Chapter Overview
Summary
1 Samuel 17 is the David-and-Goliath narrative — one of the most famous stories in world literature. It also contains the single largest LXX textual divergence in 1 Samuel: Codex Vaticanus (B) omits vv. 12–31, 41, 48b, 50, 55–58 (and 18:1–5) — approximately 39 verses. The shorter LXX text is about 44% the length of the MT. Whether Vaticanus preserves an older, shorter original that MT later expanded with a second Davidic narrative (the 'Ephrathite-Jesse-and-his-sons' tradition) OR whether Vaticanus is a later abridgment of a fuller original is one of the great unsolved text-critical questions in the Hebrew Bible.
Notable Variants
The LXX-Vaticanus shorter form omitting vv. 12–31, 41, 48b, 50, 55–58; the 'man-of-the-between' (ish ha-beinayim / anēr mesaiou) terminology at 17:4; David's faith-declaration at 17:45–47 that establishes 'the battle is the LORD's' theology; the 'no sword in David's hand' detail at 17:50 as theological-literary emphasis.
Structural Notes
LXX Alexandrinus (A) and the Lucianic recension match MT. LXX Vaticanus (B) represents the short-form tradition. This file follows MT versification (which TCR follows), noting the omissions at key verses.
The Philistines gathered their forces for war. They assembled at Sokoh, which belongs to Judah, and camped between Sokoh and Azekah, at Ephes-dammim.
Philistine muster at Sokoh / Ephes-dammim tracks MT.
Saul and the men of Israel gathered and camped in the Valley of Elah, and drew up their battle lines to face the Philistines.
Valley of Elah battle-line tracks MT.
The Philistines stood on the hill on one side, and Israel stood on the hill on the other side, with the valley between them.
Opposing-hill positions tracks MT.
A man-of-the-between came out from the Philistine camp — his name was Goliath, from Gath. His height was six cubits and a span.
Masoretic (WLC)
אִישׁ־הַבֵּנַיִם
a man-of-the-between
Septuagint (LXX)
ἀνὴρ δυνατὸς ἐκ τῆς παρατάξεως τῶν ἀλλοφύλων
a mighty man from the battle line of the foreigners
The Hebrew ish ha-beinayim (literally 'man of between') is a rare military-technical term for a champion-duelist — the warrior who fights in the space between the two lines. The LXX periphrases as 'mighty man from the battle line' — missing the technical term.
Goliath's six-cubits-and-a-span height (about 9'9") has been textually disputed. 4QSamᵃ and Josephus both read 'four cubits and a span' (about 6'9") — a more realistic height. The LXX stands with MT at 'six cubits.'
He had a bronze helmet on his head, and he wore a coat of scaled armor. The weight of the armor coat was five thousand shekels of bronze.
Armor described tracks MT.
He had bronze greaves on his legs and a bronze javelin slung between his shoulders.
Greaves and javelin track MT.
The shaft of his spear was like a weaver's beam, and the iron head of his spear weighed six hundred shekels. A shield-bearer walked ahead of him.
Spear shaft and iron head track MT. 600 shekels is about 15 lbs — an exaggeratedly-heavy spearhead.
He stood and shouted to the battle lines of Israel, saying to them, "Why do you come out to form a battle line? Am I not the Philistine, and you — servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves and let him come down to me.
Goliath's taunt tracks MT.
If he can fight me and strike me down, then we will become your servants. But if I overpower him and strike him down, then you will become our servants and serve us."
Single-combat terms track MT.
The Philistine said, "I have taunted the battle lines of Israel this day! Give me a man so we can fight each other!"
'I have taunted the battle lines of Israel' — herefti — is the same root as 17:26 ('disgrace from Israel') and 17:45 (David's confrontation). The verb-thread structures the narrative.
When Saul and all Israel heard these words from the Philistine, they were shattered and deeply afraid.
Saul and Israel's fear tracks MT.
Now David was the son of an Ephrathite from Bethlehem in Judah named Jesse, who had eight sons. In the days of Saul, the man was old, advanced in years among men.
