1The Philistines gathered their armies for battle. They came together at Shochoh, which belongs to Judah. They camped between Shochoh and Azekah, in Ephesdammim.
2Saul and the men of Israel gathered too. They camped by the valley of Elah, and drew up their lines of battle against the Philistines.
3The Philistines stood on a mountain on one side, and Israel stood on a mountain on the other side. There was a valley between them.
4A champion came out from the camp of the Philistines. His name was Goliath, from Gath. He was six cubits and a span tall.
5He had a helmet of brass on his head, and he wore a coat of mail. The coat weighed five thousand shekels of brass.
6He had guards of brass on his legs, and a shield of brass slung between his shoulders.
7The shaft of his spear was like a weaver's beam. The head of his spear weighed six hundred shekels of iron. A man carrying a shield walked in front of him.
8He stood and shouted to the armies of Israel, "Why have you come out to draw up your battle lines? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me."
9"If he can fight me and kill me, then we will be your servants. But if I beat him and kill him, then you will be our servants and serve us."
10The Philistine said, "Today I defy the armies of Israel. Give me a man, so that we may fight each other."
11When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they lost heart and were very afraid.
12Now David was the son of that Ephrathite from Bethlehemjudah whose name was Jesse. Jesse had eight sons. In the days of Saul he was an old man among men.
13The three oldest sons of Jesse had gone to follow Saul to the battle. The names of his three sons who went to the battle were Eliab the firstborn, Abinadab next, and Shammah the third.
16The Philistine came near morning and evening, and stood there for forty days.
17Jesse said to his son David, "Take an ephah of this roasted grain to your brothers, and these ten loaves. Run to the camp, to your brothers."
18"Carry these ten cheeses to the captain of their thousand. See how your brothers are, and bring back word from them."
19Now Saul and they and all the men of Israel were in the valley of Elah, fighting the Philistines.
20David got up early in the morning. He left the sheep with a keeper, took the food, and went as Jesse had told him. He came to the place where the wagons were, just as the army was going out to the fight, shouting the battle cry.
21For Israel and the Philistines had drawn up their lines, army against army.
22David left the things he carried with the man who kept the baggage, and ran to the battle line. He came and greeted his brothers.
23While he talked with them, look, the champion came up. He was the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, out of the armies of the Philistines. He spoke the same words as before, and David heard them.
24When all the men of Israel saw the man, they ran from him and were very afraid.
25The men of Israel said, "Have you seen this man who has come up? He has surely come up to defy Israel. The man who kills him, the king will make him very rich. He will give him his daughter, and set his father's family free in Israel."
26David spoke to the men standing by him. He said, "What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the shame from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?"
27The people answered him in the same way, and said, "This is what will be done for the man who kills him."
28Eliab, his oldest brother, heard him speaking to the men. Eliab was angry with David, and said, "Why did you come down here? Who did you leave those few sheep with in the wilderness? I know your pride, and the wickedness of your heart. You came down to see the battle."
29David said, "What have I done now? Was it not only a question?"
30He turned away from him to someone else, and asked the same thing. The people answered him again as before.
32David said to Saul, "Let no one lose heart because of him. Your servant will go and fight this Philistine."
33Saul said to David, "You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight him. You are only a boy, and he has been a man of war from his youth."
34David said to Saul, "Your servant kept his father's sheep. A lion came, and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock."
35I went out after it and struck it, and rescued the lamb out of its mouth. When it turned on me, I caught it by its beard, and struck it, and killed it.
36"Your servant killed both the lion and the bear. This uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God."
37David also said, "The LORD who saved me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will save me from the hand of this Philistine." Saul said to David, "Go, and may the LORD be with you."
38Saul dressed David in his own armour. He put a helmet of brass on his head, and dressed him in a coat of mail.
39David strapped on his sword over the armour, and tried to walk, for he had not tested it. David said to Saul, "I cannot go in these, for I have not tested them." So David took them off.
40He took his staff in his hand, and chose five smooth stones out of the brook. He put them in the shepherd's bag he had, in his pouch. His sling was in his hand, and he went near to the Philistine.
41The Philistine came on and drew near to David, and the man who carried the shield went in front of him.
42When the Philistine looked around and saw David, he despised him, for David was only a boy, with a fresh face and good looks.
43The Philistine said to David, "Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?" And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.
44The Philistine said to David, "Come here to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field."
45Then David said to the Philistine, "You come to me with a sword, a spear and a shield. But I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied."
46Today the LORD will give you into my hand. I will strike you down and take your head from you. Today I will give the dead bodies of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth. Then all the earth will know that there is a God in Israel.
47"And all this gathering will know that the LORD does not save with sword and spear. The battle is the LORD's, and he will give you into our hands."
48When the Philistine got up and came near to meet David, David hurried and ran toward the battle line to meet the Philistine.
49David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone. He slung it and struck the Philistine in his forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell face down on the ground.
50So David beat the Philistine with a sling and a stone. He struck the Philistine and killed him, and there was no sword in David's hand.
51So David ran and stood over the Philistine. He took the Philistine's sword and drew it out of its sheath, and killed him, and cut off his head with it. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they ran away.
52The men of Israel and Judah got up and shouted, and chased the Philistines as far as the valley and the gates of Ekron. The wounded Philistines fell along the road to Shaaraim, all the way to Gath and to Ekron.
53The children of Israel came back from chasing the Philistines, and they plundered their tents.
54David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem, but he put his armour in his tent.
55When Saul saw David going out against the Philistine, he said to Abner, the captain of the army, "Abner, whose son is this young man?" Abner said, "As your soul lives, O king, I cannot tell."
56The king said, "Ask whose son this young man is."