1 Samuel 17:44

And the Philistine said to David, Come to me, and I will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the field.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(44) Come to me.—In similar terms Hector addresses Ajax—

“And thou imperious! if thy madness wait

The lance of Hector, thou shalt meet thy fate.

That giant corse, extended on the shore.

Shall largely feed the fowls with fat and gore.”—

Iliad, xiii. 1053.

Benson Commentary

1 Samuel 17:44-45. Come to me, and I will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air — It will be a tender and delicate feast for them. With such confidence did he presume on his success! Thus the security and presumption of fools destroy them. Then said David, I come to thee in the name, &c. — By a commission from Him who commands all creatures in heaven and earth, and who has called me to, and animated me for, this undertaking. I rely on him as thou dost on thy sword and spear.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

17:40-47 The security and presumption of fools destroy them. Nothing can excel the humility, faith, and piety which appear in David's words. He expressed his assured expectation of success; he gloried in his mean appearance and arms, that the victory might be ascribed to the Lord alone.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

His beard - Put here for his throat, or under jaw; neither lion nor bear has a beard properly speaking.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

42-47. the Philistine said … said David to the Philistine—When the two champions met, they generally made each of them a speech, and sometimes recited some verses, filled with allusions and epithets of the most opprobrious kind, hurling contempt and defiance at one another. This kind of abusive dialogue is common among the Arab combatants still. David's speech, however, presents a striking contrast to the usual strain of these invectives. It was full of pious trust, and to God he ascribed all the glory of the triumph he anticipated.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And the Philistine said to David, come to me,.... He seems to have stood still, disdaining: to take another step towards such a pitiful combatant, and therefore bids him come up to him, and he would soon dispatch him; unless he said this, because David was light and nimble, and he heavy and unwieldy because of his bigness, and the burden of armour on him, and therefore could not make such haste as he wished to destroy his adversary, of which he made no doubt:

and I will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the field; the wild beasts he means; though Jarchi thinks he spoke improperly, since it is not the way of the beasts of the field, as sheep, oxen, &c. to devour a man, or even to eat any flesh; and therefore he observes, when David comes, he uses another word, which signifies the wild beasts of the earth, and so we render it, 1 Samuel 17:46; but Kimchi shows that even these are comprehended in the word here used, see Isaiah 18:6.

Geneva Study Bible

And the Philistine said to David, Come to me, and I will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the field.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

44. I will give thy flesh, &c.] Compare Hector’s defiance of Ajax in Hom. Il. XIII. 831:

“The flesh

Shall glut the dogs and carrion birds of Troy.”

1 Samuel 17:44

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

When he saw David, "he looked at him, and despised him," i.e., he looked at him contemptuously, because he was a youth (as in 1 Samuel 16:12); "and then said to him, Am I a dog, that thou comest to me with sticks?" (the plural מקלות is used in contemptuous exaggeration of the armour of David, which appeared so thoroughly unfit for the occasion); "and cursed David by his God (i.e., making use of the name of Jehovah in his cursing, and thus defying not David only, but the God of Israel also), and finished with the challenge, Come to me, and I will give thy flesh to the birds of heaven and the beasts of the field" (to eat). It was with such threats as these that Homer's heroes used to defy one another (vid., Hector's threat, for example, in Il. xiii. 831-2).