Masoretic (WLC)
וְדָוִד בֶּן־אִישׁ אֶפְרָתִי הַזֶּה מִבֵּית לֶחֶם יְהוּדָה
Now David was the son of an Ephrathite from Bethlehem in Judah
Septuagint (LXX)
(omitted in LXX Vaticanus B)
(Vaticanus B omits 17:12–31)
LXX Vaticanus begins its omission here. Verses 12–31 (and later 48b, 50, 55–58) contain the narrative of David-as-shepherd-son-sent-to-brothers, his encounter with Eliab, and his introduction to Saul's court as a stranger. The shorter Vaticanus form assumes David is already known at Saul's court (from 16:14–23).
The text-critical question: are the two narratives (16:14–23 musician-David; 17:12–58 shepherd-David) two originally-separate traditions that MT has merged, with Vaticanus preserving only the latter? Or is Vaticanus a later abridgment that removed an awkward redundancy?
Modern scholarly opinion leans toward the first option: MT preserves a combined narrative of which Vaticanus preserves an older, shorter form. But the Alexandrinus and majority LXX witnesses match MT.
Jesse's three oldest sons had gone to follow Saul into the war. The names of the three sons who went to the war were Eliab the firstborn, Abinadab his second, and Shammah the third.
Three older brothers' names track MT. Omitted from Vaticanus short-form.
David was the youngest. The three oldest had followed Saul.
David as youngest tracks MT. Omitted from Vaticanus short-form.
David would go back and forth from attending Saul to shepherding his father's flock at Bethlehem.
David's shuttling between Saul and the flock tracks MT. This verse is the narrative bridge reconciling the musician-David and shepherd-David traditions. Omitted from Vaticanus.
The Philistine came forward morning and evening and took his stand for forty days.
40-day Philistine taunting tracks MT. Omitted from Vaticanus.
Jesse said to his son David, "Take this ephah of roasted grain and these ten loaves for your brothers, and hurry to the camp to your brothers.
Jesse's provision-commission tracks MT. Omitted from Vaticanus.
Bring these ten cuts of cheese to the commander of the thousand. Check on your brothers' welfare and bring back a token from them."
Cheese and welfare-check instruction tracks MT.
Saul and they and all the men of Israel were in the Valley of Elah, facing the Philistines in battle.
Valley of Elah setting tracks MT.
David rose early in the morning, left the flock with a watchman, loaded up, and went as Jesse had commanded him. He reached the encampment just as the army was going out to the battle line, shouting the war cry.
David's early rising tracks MT.
Israel and the Philistines drew up battle line facing battle line.
Battle lines facing tracks MT.
David left his supplies with the baggage keeper and ran to the battle line. He went and greeted his brothers, asking about their welfare.
David's greeting his brothers tracks MT.
While he was speaking with them, the man-of-the-between was coming up — Goliath the Philistine, from Gath — out of the Philistine battle lines. He spoke the same words as before, and David heard.
Goliath's taunting tracks MT.
Every man of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from his presence and were deeply afraid.
Israelite flight tracks MT.
The men of Israel said, "Do you see this man who keeps coming up? He comes up to taunt Israel. The man who strikes him down — the king will make him very rich, will give him his daughter, and will make his father's house tax-free in Israel."
Rewards for striking Goliath track MT. Wealth, marriage, tax-exemption — Saul's three-fold incentive for a victor.
David spoke to the men standing near him, saying, "What will be done for the man who strikes down this Philistine and removes the disgrace from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should taunt the battle lines of the living God?"
David's question and 'uncircumcised Philistine' characterization track MT. 'The armies of the living God' (stratias theou zōntos) supplies NT vocabulary for the militant-faithful-community (2 Cor 10:4, 1 Tim 4:10).
The people answered him the same way, saying, "This is what will be done for the man who strikes him down."
Repeated answer tracks MT.
Eliab his oldest brother heard him speaking to the men, and Eliab's anger burned against David. He said, "Why did you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your arrogance and the wickedness of your heart — you came down to watch the battle!"
Eliab's rebuke tracks MT. The older-brother-misunderstands-the-younger-brother motif is a biblical pattern (Gen 37, Gen 4). Eliab — the one whose appearance Samuel initially mistook for the anointed (16:6–7) — now opposes the actually-anointed brother.
David said, "What have I done now? Can't I even ask a question?"
David's defense tracks MT.
He turned away from him to someone else and asked the same thing, and the people gave him the same answer as before.
David's turning to others tracks MT.
When the words David had spoken were heard, they reported them to Saul, and he sent for him.
