Then the Philistine said, "This day I defy10 the ranks of Israel! Give me a man and let us fight each other.11" 11 On hearing the Philistine's words, Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified. 12 Now David was the son of an Ephrathite12 named Jesse,13 who was from Bethlehem14 in Judah. Jesse had eight15 sons, and in Saul's time he was old and well advanced in years. 13 Jesse's three oldest sons had followed Saul to the war: The firstborn was Eliab;16 the second, Abinadab;17 and the third, Shammah.18 14 David was the youngest. The three oldest followed Saul, 15 but David went back and forth from Saul to tend19 his father's sheep20 at Bethlehem. 16 For forty days the Philistine came forward every morning and evening and took his stand. 17 Now Jesse said to his son David, "Take this ephahd21 of roasted grain22 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.e See how your brothers23 are and bring back some assurancef from them. 19 They are with Saul and all the men of Israel in the Valley of Elah, fighting against the Philistines." 20 Early in the morning David left the flock with 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,24 ran to the battle lines and greeted his brothers. 23 As he was talking with them, Goliath, the Philistine champion from Gath, stepped out from his lines and shouted his usual25 defiance, and David heard it. 24 When the Israelites saw the man, they all ran from him in great fear. 25 Now the Israelites had been saying, "Do 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 daughter26 in marriage and will exempt his father's family from taxes27 in Israel." 26 David asked the men standing near him, "What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace28 from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised29 Philistine that he should defy30 the armies of the living31 God?" 27 They repeated to him what they had been saying and told him, "This is what will be done for the man who kills him." 28 When Eliab, David's oldest brother, heard him speaking with the men, he burned with anger32 at him and asked, "Why have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the desert? I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is; you came down only to watch the battle." 29 "Now what have I done?" said David. "Can't I even speak?" 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. 32 David said to Saul, "Let no one lose heart33 on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him." 33 Saul replied,34 "You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a boy, and he has been a fighting man from his youth." 34 But David said to Saul, "Your servant has been keeping his father's sheep. When a lion35 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 seized36 it by its hair, struck it and killed it. 36 Your servant has killed both the lion37 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 delivered38 me from the paw of the lion39 and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine." Saul said to David, "Go, and the LORD be with40 you." 38 Then Saul dressed David in his own41 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. "I cannot go in these," he said to Saul, "because I am not used to them." 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's bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine. 41 Meanwhile, the Philistine, with his shield bearer42 in front of him, kept coming closer to David. 42 He looked David over and saw that he was only a boy, ruddy and handsome,43 and he despised44 him. 43 He said to David, "Am I a dog,45 that you come at me with sticks?" And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. 44 "Come here," he said, "and I'll give your flesh to the birds of the air46 and the beasts of the field!47" 45 David said to the Philistine, "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin,48 but I come against you in the name49 of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.50 46 This day the LORD will hand51 you over to me, and I'll strike you down and cut off your head. Today I will give the carcasses52 of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and the whole world53 will know that there is a God in Israel.54 47 All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword55 or spear that the LORD saves;56 for the battle57 is the LORD's, and he will give all of you into our hands." 48 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. 50 So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling58 and a stone; without a sword in his hand he struck down the Philistine and killed him. 51 David ran and stood over him. He took hold of the Philistine's sword and drew it from the scabbard. After he killed him, he cut59 off his head with the sword.60 When 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 Gathg and to the gates of Ekron.61 Their dead were strewn along the Shaaraim62 road to Gath and Ekron. 53 When the Israelites returned from chasing the Philistines, they plundered their camp. 54 David took the Philistine's head and brought it to Jerusalem, and he put the Philistine's weapons in his own tent. 55 As Saul watched David63 going out to meet the Philistine, he said to Abner, commander of the army, "Abner,64 whose son is that young man?" Abner replied, "As surely as you live, O king, I don't know." 56 The king said, "Find out whose son this young man is." 57 As soon as David returned from killing the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul, with David still holding the Philistine's head. 58 "Whose son are you, young man?" Saul asked him. David said, "I am the son of your servant Jesse65 of Bethlehem."
