1 Samuel 17:40

In 1 Samuel 17 the armies of Israel and the Philistines face each other across the Valley of Elah, a border region between the Philistine lowlands and the hills of Israel. The Philistines had settled the coastal plain and were Israel’s persistent enemy, and they held the advantage of iron (1 Samuel 13:19–22). For forty days their champion Goliath, a man over nine feet tall in heavy bronze armour, came out and challenged Israel to send one man to fight him, and Saul and his army were afraid (1 Samuel 17:1–16). Settling a war by single combat between two champions was a known custom, meant to spare the armies a wider slaughter, so the whole conflict hung on one fight.

David, the youngest son of Jesse, came to the camp with food for his brothers and saw the fear the giant put into the men of Israel (1 Samuel 17:24). He was stirred because this Philistine defied the armies of the living God. He offered to fight, and when Saul doubted him he told how he had defended his father’s flock against a lion and a bear, and that the LORD who delivered him from them would deliver him from this Philistine (1 Samuel 17:26–37). Saul then dressed him in his own armour, and David took it off again, “for he had not proved it” (1 Samuel 17:38–39). The passage opens at that moment.

In place of the king’s armour, David takes up the tools of his own trade. His staff was the shepherd’s everyday tool, used to guide the flock and to defend it against wild animals, and it marks him as the shepherd he is. It also calls to mind the rod and staff of the LORD that comfort his sheep in Psalm 23:4.

He chose “five smooth stones out of the brook”. The word for smooth, challuq, describes something polished or slippery, and stones from a brook are worn round by the water. A rounded stone flies straight and fast from a sling, so David’s choice shows the practical knowledge of a man who had used this weapon for years. He put the stones in his shepherd’s bag, which the KJV also calls a “scrip”. The Hebrew yalqûwṭ is a travelling pouch, often of leather, in which shepherds and travellers carried food and small belongings. Everything David carries belongs to the sheepfold, in plain contrast with the heavy armour of Saul and of the giant.

His sling was in his hand, ready for use, and with that “he drew near to the Philistine.” The verb nâgash means to come or draw near, and it is the last step of his preparation, as he walks toward the man the whole army feared. David had told Saul that the LORD would deliver him, and now his actions match his words. He trusts God to work through the skill God had already trained in him with the flock, and his faith shows itself in careful, practical steps.

In verse 41 the giant advances too: “the Philistine came on and drew near unto David”. The word behind “drew near”, qârêb, is a verbal adjective meaning “approaching”, so the picture is of the Philistine steadily closing the distance. He comes at David himself, the one man who has stepped out from Israel’s ranks. The verse names him by his people, Pᵉlishtî, “the Philistine”, which ties this one man to the whole nation that pressed hard on Israel through the days of the judges and of Saul.

“And the man that bare the shield went before him.” The shield here, tsinnâh, is a large shield giving wide protection. Such a shield was heavy, and a champion of Goliath’s size had a man to carry it and set it in front of him, leaving his own hands free for his weapons. The detail shows a professional warrior with an attendant, fully equipped and sure of himself, coming against a shepherd with a staff.

“When the Philistine looked about, and saw David, he disdained him”. The verb bâzâh means to despise, to look on someone as worthless and beneath notice. Goliath had waited forty days for a champion, and what he saw was “but a youth, and ruddy, and of a fair countenance.” A naʻar is a young man or lad, a word also used for a servant, and here it marks David as too young and untried for war. “Ruddy”, ʼadmônîy, means reddish, a fresh and healthy colour, perhaps from life outdoors, and it is the same word used of Esau at his birth (Genesis 25:25). “Of a fair countenance” means good-looking. Goliath expected a scarred and hardened fighter, and he took this fresh-faced youth as an insult.

The LORD had already shown how differently he sees. When Samuel looked at Jesse’s sons, the LORD told him, “for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). Goliath judges by the outward appearance, and the youth he despises is the one the LORD has chosen.

His pride sets up the reversal that follows. The one he scorned defeats him, and so the victory plainly belongs to God. Paul writes that God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty, so that no flesh should glory in his presence (1 Corinthians 1:27–29), and a psalm says that God ordains strength out of the mouth of babes because of his enemies (Psalm 8:2).

