1 Samuel 17 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
The gathered their armies for war. They assembled at which belongs to Judah, and set up camp between and Azekah, at Ephes-dammim.
Saul and the Israelite army assembled and camped in the of lining up in battle formation to face the Philistines.
The Philistines took their position on one hill, and the Israelites took theirs on the opposite hill, with the valley between them.
A came out from the Philistine camp — a man named from Gath. He was over nine feet tall.
He wore a bronze helmet on his head and was dressed in a coat of that weighed about 125 pounds of bronze.
He had bronze shin guards on his legs and a bronze javelin slung across his back.
The shaft of his spear was like a and its iron point weighed about fifteen pounds. His walked ahead of him.
Goliath stood and shouted to the Israelite battle lines, "Why have you come out and lined up for war? I'm a Philistine, and you're Saul's Pick one of your men and send him down to fight me.
If he can fight me and kill me, we'll be your servants. But if I overpower him and kill him, you'll be our servants and serve us."
Then the Philistine said, "I Israel's battle lines today! Give me a man, and let's fight each other!"
When Saul and all of Israel heard what the Philistine said, they were and deeply shaken.
Now David was the son of a man from in Bethlehem of Judah named Jesse, who had eight sons. In Saul's time, Jesse was already an old man, well along in years.
Jesse's three oldest sons had followed Saul to the war. The firstborn was Eliab, the second was Abinadab, and the third was Shammah.
David was the youngest. The three oldest had gone with Saul,
but David went back and forth from Saul's camp to at Bethlehem.
For the Philistine came forward every morning and evening and took his stand.
Jesse said to his son David, "Take this basket of roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread for your brothers, and hurry to their camp.
Also these ten blocks of cheese to the commander of their unit. Check on how your brothers are doing and some that they're all right."
Saul and David's brothers and all the Israelite army were in the Valley of Elah, fighting against the Philistines.
David got up early in the morning, left the sheep with a helper, loaded up, and set out just as Jesse had told him. He reached the camp as the army was heading out to its battle positions, shouting their
Israel and the Philistines drew up their battle lines facing each other.
David left his supplies with the man who guarded the gear, ran to the battle line, and went to greet his brothers.
While he was talking with them, the Philistine champion — Goliath from Gath — stepped forward from the Philistine lines and made his usual challenge. David heard every word.
When the Israelite soldiers saw the man, they all ran from him in sheer terror.
The Israelites had been saying, "Have you seen this man who keeps coming out? He comes to Israel. The king will make whoever kills him incredibly wealthy, give him daughter in marriage, and from in Israel."
David asked the men standing near him, "What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Who does this Philistine think he is, that he can defy the armies of the
The soldiers told him what they'd been saying: "This is what will be done for the man who kills him."
When Eliab, David's oldest brother, heard him talking to the men, he with at David. "Why have you even come down here?" he said. "And who did you leave those few sheep with out in the wilderness? I know how and you are — you just came down to watch the battle!"
"What have I done now?" David said. "Can't I even ask a question?"
He turned away from Eliab to someone else and asked the same thing, and the soldiers gave him the same answer.
What David had been saying got repeated to others, and eventually it reached Saul, who sent for him.
David said to Saul, "No one should because of this Philistine. will go fight him."
Saul said to David, "You can't go fight this Philistine. You're just a and he's been a warrior since he was young."
But David said to Saul, "Your servant has been tending his father's sheep. Whenever a or a came and carried off a lamb from the flock,
I went after it, struck it, and rescued the lamb from its mouth. When it turned on me, I grabbed it by its jaw, struck it, and killed it.
Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine will end up just like them, because he has the armies of the living God."
David continued, who me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear — he will rescue me from this Philistine." Saul said to David, "Go, and may be with you."
Saul dressed David in his own military tunic, put a bronze helmet on his head, and fitted him with a coat of armor.
David strapped Saul's sword over the tunic and tried to walk around, but he wasn't used to any of it. "I can't move in all this," David told Saul. "I'm not used to it." So he took it all off.
He picked up his staff, chose from the streambed, put them in the pouch of his shepherd's bag, and with his in hand, he approached the Philistine.
Meanwhile, the Philistine was moving closer to David, with his shield-bearer ahead of him.
When the Philistine looked David over, he at with — he was just a boy, and good-looking.
The Philistine said to "Am I a that you come at me with sticks?" And the Philistine by
"Come here," the Philistine said to David, "and I'll to the and the
David said to the Philistine, "You come at me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin. But I come at you in the of the of — the God of Israel's battle lines, the one you have defied.
Today Yahweh will hand you over to me. I'll strike you down and cut off your head. Today I'll give the bodies of the Philistine army to the birds and wild animals — and the will that there is a God in Israel.
And everyone gathered here will know that doesn't with sword and spear. This to and he will hand all of you over to us."
As the Philistine moved in closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him.
David reached bag, pulled out a stone, slung it, and struck the Philistine on the The stone and he fell facedown on the ground.
So David triumphed over the Philistine with just a sling and a stone — he struck down the Philistine and killed him without even having a sword in his hand.