Study Tools Footnotes Cross References
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Geneva Study Bible
John Gill's Exposition of the Bible
Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (Complete)
Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (Concise)
Scofield Reference Notes (1917 Edition)
Treasury Of Scripture Knowledge
Wesley's Explanatory Notes
a. 1 Samuel 17:4 - Hebrew "was six cubits and a span" (about 3 meters)
b. 1 Samuel 17:5 - That is, about 125 pounds (about 57 kilograms)
c. 1 Samuel 17:7 - That is, about 15 pounds (about 7 kilograms)
d. 1 Samuel 17:17 - That is, probably about 3/5 bushel (about 22 liters)
e. 1 Samuel 17:18 - Hebrew "thousand"
f. 1 Samuel 17:18 - Or "some token"; or "some pledge of spoils"
g. 1 Samuel 17:52 - Some Septuagint manuscripts; Hebrew "a valley"
1. 1 Samuel 17:1 - 1Sa 13:5
2. 1 Samuel 17:1 - Jos 15:35; 2Ch 28:18
3. 1 Samuel 17:1 - S Jos 10:10,11
4. 1 Samuel 17:2 - 1Sa 21:9
5. 1 Samuel 17:4 - Jos 11:21-22; 1Sa 21:9; 2Sa 21:19
6. 1 Samuel 17:6 - ver 45; 1Sa 18:10
7. 1 Samuel 17:7 - 2Sa 21:19; 1Ch 11:23; 20:5
8. 1 Samuel 17:7 - ver 41
9. 1 Samuel 17:8 - 2Sa 2:12-17; 1Sa 8:17
10. 1 Samuel 17:10 - ver 26,45; 2Sa 21:21
11. 1 Samuel 17:10 - ver 23
12. 1 Samuel 17:12 - S Ge 35:16; S 48:7; Ps 132:6
13. 1 Samuel 17:12 - S Ru 4:17; 1Ch 2:13-15
14. 1 Samuel 17:12 - S Ge 35:19
15. 1 Samuel 17:12 - 1Sa 16:11
16. 1 Samuel 17:13 - S 1Sa 16:6
17. 1 Samuel 17:13 - 1Sa 16:8
18. 1 Samuel 17:13 - S 1Sa 16:9
19. 1 Samuel 17:15 - S Ge 37:2
20. 1 Samuel 17:15 - 1Sa 16:19
21. 1 Samuel 17:17 - S Lev 19:36
22. 1 Samuel 17:17 - S Lev 23:14; 1Sa 25:18
23. 1 Samuel 17:18 - Ge 37:14
24. 1 Samuel 17:22 - S Jos 1:11
25. 1 Samuel 17:23 - ver 8-10
26. 1 Samuel 17:25 - Jos 15:16; 1Sa 18:17
27. 1 Samuel 17:25 - S 1Sa 8:15
28. 1 Samuel 17:26 - 1Sa 11:2
29. 1 Samuel 17:26 - S 1Sa 14:6
30. 1 Samuel 17:26 - S ver 10
31. 1 Samuel 17:26 - Dt 5:26; S Jos 3:10; 2Ki 18:35
32. 1 Samuel 17:28 - Ge 37:4,8,11; S Ge 27:41; Pr 18:19; Mt 10:36
33. 1 Samuel 17:32 - S Dt 20:3; Ps 18:45; Isa 7:4; Jer 4:9; 38:4; Da 11:30; 1Sa 16:18
34. 1 Samuel 17:33 - Nu 13:31
35. 1 Samuel 17:34 - Job 10:16; Isa 31:4; Jer 49:19; Hos 13:8; Am 3:12
36. 1 Samuel 17:35 - Jdg 14:6
37. 1 Samuel 17:36 - 1Ch 11:22
38. 1 Samuel 17:37 - 2Co 1:10
39. 1 Samuel 17:37 - 2Ti 4:17
40. 1 Samuel 17:37 - S 1Sa 16:18; S 18:12; 1Sa 20:13; 1Ch 22:11,16
41. 1 Samuel 17:38 - S Ge 41:42
42. 1 Samuel 17:41 - ver 7
43. 1 Samuel 17:42 - 1Sa 16:12
44. 1 Samuel 17:42 - Ps 123:3-4; Pr 16:18
45. 1 Samuel 17:43 - 1Sa 24:14; 2Sa 3:8; 9:8; 2Ki 8:13
46. 1 Samuel 17:44 - S Ge 40:19; Rev 19:17
47. 1 Samuel 17:44 - 2Sa 21:10; Jer 34:20; 1Ki 20:10-11
48. 1 Samuel 17:45 - S ver 6
49. 1 Samuel 17:45 - Dt 20:1; 2Sa 22:33,35; 2Ch 13:12; 14:11; 32:8; Ps 20:7-8; 124:8; Heb 11:32-34
50. 1 Samuel 17:45 - S ver 10
51. 1 Samuel 17:46 - S 1Sa 14:12
52. 1 Samuel 17:46 - S Dt 28:26
53. 1 Samuel 17:46 - S Jos 4:24; 1Ki 8:43; Isa 52:10; S Isa 11:9
54. 1 Samuel 17:46 - 1Ki 18:36; 2Ki 5:8; 19:19; Isa 37:20
55. 1 Samuel 17:47 - Hos 1:7; Zec 4:6
56. 1 Samuel 17:47 - 1Sa 14:6; 2Ch 14:11; Jer 39:18
57. 1 Samuel 17:47 - S Ex 14:14; S Nu 21:14; S 1Sa 2:9; 2Ch 20:15; Ps 44:6-7
58. 1 Samuel 17:50 - 1Sa 25:29; 2Sa 23:21
59. 1 Samuel 17:51 - Heb 11:34
60. 1 Samuel 17:51 - 1Sa 21:9; 22:10
61. 1 Samuel 17:52 - Jos 15:11
62. 1 Samuel 17:52 - S Jos 15:36
63. 1 Samuel 17:55 - 1Sa 16:21
64. 1 Samuel 17:55 - 1Sa 26:5
65. 1 Samuel 17:58 - S Ru 4:17; ver 12
Link Options
More Options
[X]
Popular Resources
Bible VersionsInterlinear BibleParallel BibleCommentariesConcordancesDictionariesEncyclopediasLexiconsHistoryLinking to BSTSermon HelpsSermon IllustrationsTopical Verses
About UsSitemapLink to BSTShopping