Goliath’s contempt turns into words in verse 43: “Am I a dog, that thou comest to me with staves?” The word kelev is the ordinary Hebrew word for a dog. In Israel dogs were mostly scavengers, counted unclean and of little worth, so to treat a man as a dog was a deep insult. A man drives off a stray dog with sticks, and Goliath complains that David has come at him the same way, as if he were beneath a warrior’s weapons.

The KJV’s “staves” is plural, from maqqêl, a staff or rod, though David carried one staff in verse 40. The plural belongs to Goliath’s scorn. A stick was a shepherd’s tool, and he had expected a champion with sword, spear and shield.

“And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.” The verb qâlal has a wide range, from being light or of little account to treating with contempt and cursing, and here it means that Goliath called down his gods against David. The Philistines worshipped gods such as Dagon, and the nations of that time looked on a battle as a contest between the gods of the two sides. The curse turns a duel between two men into a question of whose God is God, and David answers it in verses 45 to 47.

The LORD’s servants have met this kind of scorn before and since. A psalm speaks of the wicked surrounding the sufferer as dogs, “For dogs have compassed me” (Psalm 22:16), words that look forward to the sufferings of Christ. Another psalm cries to God for mercy after enduring “the contempt of the proud” (Psalm 123:3–4).

“Come to me, and I will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the field.” “Come” is the imperative of yâlak, the ordinary verb for walking or going, used here as a scornful summons. “Give” is nâthan, the common verb for giving, putting or setting, and “flesh”, bâsâr, means the body of a mortal creature. Goliath boasts that he will kill David and then hand his body over to the birds and the wild animals.

The threat was meant to terrify. In Israel a proper burial mattered greatly, and a body left out for scavengers was a mark of utter disgrace, a fate kept for despised enemies and for those under God’s judgement. The law names it among the curses on a disobedient people, whose carcases would be meat for the birds and the beasts (Deuteronomy 28:26), and Jeremiah warns of the same judgement (Jeremiah 7:33). A psalm mourns that the dead bodies of God’s servants have been given to the birds (Psalm 79:2). Goliath promises David the most shameful death he can think of, and through David he insults the God David serves.

David answers with the same picture in verse 46 and turns it back on the Philistines. The giant’s boast becomes his own sentence, and God brings shame on the proud.

Verse 45 is the turning point of the passage. “Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield”. David names the weapons honestly: a sword, chereb, a spear, chănîyth, which is a lance for thrusting, and a third weapon, kîydôwn, which the KJV renders “shield” here. It is a different Hebrew word from the tsinnâh the shield-bearer carried in verse 41. Together they are the full arms of a champion, the best that human strength could bring to a fight. Then David says, “but I come to thee in the name of the LORD of hosts”.

To come in someone’s name, shêm, is to come under his authority and with his backing, as his representative. David puts the LORD’s name where Goliath puts his weapons. “The LORD of hosts” joins Yᵉhôvâh, the personal covenant name of God, the self-existent and eternal one, with tsâbâʼ, a host or army, a word also used for war and for the host of heaven. Yᵉhôvâh tsâbâʼ is the LORD who commands every host in heaven and on earth, the warrior who fights for his people. He is also “the God of the armies of Israel”, the God who had led Israel in battle and delivered them from their enemies. Israel’s army stood frightened on the hillside, and David reminds the giant whose armies they are.

“whom thou hast defied.” The verb châraph means to reproach or taunt, to say sharp things against someone. The Philistine had defied “the armies of the living God” (1 Samuel 17:26) and cursed David by his gods, and David takes it as an offence against the LORD himself. His courage comes from zeal for God’s honour. The young man speaking here bears the name Dâvid, which comes from a root meaning “loving”, and what moves him is love for the name of his God.

A psalm puts the same choice in one line: “Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God” (Psalm 20:7). At the Red Sea Moses told Israel, “The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace” (Exodus 14:14). Hannah’s prayer at the start of this book praises the same God, who lifts up the weak and brings down the mighty (1 Samuel 2:1–10).

In verse 46 David’s promise is specific. “This day will the LORD deliver thee into mine hand”. The verb çâgar means to shut or close, and so to shut someone in and deliver him up, the way a captive is handed over. David puts the LORD first. The LORD hands the giant over, and then David strikes. “This day” stands twice in this verse, and the outcome will be seen before the sun goes down.

