Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Samuel 17:1
Now the Philistines gathered together their armies to battle, and were gathered together at Shochoh, which [belongeth] to Judah, and pitched between Shochoh and Azekah, in Ephes-dammim.
Ch. 1Sa 17:1-3. The Philistine invasion
1. at Shochoh ] The scene of David’s memorable combat is fixed with great exactness. The Philistine army marched up the wide valley of Elah to their rendezvous at Sochoh, and pitched their camp in Ephes-dammim (cp. 1Ch 11:13). The valley of Elah is almost certainly the present Wady-es-Sunt, which runs in a N. W. direction from the hills of Judah near Hebron past the probable site of Gath (see note on ch. 1Sa 5:8) to the sea near Ashdod. “It took its name Elah of old from the Terebinth, of which the largest specimen we saw in Palestine still stands in the vicinity; just as it now takes its name es-Sunt from the acacias which are scattered in it.” Robinson, Bibl, Res. II. 21. Sochoh is the modern Shuweikeh, about 16 miles S.W. of Jerusalem on the road to Gaza. Azekah is mentioned in Jos 10:10 in connexion with the rout of the Philistines in the battle of Beth-horon, but the site is uncertain. “Of the name Ephes-dammim we have perhaps a trace In the modern Beit Fased, or ‘House of Bleeding,’ near Sochoh.” Conder’s Tent Work, II. 160. The name, which signifies “boundary of blood,” was probably due to its being the scene of frequent skirmishes with the Philistines.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The narrative reverts to the Philistine wars 1Sa 14:52; the other introductory details concerning Sauls rejection, and Davids introduction upon the stage of the history, having been disposed of in the intermediate chapters.
Shochoh which belongeth to Judah – See the marginal reference which places Shochoh and Azekah in the Shephelah or maritime plain, and 2Ch 28:18, Shochoh now Shuweikeh, nine miles from Eleutheropolis, Jerome.
Ephes-dammim – Called Happas-dammim (Pas-dammim, 1Ch 11:13), the end of bloodshed, now Damun, about 4 miles northeast of Shuweikeh.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
1Sa 17:1-27
Now the Philistines gathered together their armies to battle.
The battle of Elah
While the Philistines were posted on the stony hills covered with brushwood which bounded the valley on the south, Saul and his army were posted on a similar stony ridge on its northern side. The valley, one of the most fertile in Palestine, was, at the scene of the conflict, about half a mile broad, with a torrent bed in the centre, which had been scooped out by the winter floods. This is apparently the gal or valley referred be in verse third. It is about ten feet deep, and twenty to thirty feet wide, and abounds in water-rounded pebbles. Major Conder declares it to be impassable, except at certain places, thus explaining why the two armies faced one another for forty days without coming into actual conflict. Either party was afraid to cross the defile, thereby exposing itself to serious disadvantage; and so they confined themselves to warlike demonstrations. The abject terror of Saul and his mighty men excites within us little or no surprise; but it is otherwise with regard to the brave and lionhearted Jonathan. To encounter Goliath in single combat, was not a more dangerous or formidable undertaking than that which he had once before successfully attempted at Michmash, when he and his armour bearer boldly stormed the garrison of the Philistines, which was but the outpost of an immense army. Why did he not come to the front on this occasion? It might be said that his father would not allow him. And if Jonathan had offered himself as the champion of Israel there can be little doubt that Saul would have been most unwilling to accept him; but there is nothing in the narrative to suggest that Jonathan made such a proposal. The impression made by the narrative is that abject terror reigned throughout the entire army. Neither was it due to any decline in Jonathans piety and faith. It is gratuitous to suppose that he had become contaminated and lowered in moral tone, by the unbelieving and disobedient spirit of his father. I am inclined to think, from the noble spirit subsequently displayed by Jonathan, that as an individual he was now fitter in every respect, physically, intellectually, morally, and spiritually, for fighting the battles of the Lord, than he was when he wrought his great