1 Samuel 17 is the seventeenth chapter of the First Book of Samuel in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible or the first part of the Books of Samuel in the Hebrew Bible. According to Jewish tradition the book was attributed to the prophet Samuel, with additions by the prophets Gad and Nathan, but modern scholars view it as a composition of a number of independent texts of various ages from c. 630–540 BCE. This chapter contains the battle of David with Goliath, the Philistine. This is within a section comprising 1 Samuel 16 to 2 Samuel 5 which records the rise of David as the king of Israel.
Text This chapter was originally written in the Hebrew language. It is divided into 58 verses.
Textual witnesses Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text tradition, which includes the Codex Cairensis (895), Aleppo Codex (10th century), and Codex Leningradensis (1008). Fragments containing parts of this chapter in Hebrew were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls including 4Q51 (4QSam; 100–50 BCE) with extant verses 3–8, 40–41.Dead sea scrolls - 1 Samuel4Q51 at the Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library
Extant ancient manuscripts of a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint (originally was made in the last few centuries BCE) include Codex Vaticanus (B; B; 4th century) and Codex Alexandrinus (A; A; 5th century). The text in the Codex Vaticanus is notably shorter than the others, consisting only of verses 1–11, 32–40, 42–48a, 49, 51–54.
Places
Azekah Bethlehem-Judah Ephesdammim Ekron Gath Ramah Shaaraim Shochoh Valley of Elah
Analysis The section comprising 1 Samuel 16 to 2 Samuel 5 is known as the "History of David's Rise", with David as the central character, within which 1 Samuel 16:1 to 2 Samuel 1:27 form an independent unit with a central theme of "the decline of Saul and the rise of David". This narrative provides the test of David's suitability to the throne, in contrast to the testing of Jonathan at Michmash (1 Samuel 14:13–14). It was emphasized that David did not enter into battle with Goliath because of 'arrogance or a spirit of adventure', but because he followed God's plan. The portrayal of David as a shepherd in this narrative had 'royal' connotations (cf Psalm 78:70–72 and the prophecies of Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Zechariah).
The challenge of Goliath, the Philistine (17:1–11) After an unknown period of time, the Philistines again started a military action against Israel, assembling their army near Sochoh, a strategic passage between the Philistine and Israel territories. Saul assembled the Israel army at the opposite side of the Elah valley, anticipating a battle. However, this time, a gigantic man, Goliath, stepped up out of the Philistines, a seasoned veteran, wearing the most advanced weapons, challenging anyone among the Israel army for one-on-one combat, instead of thousands soldiers battling, to decide the outcome – winner takes all. In his challenge, Goliath explicitly called for Saul ("are you not the servants of Saul"; verse 8) perhaps in reference to Saul being the tallest among the Israelites (1 Samuel 10:23), but Saul and all Israel soldiers were too afraid to accept the challenge.
Verse 1 Now the Philistines gathered their armies together to battle, and were gathered at Sochoh, which belongs to Judah; they encamped between Sochoh and Azekah, in Ephes Dammim. NKJV The verse detailed the scene of David's memorable battle with Goliath with great exactness. The Philistines and Israel army camped on opposite sides of the wide valley of Elah (verse 2) to their rendezvous at Sochoh, and the Philistines pitched their camp in Ephes-dammim.Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges. 1 Samuel 9. Accessed 28 April 2019. "Sochoh" (also written as "Shochoh, Sokho"): identified with the modern "Shuweikeh", about 16 miles southwest of Jerusalem on the road to Gaza. "Azekah" mentioned in Joshua 10:10 in relation to the rout of the Philistines in the battle of Beth-horon. "Ephes-dammim": meaning "boundary of blood" (cf. Ha-Pas Dammim in 1 Chronicles 11:13), identified with modern Beit Fased, or 'House of Bleeding,' near Sochoh.Conder's Tent Work, II. 160. The name was probably given as the scene of frequent battles between the Israelites and the Philistines.
Verse 2 And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together, and they encamped in the Valley of Elah, and drew up in battle array against the Philistines. NKJV "Valley of Elah": now Wady-es-Sunt, running in a northwest direction from the hills of Judah near Hebron passing Gath (cf. 1 Samuel 5:8) to the sea near Ashdod. The ancient name "Elah" was taken from the Terebinth, the largest tree specimen in Palestine still standing in the vicinity, whereas the modern name "es-Sunt" is from the acacias which are scattered in the valley.Robinson, Bibl, Res. II. 21.
