David and Goliath

Text and Content

This event appears in 1 Samuel 17. The Philistine army encamped between Socoh and Azekah in the land of Judah, and Israel, led by Saul, encamped in the Valley of Elah to oppose them. From the Philistine camp came Goliath of Gath, who for forty days, morning and evening, challenged Israel to single combat, but no one in Israel dared to come forward.

David, the youngest son of Jesse, had come to bring food to his brothers serving in the army. When he heard the challenge, he volunteered. Saul clothed him in his own garments and armor, but David took them off, saying that he was not used to them. He chose five smooth stones from the brook and went out with his sling, a weapon in which a stone is placed in a leather strap, whirled, and released. David declared, "for the battle is the LORD's" (1 Samuel 17:47). The stone he slung sank into Goliath's forehead, and when Goliath fell, David cut off his head with Goliath's own sword. The Philistine army fled.

Background

Gath was one of the principal cities of the Philistines. The Masoretic Text gives Goliath's height as "six cubits and a span," while the Septuagint and some manuscripts of Samuel among the Dead Sea Scrolls read "four cubits and a span." The Hebrew expression rendered "one who stirs up battle" in the Korean Revised Korean Version (KJV: "champion") is understood to mean "the man between the two camps." It refers to a form of combat in which each side sends out a single representative to decide the contest. The sling was not a child's toy but a weapon used in actual warfare (Judges 20:16).

Significance within Scripture as a Whole

This event is David's first public achievement after his anointing in chapter 16. It marked the beginning of the friendship between Jonathan and David, and at the same time the beginning of Saul's jealousy (1 Samuel 18:7–9). Goliath's sword later came back into David's hands at Nob (1 Samuel 21:9). The New Testament does not mention Goliath directly. Nevertheless, since the patristic era there has been a tradition of reading this story as a type of Christ's victory over sin and Satan. A type is a figure that foreshadows something yet to come.

Interpretations and Issues

• The Elhanan passage: 2 Samuel 21:19 records that Elhanan killed Goliath the Gittite, whereas 1 Chronicles 20:5 records that Elhanan killed Lahmi, the brother of Goliath. Proposed explanations for this difference include an error in scribal transmission and the existence of two men with the same name, among others.
• Composition of the text: In chapter 16 David is already serving Saul, yet in 17:55–58 Saul asks whose son David is. How to harmonize the two accounts has been debated. Some manuscripts of the Septuagint lack a substantial portion of chapter 17.
• Approaches to reading: Sermons that present David's faith and courage as an example to be imitated are widespread. By contrast, redemptive-historical preaching in the Reformed tradition emphasizes that David should be read as the representative who fought on behalf of the people and as a type of Christ.
• Embellishments: A commonly repeated interpretation links David's choice of five stones to the number of Goliath's relatives, but the text gives no reason for it. Likewise, although the text calls David a "youth," it does not say that he was small in stature.