exploit at Michmash. He still believed, probably with a stronger faith than ever, that the Lord was able to save by many or by few; but he lacked the assurance, which he then had, viz., that the Lord was willing to save through him. Without that conviction he never would have attempted What he did at Michmash. It was only after God had fulfilled the proposed sign that Jonathan said to his armour bearer: Come up after me, for the Lord hath delivered them into the hand of Israel. But he had not that assurance now. The dark cloud of the Divine rejection, which had fallen upon his father at Gilgal, had encompassed him also, and darkened his spirit with its baleful shadow. It deprived him not, only of the heirship to the kingdom, but also of the golden opportunity of fighting in the name of the Lord of hosts, with the proud giant of Gath. The period during which Goliath was permitted to defy the hosts of Israel was forty days. The frequency with which this period occurs in connection with special incidents in sacred history is remarkable and suggestive. It rained, e.g., forty days at the deluge (Gen 7:4; Gen 7:12). Moses on two occasions was forty days with God on Mount Sinai (Exo 24:18; Exo 34:28). The intercession of Moses on behalf of the people to avert from them the Divine wrath, on account of their sin in worshipping the golden calf, lasted forty days (Deu 9:25). The twelve spies were absent forty days during their inspection of the land of Canaan (Num 13:25); and because of the rebellion, caused by their evil report, the children of Israel were doomed to wander in the wilderness forty years, corresponding to the forty days spent in the work of inspection (Num 14:34). Elijah went, in the strength of the food which he received from the angel in the wilderness of Beersheba, forty days unto Horeb, the mount of God (1Ki 19:8). The period of respite which was assigned to Nineveh was forty days, as Jonah was commissioned to preach in its streets: Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be destroyed (Joh 3:4). The temptation of our Lord in the wilderness lasted forty days (Mar 1:13; Luk 4:2). And the fact that Saul and his army were subjected to the challenge of Goliath for forty days, seems to show that there was a Divine purpose in permitting it to last so long. The forty days seem to suggest the thoroughness or completeness of the trial. The impotence of Saul and his army without God was thereby clearly and conclusively demonstrated. It was only after this humiliating demonstration that the Lord brought into the field His own champion. Mans extremity is Gods opportunity. (T. Kirk.)
The Philistines
The Philistines, indeed, were the hereditary enemies of Israel. They represented brute force and insolent pride and heathen worship, as opposed to higher thoughts of duty and justice, and the presence and power of God with His people. The name Philistine has been used in modern times, accordingly, to represent stupidity and opposition to light and knowledge and advancement and sweet reasonableness. (W. J. Knox Little, M. A.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER XVII
The Philistines gather together against Israel at Ephes-dammim,
and Saul and his men pitch their camp near the valley of Elah,
1-3.
Goliath of Gath, a gigantic man, whose height was six cubits and
a span, defies the armies of Israel, and proposes to end all
contests by single combat; his armour is described, 4-11.
Saul and his host are greatly dismayed, 12.
David, having been sent by his father with provisions to his
brethren in the army, hears the challenge, inquires into the
circumstances, thinks it a reproach to Israel that no man can
be found to accept the challenge, is brought before Saul, and
proposes to undertake the combat, 13-32.
Saul objects to his youth and inexperience, 33.
David shows the grounds on which he undertakes it, 34-37.
Saul arms him with his own armour: but David, finding them an
encumbrance, puts them off, and takes his staff, his sling,
and five stones out of the brook, and goes to meet Goliath,
38-40.
The Philistine draws near, despises, defies, and curses him,
41-44.
David retorts his defiance, 45-47.
They draw near to each other, and David slings a stone, hits
Goliath in the forehead, slays him, and cuts off his head with
his own sword, 48-51.
The Philistines flee, and are pursued by the Israelites, 52, 53.
David brings the head of the Philistine to Jerusalem, 54.