Report reaching Saul tracks MT. End of the Vaticanus long-omission block.
David said to Saul, "Let no man's heart fall on account of him. Your servant will go and fight this Philistine."
David's volunteer-offer to Saul tracks MT. 'Your servant' (ho doulos sou) is the standard self-abasement formula.
Saul said to David, "You cannot go against this Philistine to fight him. You are just a boy, and he has been a man of war since his youth."
Saul's objection tracks MT.
David said to Saul, "Your servant has been shepherding his father's flock. When a lion came — or a bear — and carried off a sheep from the flock,
David's shepherd-anecdote begins. The lion-and-bear memory becomes the foundation of his divine-rescue-experience argument.
I went out after it, struck it, and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it rose against me, I grabbed it by the jaw and struck it dead.
Lion-rescue detail tracks MT.
Your servant has struck down both the lion and the bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them — because he has taunted the battle lines of the living God."
Parallel structuring — lion, bear, Philistine — tracks MT. The 'uncircumcised Philistine' (allophylos aperitmētos) is the LXX's idiom for the foreign and cultically-excluded enemy.
David said, "The LORD who rescued me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear — he will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine." Saul said to David, "Go, and may the LORD be with you."
'The LORD who rescued me' tracks MT. Saul's 'May the LORD be with you' benediction tracks MT.
Saul dressed David in his own garments, placed a bronze helmet on his head, and put a coat of armor on him.
Saul's armor-dressing tracks MT.
David strapped the sword over the garments and tried to walk, but he could not — he had never tested them. David said to Saul, "I cannot go in these. I have not tested them." And David removed them.
David's armor-refusal tracks MT. 'I have never tested them' — David rejects unfamiliar technology in favor of his proven shepherd's equipment.
He took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the wadi, and put them in his shepherd's pouch — in the bag — with his sling in his hand. Then he approached the Philistine.
Five smooth stones and sling track MT. The sling (sphendonē) is the shepherd's weapon; five stones may suggest Goliath's four Philistine champion-brothers (2 Sam 21) or simply prudent redundancy.
The Philistine advanced, coming closer and closer to David, with the shield-bearer ahead of him.
Masoretic (WLC)
וַיֵּלֶךְ הַפְּלִשְׁתִּי הֹלֵךְ וְקָרֵב אֶל־דָּוִד וְהָאִישׁ נֹשֵׂא הַצִּנָּה לְפָנָיו
The Philistine advanced, coming closer and closer to David, with the shield-bearer ahead of him
Septuagint (LXX)
(omitted in LXX Vaticanus B)
(Vaticanus omits)
Vaticanus short-form omission continues. The shield-bearer detail is preserved in MT.
The Philistine looked and saw David, and he despised him — for he was just a youth, ruddy and handsome in appearance.
Goliath's disdain — 'just a youth' — tracks MT.
The Philistine said to David, "Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?" And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.
'Am I a dog?' tracks MT. The dog-stick metaphor is contemptuous: David's shepherd-staff is seen as ordinary dog-repellent.
The Philistine said to David, "Come here to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the sky and the beasts of the field."
Goliath's 'flesh to birds and beasts' threat tracks MT — standard battlefield-taunt.
David said to the Philistine, "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD of Armies — the God of the battle lines of Israel, whom you have taunted.
Masoretic (WLC)
וְאָנֹכִי בָא־אֵלֶיךָ בְּשֵׁם יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת
but I come against you in the name of the LORD of Armies
Septuagint (LXX)
κἀγὼ πορεύομαι πρὸς σὲ ἐν ὀνόματι κυρίου σαβαωθ
But I come against you in the name of the Lord Sabaoth
'In the name of the LORD of Armies' (en onomati kyriou sabaōth) supplies the NT 'in the name of' formula that the Great Commission (Matt 28:19), Philippians 2:10 ('at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow'), and apostolic ministry (Acts 3:6, 4:7–10 'by what name') all deploy.
David's theological-militant language — divine-name-authority against human weaponry — is the paradigm of Christian spiritual warfare (Eph 6:10–17).
This very day the LORD will deliver you into my hand. I will strike you down and cut your head from your body. I will give the corpses of the Philistine camp this day to the birds of the sky and the wild animals of the earth — so that all the earth will know that there is a God in Israel,
'The LORD will deliver you' / 'cut off your head' prophecy tracks MT.
and all this assembly will know that the LORD does not save by sword and spear. For the battle belongs to the LORD, and he will give you into our hands."