Verse 4 And there came out from the camp of the Philistines a champion named Goliath of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. NKJV "Goliath": a Philistine warrior from Gath. During excavations by Israel's Bar-Ilan University in the location of ancient Gath (now Tell es-Safi) a potsherd was discovered, reliably dated to between the tenth to mid ninth centuries BC, with inscription of two names LWT and WLT, which were etymologically related to the name Goliath (, GLYT), so demonstrating that Goliath's name fits with the context of late tenth/early ninth century BCE Philistine culture, as well as could be linked with the Lydian king Alyattes, which also fits the Philistine context.Tell es-Safi/Gath weblog and Bar-Ilan University; For the editio princeps and an in-depth discussion of the inscription, see now: Maeir, A.M., Wimmer, S.J., Zukerman, A., and Demsky, A. (2008 (in press)). "An Iron Age I/IIA Archaic Alphabetic Inscription from Tell es-Safi/Gath: Paleography, Dating, and Historical-Cultural Significance". Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research. A similar name, Uliat, is also attested in Carian inscriptions.Vernet Pons, M. (2012). "The etymology of Goliath in the light of Carian Wljat/Wliat: a new proposal". Kadmos, 51, 143–164. "Six cubits and a span" following Masoretic Text, approximately 9 ft. 9 in., but some manuscripts including 4QSam and Septuagint have 'four cubits and a span' (about 6 ft. 9 in.),Note on 1 Samuel 17:4 in NET Bible as in the table below. A "cubit" (Hebrew: ʼammah) is about 18 inches or 45 centimeters,Note [b] in ESV (in the ancient world usually varies from seventeen to eighteen inches), but there were longer and shorter cubits, as in Babylon and Egypt, measured 20.65 and 17.6 inches, respectively.Huey, F. B. (1976) "Weights and Measures," Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible 5.914. apud Hays 2007, pp. 509-510.
Textual witnesses Source Language Date Height(original) Height(meter) Height(foot + inch)Dead Sea Scrolls4QSam Jewish Hebrew 50 BCE 4 cubits and a span 2 6 ft. 9 in. JosephusAntiquities 6.171 Jewish Greek 80 CE 4 cubits and a span 2 6 ft. 9 in. Symmachus (cited by Origenin 3rd century CE) Jewish Greek ~ 200 CE 6 cubits and a span 3 9 ft. 9 in. OrigenHexapla Christian Greek ~250 CE 6 cubits and a span 3 9 ft. 9 in. Lucian Greek recension Christian Greek 200-300 CE 4 cubits and a span 2 6 ft. 9 in. Codex Vaticanus (LXX) Christian Greek 300-400 CE 4 cubits and a span 2 6 ft. 9 in. Codex Alexandrinus (LXX) Christian Greek 400-500 CE 4 cubits and a span 2 6 ft. 9 in. Vulgate (Jerome) Christian Latin 400 CE 6 cubits and a span 3 9 ft. 9 in. Codex Venetus Christian Greek 700-800 CE 5 cubits and a span 2.5 8 ft. 3 in. Aleppo Codex (Masoretic Text) Jewish Hebrew 935 CE 6 cubits and a span 3 9 ft. 9 in. Leningrad Codex (Masoretic Text) Jewish Hebrew 1010 CE 6 cubits and a span 3 9 ft. 9 in. Most of the extant Hebrew manuscripts are based on Masoretic Text (MT), but older manuscripts, such as from Symmachus, a Jewish translator of Hebrew texts to Greek in 200s CE for the Jewish community in Caesarea, cited by Origen in the fourth column of Hexapla and assumed to be "proto-MT" (Vorlage to the MT), as well as Greek version of Origen in the fifth column of Hexapla have "6 cubits and a span". Billington suggests that the "4 cubits and a span" in the Septuagint and 4QSam could be a conversion from MT's data of common cubits (1 cubit ≈ 18 inches) into a measurement using royal Egyptian cubits (1 cubit ≈ 20.65 inches).
Average height of men at the end of first century BCE in the Middle East and Mediterranean area was estimated based on the skeletons in some tombs to be about 3.5 cubits (about 150 cm or 5 ft.) to about 175 cm.Archaeological excavations in the royal tomb of warriors in Mycenae yield average height of 1.76-1.80 meter, whereas the average height of common men in the same period, based on their skeletons, is 1.64 meter, either in Aegean or in Canaan. Margalith (1994) 'The Sea Peoples in the Bible', p. 49. Whether it was 2 or 3 meters, the mention of Goliath's height certainly played a role for the Israelites to fear him, although in the whole chapter Goliath was never referred to as a "giant". However, Saul, being a tall person himself (about 6 feet or 6 feet 6 inches), was more concerned about Goliath's extensive military training (verse 33: "he [Goliath] has been a fighting man since his youth"; Saul never mentioned about Goliath's height). Therefore, the emphasis of mentioning Goliath's height in the narrative is that Saul, possessing unique height, weapons and armor among the Israelites, should be the logical choice to fight Goliath, but he was cowering in fear instead of delivering Israel.
Verse 5 And he had an helmet of brass upon his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail; and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of brass. KJV "Armed": that is, "clothed with scaled body armor".Note on 1 Samuel 17:5 in NKJV The Hebrew terms for "helmet" (), "armed" ("clothed", "put on"; ) and "coat" ("breastplate"; ) are also found in Isaiah 59:17.1 Samuel 17:5 Hebrew Text Analysis. Biblehub "Coat of mail": or "breastplate of scales", a kind of shirt, protecting the back as well as the breast, made of bronze scales arranged like those of a fish, probably similar to the corselet of Ramesses III (now in the British Museum). "Five thousand shekels of brass": about Note on 1 Samuel 17:5 in MEV or probably 157 pounds avoirdupois (cf. ). It is very likely that Goliath's brass coat may have been 'preserved as a trophy' (like his sword), so the weight of it could be ascertained.Barnes, Albert. Notes on the Bible - 1 Samuel 17. James Murphy (ed). London: Blackie & Son, 1884. Reprint, Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1998.
David's entrance into the battleground (17:12–30)