Study Desk

Now the Philistine came forward early and late, and he took his stand for forty days.

Then Jesse said to his son David, "Please take for your brothers an ephah of this roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread, and bring them quickly to the camp for your brothers.

David left the baggage he had with him in the care of the baggage keeper, ran to the battle line, and came and asked how his brothers were doing.

While he was speaking to them, the champion, whose name was Goliath the Philistine from Gath, was coming up from the caves of the Philistines. He spoke just as he had previously, and David heard his words.

When all the men of Israel saw the man, they fled from his presence and were very afraid.

And the men of Israel said, "Did you see this man who has come up? For he is going up to defy Israel! It will be that the man who defeats him, the king will make him very rich with great wealth and will give him his daughter in marriage and will make his father's house free in Israel."

His oldest brother Eliab heard while he was speaking to the men, and Eliab became very angry against David and said, "Why have you come down today, and with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your presumptuousness and the evil of your heart! For you have come down in order to see the battle!"

But Saul said to David, "You will not be able to go against this Philistine to fight with him, because you are only a boy, whereas he has been a man of war since his childhood!"

And David said to Saul, "Your servant has been a shepherd of the flock for his father. If the lion or the bear would come and carry off a sheep from the group,

Then Saul clothed David with his own fighting attire and put a helmet of bronze on his head and clothed him with body armor.

Then David strapped on his sword over his fighting attire, but he tried in vain to walk around, for he was not trained to use them. So David said to Saul, "I am not able to walk with these, because I am not trained to use them." So David removed them.

Then he took his staff in his hand, picked out for himself five smooth stones from the wadi, and he put them in his shepherd's bag, in the pouch. And with his sling in his hand, he approached the Philistine.

Then the Philistine came on, getting nearer and nearer to David, with his shield bearer in front of him.

So the Philistine said to David, "Am I a dog, that you are coming to me with sticks?" Then the Philistine cursed David by his gods.

Then David put his hand into the bag and took a stone from it and slung it. He struck the Philistine on his forehead, and the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the ground.

Then David ran and stood over the Philistine and took his sword and drew it from its sheath and killed him and cut off his head with it. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled.

And David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem and placed his weapons in his tent.

So when David returned from striking down the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul. The head of the Philistine was in his hand.

When he finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan became attached to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.

Saul took him on that very day and did not allow him to return to his father's house.