'The LORD does not save by sword and spear' / 'the battle belongs to the LORD' tracks MT. Zechariah 4:6 ('not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit') and 2 Corinthians 10:4 ('the weapons of our warfare are not fleshly') extend this Davidic theology.
When the Philistine rose and advanced to meet David, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine.
David's run toward the Philistine tracks MT. The 48b half-verse omitted in Vaticanus.
David reached his hand into the bag, took out a stone, slung it, and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell face-down to the ground.
Stone-sling-forehead strike tracks MT. The forehead-strike is practical (the helmet's exposed region) and symbolic (the head of pride).
David overpowered the Philistine with the sling and the stone — he struck the Philistine and killed him. There was no sword in David's hand.
Masoretic (WLC)
וַיֶּחֱזַק דָּוִד מִן־הַפְּלִשְׁתִּי בַּקֶּלַע וּבָאֶבֶן וַיַּךְ אֶת־הַפְּלִשְׁתִּי וַיְמִיתֵהוּ וְחֶרֶב אֵין בְּיַד־דָּוִד
David overpowered the Philistine with the sling and the stone — he struck the Philistine and killed him. There was no sword in David's hand
Septuagint (LXX)
(omitted in Vaticanus B)
(Vaticanus omits)
The 'no sword in David's hand' theological-emphasis is unique to MT — Vaticanus lacks it. The 'no sword' detail emphasizes 17:47's 'the LORD does not save by sword and spear' principle.
David ran and stood over the Philistine, took his sword, drew it from its sheath, finished him off, and cut off his head with it. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled.
David cuts off Goliath's head with Goliath's own sword tracks MT. The weapon of oppression becomes the instrument of its own defeat — a literary-theological motif.
The men of Israel and Judah rose up, shouted the war cry, and pursued the Philistines all the way to the entrance of Gath and to the gates of Ekron. Philistine dead fell along the road to Shaaraim, all the way to Gath and to Ekron.
Israelite pursuit to Gath and Ekron tracks MT.
The Israelites returned from their hot pursuit of the Philistines and plundered their camp.
Israelite return and plundering tracks MT.
David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem, but he put his weapons in his own tent.
'David brought the head to Jerusalem' tracks MT. Anachronistic — Jerusalem is still Jebusite at this period, not captured until 2 Sam 5. Possibly 'Jerusalem' is a later editorial insertion or refers to a different location.
When Saul saw David going out to face the Philistine, he said to Abner, the commander of the army, "Whose son is this young man, Abner?" Abner said, "As your life endures, O king, I do not know."
Masoretic (WLC)
וְכִרְאוֹת שָׁאוּל אֶת־דָּוִד יֹצֵא לִקְרַאת הַפְּלִשְׁתִּי אָמַר אֶל־אַבְנֵר שַׂר הַצָּבָא בֶּן־מִי־זֶה הַנַּעַר אַבְנֵר
When Saul saw David going out to face the Philistine, he said to Abner, the commander of the army, 'Whose son is this young man, Abner?'
Septuagint (LXX)
(omitted in LXX Vaticanus B)
(Vaticanus omits 17:55–18:5)
This is the second major Vaticanus omission (vv. 55–58 plus 18:1–5). The 'who is this young man?' conversation creates the famous problem: Saul has known David since 16:14–23, so why is he asking who he is?
If Vaticanus preserves the older text, MT's longer form represents a second Davidic introduction (the shepherd-David narrative) added alongside the original musician-David narrative (16:14–23). The two were originally separate traditions that a later editor combined.
The text-critical analysis has significant theological consequences for how we read the unity of 1 Samuel's David-narratives.
The king said, "Find out whose son this young man is."
Saul's further inquiry tracks MT.
When David returned from striking down the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul — with the head of the Philistine in his hand.
Abner bringing David to Saul with the Philistine's head tracks MT.
Saul said to him, "Whose son are you, young man?" David answered, "The son of your servant Jesse, the Bethlehemite."
'Whose son are you?' tracks MT. David's 'Jesse the Bethlehemite' identifies the Davidic tribal lineage that Matthew 1:6 and Luke 3:31–32 will carry forward Christologically.