Conversation between Saul and Abner concerning David, who is in
consequence brought before Saul, 55-58.
NOTES ON CHAP. XVII
Verse 1. Now the Philistines gathered together] Calmet thinks that this war happened eight years after the anointing of David, and ten or twelve years after the war with the Amalekites. We have already seen that there was war between Saul and the Philistines all his days. See 1Sa 14:52.
Shochoh and Azekah] Places which lay to the south of Jerusalem and to the west of Bethlehem; about five leagues from the former. Ephes-dammim was somewhere in the vicinity, but it is not known where. See Calmet.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
To revenge their former great and shameful defeat, 1Sa 14.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. the Philistines gathered togethertheir armiestwenty-seven years after their overthrow atMichmash. Having now recovered their spirits and strength, theysought an opportunity of wiping out the infamy of that nationaldisaster, as well as to regain their lost ascendency over Israel.
Shocohnow Shuweikeh, atown in the western plains of Judah (Jos15:35), nine Roman miles from Eleutheropolis, toward Jerusalem[ROBINSON].
Azekaha small place inthe neighborhood.
Ephes-dammimor,”Pas-dammim” (1Ch11:13), “the portion” or “effusion of blood,”situated between the other two.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Now the Philistines gathered together their armies to battle,…. Josephus s says this was not long after the things related in the preceding chapter were transacted; and very probably they had heard of the melancholy and distraction of Saul, and thought it a proper opportunity of avenging themselves on Israel for their last slaughter of them, and for that purpose gathered together their dispersed troops:
and were gathered together at Shochoh, which belongeth to Judah; a city of the tribe of Judah, Jos 15:35, which shows that, notwithstanding their last defeat, they had great footing in the land of Israel, or however had penetrated far into it in this march of theirs:
and pitched between Shochoh and Azekah; which were both in the same tribe, and near one another, of which [See comments on Jos 10:10],
[See comments on Jos 15:35].
in Ephesdammim; which, by an apocope of the first letter, is called Pasdammim, 1Ch 11:13 which the Jews t say had this name because there blood ceased.
s Antiqu. l. 6. c. 9. sect. 1. t Midrash Ruth, fol. 48. 2. Kimchi in loc.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
A war between the Philistines and the Israelites furnished David with the opportunity of displaying before Saul and all Israel, and greatly to the terror of the enemies of his people, that heroic power which was firmly based upon his bold and pious trust in the omnipotence of the faithful covenant God (1Sa 17:1-3). A powerful giant, named Goliath, came forward from the ranks of the Philistines, and scornfully challenged the Israelites to produce a man who would decide the war by a single combat with him (1Sa 17:4-11). David, who had returned home for a time from the court of Saul, and had just been sent into the camp by his father with provisions for his elder brothers who were serving in the army, as soon as he heard the challenge and the scornful words of the Philistine, offered to fight with him (vv. 15-37), and killed the giant with a stone from a sling; whereupon the Philistines took to flight, and were pursued by the Israelites to Gath and Ekron (vv. 38-54).
1Sa 17:1-11 Some time after David first came to Saul for the purpose of playing, and when he had gone back to his father to Bethlehem, probably because Saul’s condition had improved, the Philistines made a fresh attempt to subjugate the Israelites. They collected their army together ( machaneh , as in Exo 14:24; Jdg 4:16) to war at Shochoh, the present Shuweikeh, in the Wady Sumt, three hours and a half to the south-west of Jerusalem, in the hilly region between the mountains of Judah and the plain of Philistia (see at Jos 15:35), and encamped between Shochoh and Azekah, at Ephes-dammim, which has been preserved in the ruins of Damm, about an hour and a half east by north of Shuweikeh; so that Azekah, which has not yet been certainly traced, must be sought for to the east or north-east of Damm (see at Jos 10:10).
