1 Samuel 17:10

10 The Philistine added, "I challenge the Israelite battle line today. Send out a man so that we can fight each other."

1 Samuel 17:10 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 17:10

And the Philistine said, I defy the armies of Israel this day,
&c.] Or "reproach" ^F19 them; that is, should they not accept his challenge, and send down a man to fight with them, he should then upbraid them with cowardice; and now he disdained them, as if there was not a man among them that dared to encounter with him:

give me a man that we may fight together;
and so decide the controversy between us; such as were those duels fought between Paris and Menelaus in the Trojan war, and between the Lacedemonians and the Argives in the times of Orthryades, and between the Athenians and Romans by the Horatii and Curiatii, as Grotius observes.

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FOOTNOTES:

F19 (ytprx) "exprobravo". V. L. Pagninus, Montanus; "probro affeci", Tigurine version; "probro affecero", Junius & Tremellius.

1 Samuel 17:10 In-Context

8 Goliath stood and called to the Israelites, "Why do you form a battle line? Am I not a Philistine, and aren't you Saul's servants? Choose a man, and let him come down to [fight] me.

9 If he can fight me and kill me, then we will be your slaves. But if I overpower him and kill him, then you will be our slaves and serve us."

10 The Philistine added, "I challenge the Israelite battle line today. Send out a man so that we can fight each other."

11 When Saul and all the Israelites heard what this Philistine said, they were gripped with fear.

12 David was a son of a man named Jesse from the region of Ephrath and the city of Bethlehem in Judah. Jesse had eight sons, and in Saul's day he was an old man.