1 Samuel 17:45

45 Then David said to the Philistine, "You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin, ¹but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have taunted.

1 Samuel 17:45 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 17:45

Then said David to the Philistine
In answer to the contempt he held him in, and to the threatening words he gave him:

thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield;
the word for "shield" is not the same with that so rendered, ( 1 Samuel 17:41 ) ; which his armourbearer carried before him, but with that translated a "target", which was between his shoulders, ( 1 Samuel 17:6 ) ; however, they were all weapons of war, either defensive or offensive:

but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the
armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied;
the Lord of all hosts, in heaven and in earth in general, and in particular the God of the armies of Israel; which he was at the head of, led on, protected and defended, having a kind and merciful regard unto them, and which this Philistine had defied, reproached, and blasphemed; and now David was come, by a commission from this great Jehovah, to vindicate his honour, and to avenge his people on him: he had asked for a man, and now the Lord of hosts, as the Jews ^F12 observe, comes forth as a man of war, for the battle was his, as in ( 1 Samuel 17:47 ) ; and David was his messenger, and came in his name, and was the man into whose hands he should be given.

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FOOTNOTES:

F12 T. Bab. Sotah, fol. 42. 2.

1 Samuel 17:45 In-Context

43 The Philistine said to David, "Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?" And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.

44 The Philistine also said to David, "Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the sky and the beasts of the field."

45 Then David said to the Philistine, "You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have taunted.

46 "This day the LORD will deliver you up into my hands, and I will strike you down and remove your head from you. And I will give the dead bodies of the army of the Philistines this day to the birds of the sky and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel,

47 and that all this assembly may know that the LORD does not deliver by sword or by spear; for the battle is the LORD'S and He will give you into our hands."

Cross References

• 1. 2 Samuel 22:35; 2 Chronicles 32:8; Psalms 124:8; Hebrews 11:32-34