1Sa 17:2-3 Saul and the Israelites encamped opposite to them in the terebinth valley ( Emek ha-Elah), i.e., a plain by the Wady Musur, and stood in battle array opposite to the Philistines, in such order that the latter stood on that side against the mountain (on the slope of the mountain), and the Israelites on this side against the mountain; and the valley ( , the deeper cutting made by the brook in the plain) was between them.
1Sa 17:4-5 And the (well-known) champion came out of the camps of the Philistines ( , the middle-man, who decides a war between two armies by a single combat; Luther, “ the giant,” according to the of the lxx, although in 1Sa 17:23 the Septuagint translators have rendered the word correctly , which is probably only another form of ), named Goliath of Gath, one of the chief cities of the Philistines, where there were Anakim still left, according to Jos 11:22. His height was six cubits and a span (6 1/4 cubits), i.e., according to the calculation made by Thenius, about nine feet two inches Parisian measure, – a great height no doubt, though not altogether unparalleled, and hardly greater than that of the great uncle of Iren, who came to Berlin in the year 1857 (see Pentateuch, p. 869, note).
(Note: According to Pliny ( h. n. vii. 16), the giant Pusio and the giantess Secundilla, who lived in the time of Augustus, were ten feet three inches (Roman) in height; and a Jew is mentioned by Josephus ( Ant. xviii. 4, 5), who was seven cubits in height, i.e., ten Parisian feet, or if the cubits are Roman, nine and a half.)
The armour of Goliath corresponded to his gigantic stature: “ a helmet of brass upon his head, and clothes in scale armour, the weight of which was five thousand shekels of brass.” The meaning scales is sustained by the words in Lev 11:9-10, and Deu 14:9-10, and in Eze 29:4. , therefore, is not (lxx), a coat of mail made of rings worked together like chains, such as were used in the army of the Seleucidae (1 Macc. 6:35), but according to Aquila’s (scaled), a coat made of plates of brass lying one upon another like scales, such as we find upon the old Assyrian sculptures, where the warriors fighting in chariots, and in attendance upon the king, wear coats of scale armour, descending either to the knees or ankles, and consisting of scales of iron or brass, which were probably fastened to a shirt of felt or coarse linen (see Layard, Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. p. 335). The account of the weight, 5000 shekels, i.e., according to Thenius, 148 Dresden pounds, is hardly founded upon the actual weighing of the coat of mail, but probably rested upon a general estimate, which may have been somewhat too high, although we must bear in mind that the coat of mail not only covered the chest and back, but, as in the case of the Assyrian warriors, the lower part of the body also, and therefore must have been very large and very heavy.
(Note: According to Thenius, the cuirass of Augustus the Strong, which has been preserved in the historical museum at Dresden, weighted fifty-five pounds; and from that he infers, that the weight given as that of Goliath’s coat of mail is by no means too great. Ewald, on the other hand, seems to have no idea of the nature of the Hebrew eights, or of the bodily strength of a man, since he gives 5000 lbs. of brass as the weight of Goliath’s coat of mail ( Gesch. iii. p. 90), and merely observes that the pounds were of course much smaller than ours. But the shekel did not even weight so much as our full ounce. With such statements as these you may easily turn the historical character of the scriptural narrative into incredible myths; but they cannot lay any claim to the name of science.)
1Sa 17:6 And “ greaves of brass upon his feet, and a brazen lance (hung) between his shoulders,” i.e., upon his back. signifies a lance, or small spear. The lxx and Vulgate, however, adopt the rendering , clypeus aeneus; and Luther has followed them, and translates it a brazen shield. Thenius therefore proposes to alter into , because the expression “between his shoulders” does not appear applicable to a spear or javelin, which Goliath must have suspended by a strap, but only to a small shield slung over his back, whilst his armour-bearer carried the larger in front of him. But the difficulty founded upon the expression “ between his shoulders ” has been fully met by Bochart ( Hieroz. i. 2, c. 8), in the examples which he cites from Homer, Virgil, etc., to prove that the ancients carried their own swords slung over their shoulders ( : Il. ii. 45, etc.). And Josephus understood the expression in this way ( Ant. vi. 9, 1). Goliath had no need of any shield to cover his back, as this was sufficiently protected by the coat of mail. Moreover, the allusion to the in 1Sa 17:45 points to an offensive weapon, and not to a shield.
