1 Samuel 17:1-39 ▼

1 The Philistines gathered their hoast to battayle, and came together to Socho which is in Iuda, and pytched betweene Socho and Azekah, in the coaste of Dammim.

2 And Saul & the men of Israel came together, and pytched in the valley of Elah, and put them selues in battaile aray, to meete the Philistines.

3 And the Philistines stoode on a mountaine on the one syde, and Israel stoode on a mountaine on the other syde, and there was a valley betweene them.

4 And there came a man betweene the both, out of the tentes of the Philistines, named Goliath, of Gath: sixe cubites and a handbreadth long:

5 And had an helmet of brasse vpon his head, and a coate of male about him. And the weight of his coate of mayle, was fiue thousand sicles of brasse.

6 And he had bootes of brasse vpon his legges, and a shielde of brasse vpon his shoulders.

7 And the shaft of his speare was lyke a weauers beame, and his speare head wayed sixe hundred sicles of iron: And one bearing a shielde went before him.

8 And he stoode and cryed against the hoast of Israel, and sayde vnto them: Why are ye come to set your battaile in array? am not I a Philistine, and you seruauntes to Saul? choose you a man for you, and let him come downe to me.

9 And if he be able to fyght with me, & to kill me, then will we be your seruauntes: But if I can ouercome hym & beate him, then shal ye be our seruautes and serue vs.

10 And the Philistine sayde: I defie the hoast of Israel this day, geue me a man, that we may fight together.

11 When Saul and all Israel heard those wordes of ye Philistine, they were discouraged, and greatly afraide.

12 Dauid was the sonne of an Ephrathite of Bethlehem Iuda, named Isai, which had eyght sonnes, & this man was taken for an olde man in the dayes of Saul.

13 And the three eldest sonnes of Isai went, and folowed Saul to the battell: And the names of his three sonnes that went to battaile, were: Eliab the eldest, and the next Abinadab, and the thyrd Samma:

14 And Dauid was the leaste. And the three eldest, went after Saul.

15 Dauid also went, and departed from Saul, to feede his fathers sheepe at Bethlehem.

16 And the Philistine came foorth in the morning and euening, and continued fourtie dayes.

17 And Isai sayd vnto Dauid his sonne: Take for thy brethren an Epha of this partched corne, & these ten loaues, and runne to the hoast to thy brethren.

18 And cary these ten freshe cheeses vnto the captayne, and loke howe thy brethren fare, and set out their pledge.

19 And Saul and they and all the men of Israel were in the valley of Elah, fyghtyng with the Philistines.

20 And Dauid rose vp early in ye morning, and left the sheepe with a keper, & toke, and went as Isai had commaunded him, and came within the compasse of the hoast: And the hoast went out in array, and shouted in the battaile.

21 For Israel and the Philistines had put them selues in array armie against armie.

22 And Dauid left the thinges which he bare, vnder the handes of the keper of the vessels, and ran into the hoast, and came, and saluted his brethren.

23 And as he talked with them, behold, there stoode a man in the middes (Goliath the Philistine by name, of Gath) out of the armie of the Philistines, & spake such wordes: and Dauid heard it.

24 And all the people of Israel, when they sawe the man, ranne away from him, and were sore afrayde.

25 And euery man of Israel said: Sawe ye not this man that commeth vp? euen to reuile Israel is he come: And to him that killeth him, will the king geue great ritches, and will geue him his daughter thereto, yea and make his fathers house free in Israel.

26 And Dauid spake to ye men that stoode by, and sayd: What shall be done to the man that killeth this Philistine, and taketh awaye the shame from Israel? And what is this vncircumcised Philistine, that he shoulde reuile the hoast of the liuing God?

27 And the people aunswered him (after this maner) saying: So shall it be done to the man that killeth him.

28 And Eliab his eldest brother heard when he spake vnto the men, and Eliab was angrye with Dauid, & sayde: Why camest thou downe hyther? and with whom hast thou left those fewe sheepe in the wildernes: I know thy pride and the malice of thyne heart, that thou art come downe to see the battel.

29 And Dauid sayde: And what haue I nowe done? is there not a cause?

30 And he departed from him into the presence of another, and spake of the same maner: and the people aunswered him againe, as before.

31 And they that heard the wordes which Dauid spake, rehearsed them before Saul, which caused him to be fet.

32 And Dauid sayde to Saul: Let no mans heart fayle him because of him: Thy seruaunt will go, and fight with yonder Philistine.

33 And Saul sayde to Dauid againe: Thou art not able to go against yonder Philistine, to fight with him: For thou art but a childe, but he is a man of warre euen from his youth.

34 Dauid aunswered vnto Saul: Thy seruaunt kept his fathers sheepe, & ther came a lion and likewise a beare, and toke a sheepe, out of the flocke:

35 And I went out after him, and smote him, and toke it out of his mouth: And whe he arose against me, I caught him by the bearde, and smote him, and slue him.

36 And so thy seruaunte slue both the lion, and the beare: And trulie this vncircumcised Philistine shalbe as one of them, seing he hath rayled on the hoast of the liuyng God.

37 And Dauid spake moreouer: The Lord that deliuered me out of the hand of the lion, and out of the hande of the beare, he shal deliuer me also out of the hand of this Philistine. And Saul sayd vnto Dauid: Go, and the Lorde shall be with thee.

38 And Saul put his rayment vpon Dauid, and put an helmet of brasse vpon his head, and put a coate of mayle vpon him.

39 And gyrded Dauid with his owne sword vpon his rayment, and he assayed to go, and because he neuer proued it, Dauid saide vnto Saul: I cannot go with these, for I haue not vsed my selfe thereto. And Dauid put them of him,