“and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee”. Taking the head of a defeated champion proved the victory and shamed the enemy. Then David turns Goliath’s threat back on the whole Philistine army. “The carcases of the host of the Philistines” will go “unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth.” The disgrace Goliath promised David will fall on his own side, and the rout will be complete. The rest of the chapter tells how David’s words came true.

“that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.” Here is the purpose of the whole battle. The verb yâdaʻ, to know, here means to recognise and acknowledge what God has shown. The victory would show the nations that the God of Israel is real, living and at work among his people, and that the gods of the Philistines are powerless. God has always worked this way. He told Pharaoh that he had raised him up “that my name may be declared throughout all the earth” (Exodus 9:16), and through Isaiah he says, “I am the LORD, and there is none else” (Isaiah 45:5–6). The law promised Israel that the LORD goes with them “to fight for you against your enemies, to save you” (Deuteronomy 20:4), and David stands on that promise.

Verse 47 widens the circle: “all this assembly shall know”. The assembly is everyone gathered at the valley, the army of Israel and the army of the Philistines alike, and all of them are to learn “that the LORD saveth not with sword and spear”. The verb yâshaʻ means to save, deliver, rescue or give victory, and Scripture uses it again and again for God rescuing his people from their enemies and oppressors. The spear is the chănîyth of verse 45 again, and with the sword it stands for every weapon of war. At the Red Sea God showed his saving power to Israel and Egypt together (Exodus 14), and here he shows it to two armies at once.

“for the battle is the LORD’S”. The word for battle, milchâmâh, is the ordinary word for war or fighting, and joined to the name Yᵉhôvâh it says that the battle belongs to the LORD. He owns it from beginning to end, he fights it, and he decides its outcome, and the people he uses are his instruments. Long after this, King Asa prayed in the same faith when a great army came against Judah, resting on the LORD alone (2 Chronicles 14:11).

“and he will give you into our hands.” In verse 46 David said “mine hand”, and here he says “our hands”. The victory he is about to win will belong to all Israel, and the One who gives it is the LORD. “You” now takes in the Philistine army as well as its champion.

The New Testament calls Jesus “the son of David” in its first verse (Matthew 1:1), and this scene points to him. David is the shepherd who goes out alone on behalf of his people against an enemy none of them could face. Jesus, the good shepherd and true king, went out against far greater enemies: sin, death and the devil.

He came in humility, taking the form of a servant and becoming obedient to death on a cross (Philippians 2:5–8). Goliath despised David for his looks, and Isaiah says of the Servant, “he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him” (Isaiah 53:2), and “He is despised and rejected of men” (Isaiah 53:3). People asked of his home town, “Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46). Goliath cursed David by his gods, and on the cross Christ was “made a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13), bearing a curse far heavier than any Goliath could call down.

His weapon was the cross, which is foolishness to those who perish and the power of God to those who are saved (1 Corinthians 1:18). There, “having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it” (Colossians 2:15). Through his death he destroyed the devil, who had the power of death, and set free those who had lived in fear of it (Hebrews 2:14–15). Goliath promised to leave David’s body for the birds, and God kept his Holy One from seeing corruption (Acts 2:27). Because Christ rose, his people will rise too, and Paul can write, “Death is swallowed up in victory” (1 Corinthians 15:54–57).

David came in the name of the LORD of hosts. Jesus, the eternal Son, came as “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29), and he will come again as the rider whose name is King of kings and Lord of lords (Revelation 19:11–16). David fought so that all the earth might know there is a God in Israel, and Christ’s victory is proclaimed to people “of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues” (Revelation 7:9). David’s battle won Israel freedom from the Philistines, and Christ’s wins eternal freedom for all who believe in him.

This passage shows a God who chooses the weak things of the world for his work, so that the glory is plainly his. The Lord told Paul, “my strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9), and a shepherd with a sling and a bag of brook stones is a living picture of that word.

It also shows a God who cares for his own name. Goliath’s defiance was aimed at the living God, and God answered it before two armies so that all the earth might know him. The God who fought for Israel at the Red Sea and in the Valley of Elah is the same God who in Christ has won the victory over sin and death.

And it gives us David’s own words to rest on. The giant’s threats were loud and proved empty, while what David said before the fight was true by the end of the day. Whatever his people face, the outcome rests with the One who owns the battle, for “the battle is the LORD’S”.