1Sa 17:7 “ And the shaft of his spear was like a weaver’s beam, and the point of it six hundred shekels of iron ” (about seventeen pounds). For , according to the Keri and the parallel passages, 2Sa 21:19; 1Ch 20:5, we should read , wood, i.e., shaft. Before him went the bearer of the zinnah, i.e., the great shield.
1Sa 17:8 This giant stood and cried to the ranks of the Israelites, “ Why come ye out to place yourselves in battle array? Am I not the Philistine, and ye the servants of Saul? Choose ye out a man who may come down to me ” (into the valley where Goliath was standing). The meaning is: “Why would you engage in battle with us? I am the man who represents the strength of the Philistines, and ye are only servants of Saul. If ye have heroes, choose one out, that we may decide the matter in a single combat.”
1Sa 17:9-10 “ If he can fight with me, and kill me, we will be your servants; if I overcome him, and slay him, ye shall be our servants, and serve us.” He then said still further (1Sa 17:10) , “I have mocked the ranks of Israel this day (the mockery consisted in his designating the Israelites as servants of Saul, and generally in the triumphant tone in which he issued the challenge to single combat); give me a man, that we may fight together! ”
1Sa 17:11 At these words Saul and all Israel were dismayed and greatly afraid, because not one of them dared to accept the challenge to fight with such a giant.
1 Samuel 17: 12-31 David’s arrival in the camp, and wish to fight with Goliath. – David had been dismissed by Saul at that time, and having returned home, he was feeding his father’s sheep once more (1Sa 17:12-15). Now, when the Israelites were standing opposite to the Philistines, and Goliath was repeating his challenge every day, David was sent by his father into the camp to bring provisions to his three eldest brothers, who were serving in Saul’s army, and to inquire as to their welfare (1Sa 17:16-19). He arrived when the Israelites had placed themselves in battle array; and running to his brethren in the ranks, he saw Goliath come out from the ranks of the Philistines, and heard his words, and also learned from the mouth of an Israelite what reward Saul would give to any one who would defeat this Philistine (1Sa 17:20-25). He then inquired more minutely into the matter; and having thereby betrayed his own intention of trying to fight with him (1Sa 17:26, 1Sa 17:27), he was sharply reproved by his eldest brother in consequence (1Sa 17:28, 1Sa 17:29). He did not allow this to deter him, however, but turned to another with the same question, and received a similar reply (1Sa 17:30); whereupon his words were told to the king, who ordered David to come before him (1Sa 17:31).
This is, in a condensed form, the substance of the section, which introduces the conquest of Goliath by David in the character of an episode. This first heroic deed was of the greatest importance to David and all Israel, for it was David’s first step on the way to the throne, to which Jehovah had resolved to raise him. This explains the fulness and circumstantiality of the narrative, in which the intention is very apparent to set forth most distinctly the marvellous overruling of all the circumstances by God himself. And this circumstantiality of the account is closely connected with the form of the narrative, which abounds in repetitions, that appear to us tautological in many instances, but which belong to the characteristic peculiarities of the early Hebrew style of historical composition.
