1 Samuel 17:36

36 I, your servant, have killed both a lion and a bear! This uncircumcised Philistine will be like them, because he has spoken against the armies of the living God.

1 Samuel 17:36 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 17:36

Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear
At different times, and several of them at one time or another; whenever any of them came into the flock, he used to lay hold on them and kill them, with all the ease imaginable. The Jews suppose this phrase denotes many of them ^F8.

And this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them;
as he was like them in nature, savage, cruel and unclean, so he would be in his end, killed as they; of this David was fully persuaded and assured in mind having an impulse from the Spirit of God, by which he was certified of it:

seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God;
so that as he justly deserved to die, he made no doubt of it it would be his case.

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FOOTNOTES:

F8 See Halicot Olam, p. 177.

1 Samuel 17:36 In-Context

34 But David said to Saul, "I, your servant, have been keeping my father's sheep. When a lion or bear came and took a sheep from the flock,

35 I would chase it. I would attack it and save the sheep from its mouth. When it attacked me, I caught it by its fur and hit it and killed it.

36 I, your servant, have killed both a lion and a bear! This uncircumcised Philistine will be like them, because he has spoken against the armies of the living God.

37 The Lord who saved me from a lion and a bear will save me from this Philistine." Saul said to David, "Go, and may the Lord be with you."

38 Saul put his own clothes on David. He put a bronze helmet on his head and dressed him in armor.