David and Goliath

The story of David and Goliath is told in 1 Samuel 17. It comes right after the prophet Samuel anoints David, the youngest of eight brothers, as the king God has chosen, and it shows what kind of person the future king is: a shepherd boy who trusts God when everyone around him is afraid.

The story in brief

The Philistine army camped on one hillside and King Saul’s army on the other, with the valley of Elah between them. Every morning and evening for forty days, a Philistine champion named Goliath of Gath walked into the valley and dared Israel to send one man to fight him. Saul and all Israel “were dismayed and greatly afraid” (1 Samuel 17:11).

Jesse of Bethlehem sent his youngest son, David, to the camp with grain, bread, and cheese for his older brothers. David asked why no one answered the challenge, and King Saul sent for him. Saul said he was too young. David answered that while keeping his father’s sheep he had rescued lambs from a lion and a bear.

The LORD, who delivered me out of the paw of the lion and out of the paw of the bear, will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine.

1 Samuel 17:37

Saul answered, “Go! The LORD will be with you,” and dressed David in his own armor. David could hardly move in it, so he took it off and went out with his staff, his sling, and five smooth stones from the brook. When Goliath mocked him, David answered that “the LORD doesn’t save with sword and spear” (1 Samuel 17:47). His first stone struck Goliath in the forehead, and the giant fell. The chapter ends the fight with Goliath’s death, and the Philistine army fled (1 Samuel 17:50–52).

The setting and background

The Philistines lived in five cities on the southern coastal plain, and Gath, Goliath’s hometown, was one of them. The Hebrew calls Goliath ish habbenayim, literally “the man of the space between,” a champion who fought alone between two armies so that one contest could decide a war.

The Hebrew text makes Goliath “six cubits and a span” tall (1 Samuel 17:4), about 9 feet 9 inches. The oldest Greek translation, a Dead Sea Scroll of Samuel, and the historian Josephus give four cubits and a span, about 6 feet 9 inches.

A sling was a shepherd’s tool for driving off wild animals, and armies used slingers too. Judges remembers seven hundred slingers who “could sling a stone at a hair and not miss” (Judges 20:16).

What the story means

Everyone in Saul’s army measures Goliath and despairs. David measures him against God. His courage grows out of memory: the God who kept him safe with his sheep will be with him in the valley. Just before the story, God tells Samuel, “the LORD looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7), and the youngest brother, sent to carry bread and cheese, turns out to be the one who trusts.

Goliath trusts his bronze, and Saul trusts his armor. David says that God’s way of saving does not depend on weapons. Paul would later write that “God chose the weak things of the world that he might put to shame the things that are strong” (1 Corinthians 1:27). Many readers find the battle hard (see Why is the Old Testament so violent?); the story’s lasting gift is a picture of faith facing fear.

How the early church read it

The church fathers read David as a figure of Christ. The Greek and Latin Bibles gave Psalm 144 the title “against Goliath,” and Augustine, preaching on it, saw in David’s victory Christ’s victory over the devil. David chose five stones and threw only one: “The five Books were chosen, but unity conquered,” Augustine said, reading the stones as the five books of Moses. Then he told his hearers, “be yourselves David.”

The Greek Old Testament, still used by the Orthodox churches, ends the Psalms with Psalm 151, in which David tells how God chose him, the youngest brother, who kept his father’s sheep, before he went out against Goliath.

What modern scholars notice

Ralph Klein, a Lutheran scholar of the Old Testament, points out that the oldest Greek translation lacks verses 12–31, where David brings food to his brothers, and verses 55–58, where Saul asks whose son David is. Klein thinks the shorter text is probably older. The longer Hebrew text seems to join two tellings: in one David is already Saul’s armor bearer (1 Samuel 16:21), and in the other he is an unknown shepherd boy.

Luther Seminary’s Enter the Bible notes that the Hebrew of 2 Samuel 21:19 credits a Bethlehem soldier named Elhanan with killing Goliath, and many scholars think Elhanan’s deed was later told of David, the more famous son of Bethlehem. Klein reads Saul’s armor as Saul’s mistaken trust in human strength.

Questions for reflection or discussion

1. What feels like a giant in your life right now?
2. What memories of God’s faithfulness help you face hard things?
3. Why do you think David took off Saul’s armor?
4. When have you been underestimated, or underestimated someone else?
5. What might it mean for Christians today that God saves without sword and spear?
6. How would you tell this story to a child, faithfully and gently?

A prayer

God of David, you look at the heart, and you choose the small to do great things. When we are afraid, remind us how you have kept us safe, and give us courage to trust you. Teach us that you save without sword and spear, and make us brave for justice and for peace. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

For kids

Long ago, two armies stood on two hills. In the valley between them stood a giant named Goliath. He was very, very tall. He wore a shiny helmet and heavy armor. Every day he shouted, “Send someone to fight me!” Everyone was scared.

David was a shepherd boy. He was the youngest in his family. One day his father said, “Take this bread and cheese to your big brothers.” So David went to the army camp.

David heard the giant shouting. “Why is everyone so scared?” David asked. “God is with us!”

David went to King Saul. “I will go,” he said. The king said, “You are just a boy.” David said, “I take care of my sheep. God kept me safe from a lion and a bear. God will keep me safe now.” So the king said, “Go! The LORD will be with you.”

The king gave David his armor. It was way too big! David could hardly walk. So he took it off.

David picked five smooth stones from a stream. He took his sling. The giant laughed at him. David trusted God. He swung his sling, and one stone flew. It hit Goliath on the forehead. Down he fell! The other army ran away.

David was small, and God was with him. When you feel small or scared, remember David. God is with you too.