(Note: On account of these repetitions and certain apparent differences, the lxx ( Cod. Vat.) have omitted the section from 1Sa 17:12 to 1Sa 17:31, and also that from 1Sa 17:55 to 1Sa 18:5; and on the ground of this omission, Houbigant, Kennicott, Michaelis, Eichhorn, Dathe, Bertheau, and many others, have pronounced both these sections later interpolations; whereas the more recent critics, such as De Wette, Thenius, Ewald, Bleek, Sthelin, and others, reject the hypothesis that they are interpolations, and infer from the supposed discrepancies that 1 Samuel 17 and 18 were written by some one who was ignorant of the facts mentioned in 1 Samuel 16, and was altogether a different person from the author of this chapter. According to 1Sa 16:21., they say, David was Saul’s armour-bearer already, and his family connections were well known to the king, whereas, according to 1Sa 17:15, David was absent just at the time when he ought as armour-bearer to have been in attendance upon Saul; whilst in 1Sa 17:33 he is represented as a shepherd boy who was unaccustomed to handle weapons, and as being an unauthorized spectator of the war, and, what is still more striking, even his lineage is represented in 1Sa 17:55. as unknown both to Abner and the king. Moreover, in 1Sa 17:12 the writer introduces a notice concerning David with which the reader must be already well acquainted from 1Sa 16:5., and which is therefore, to say the least, superfluous; and in 1Sa 17:54 Jerusalem is mentioned in a manner which does not quite harmonize with the history, whilst the account of the manner in which he disposed of Goliath’s armour is apparently at variance with 1Sa 21:9. But the notion, that the sections in question are interpolations that have crept into the text, cannot be sustained on the mere authority of the Septuagint version; since the arbitrary manner in which the translators of this version made omissions or additions at pleasure is obvious to any one. Again, the assertion that these sections cannot well be reconciled with 1 Samuel 16, and emanated from an author who was unacquainted with the history in 1 Samuel 16, is overthrown by the unquestionable reference to 1 Samuel 16 which we find in 1Sa 16:12, “David the son of that Ephratite,” – where Jerome has correctly paraphrased , de quo supra dictum est , – and also by the remark in 1Sa 16:15, that David went backwards and forwards from Saul to feed his father’s sheep in Bethlehem. Neither of these can be pronounced interpolations of the compiler, unless the fact can be established that the supposed discrepancies are really well founded. But it by no means follows, that because Saul loved David on account of the beneficial effect which is playing upon the harp produced upon his mind, and appointed him his armour-bearer, therefore David had really to carry the king’s armour in time of war. The appointment of armour-bearer was nothing more than conferring upon him the title of aide-de-camp, from which it cannot be inferred that David had already become well known to the king through the performance of warlike deeds. If Joab, the commander-in-chief, had ten armour-bearers (2Sa 18:15, compare 1 Samuel 23:37), king Saul would certainly have other armour-bearers besides David, and such as were well used to war. Moreover, it is not stated anywhere in 1 Samuel 16 that Saul took David at the very outset into his regular and permanent service, but, according to 1Sa 16:22, he merely asked his father Jesse that David might stand before him, i.e., might serve him; and there is no contradiction in the supposition, that when his melancholy left him for a time, he sent David back to his father to Bethlehem, so that on the breaking out of the war with the Philistines he was living at home and keeping sheep, whilst his three eldest brothers had gone to the war. The circumstance, however, that when David went to fight with Goliath, Saul asked Abner his captain, “Whose son is this youth?” and Abner could give no explanation to the king, so that after the defeat of Goliath, Saul himself asked David, “Whose son art thou?” (1Sa 17:55-58), can hardly be comprehended, if all that Saul wanted to ascertain was the name of David’s father. For even if Abner had not troubled himself about the lineage of Saul’s harpist, Saul himself could not well have forgotten that David was a son of the Bethlehemite Jesse. But there was much more implied in Saul’s question. It was not the name of David’s father alone that he wanted to discover, but what kind of man the father of a youth who possessed the courage to accomplish so marvellous a heroic deed really was; and the question was put not merely in order that he might grant him an exemption of his house from taxes as the reward promised for the conquest of Goliath (1Sa 17:25), but also in all probability that he might attach such a man to his court, since he inferred from the courage and bravery of the son the existence of similar qualities in the father. It is true that David merely replied, “The son of thy servant Jesse of Bethlehem;” but it is very evident from the expression in 1Sa 18:1, “when he had made an end of speaking unto Saul,” that Saul conversed with him still further about his family affairs, since the very words imply a lengthened conversation. The other difficulties are very trivial, and will be answered in connection with the exposition of the passages in question.)
1Sa 17:12-15 1Sa 17:12-15 are closely connected with the preceding words, “ All Israel was alarmed at the challenge of the Philistine; but David the son of that Ephratite (Ephratite, as in Rth 1:1-2) of Bethlehem in Judah, whose name was Jesse,” etc. The verb and predicate do not follow till 1Sa 17:15; so that the words occur here in the form of an anacolouthon. The traditional introduction of the verb between and (David was the son of that Ephratite) is both erroneous and misleading. If the words were to be understood in this way, could no more be omitted here than in 2Ch 22:3, 2Ch 22:11. The true explanation is rather, that 1Sa 17:12-15 form one period expanded by parentheses, and that the historian lost sight of the construction with which he commenced in the intermediate clauses; so that he started afresh with the subject in 1Sa 17:15, and proceeded with what he had to say concerning David, doing this at the same time in such a form that what he writes is attached, so far as the sense if concerned, to the parenthetical remarks concerning Jesse’s eldest sons. To bring out distinctly the remarkable chain of circumstances by which David was led to undertake the conflict with Goliath, he links on to the reference to his father certain further notices respecting David’s family and his position at that time. Jesse had eight sons and was an old man in the time of Saul. , “come among the weak.” generally means, no doubt, people or men. But this meaning does not give any appropriate sense here; and the supposition that the word has crept in through a slip of the pen for , is opposed not only by the authority of the early translators, all of whom read , but also by the circumstance that the expression does not occur in the whole of the Old Testament, and that alone is used with this signification.
1Sa 17:13-14 “ The three great (i.e., eldest) sons of Jesse had gone behind Saul into the war.” , which appears superfluous after the foregoing , has been defended by Bttcher, as necessary to express the pluperfect, which the thought requires, since the imperfect consec. , when attached to a substantive and participial clause, merely expresses the force of the aorist. Properly, therefore, it reads thus: “ And then (in Jesse’s old age) the three eldest sons followed, had followed, Saul;” a very ponderous construction indeed, but quite correct, and even necessary, with the great deficiency of forms, to express the pluperfect. The names of these three sons agree with 1Sa 16:6-9, whilst the third, Shammah, is called Shimeah ( ) in 2Sa 13:3, 2Sa 13:32, in 2Sa 21:21, and in 1Ch 2:13; 1Ch 20:7.
1Sa 17:15 “ But David was going and returning away from Saul:” i.e., he went backwards and forwards from Saul to feed his father’s sheep in Bethlehem; so that he was not in the permanent service of Saul, but at that very time was with his father. The latter is to be supplied from the context.
1Sa 17:16-17 The Philistine drew near (to the Israelitish ranks) morning and evening, and stationed himself for forty days (in front of them). This remark continues the description of Goliath’s appearance, and introduces the account which follows. Whilst the Philistine was coming out every day for forty days long with his challenge to single combat, Jesse sent his son David into the camp. “ Take now for thy brethren this ephah of parched grains (see Lev 23:13), and these ten loaves, and bring them quickly into the camp to thy brethren.”
1Sa 17:18 “ And these ten slices of soft cheese (so the ancient versions render it) bring to the chief captain over thousand, and visit thy brethren to inquire after their welfare, and bring with you a pledge from them ” – a pledge that they are alive and well. This seems the simplest explanation of the word , of which very different renderings were given by the early translators.
1Sa 17:19 “ But Saul and they (the brothers), and the whole of the men of Israel, are in the terebinth valley,” etc. This statement forms part of Jesse’s words.
1Sa 17:20-21 In pursuance of this commission, David went in the morning to the waggon-rampart, when the army, which was going out (of the camp) into battle array, raised the war-cry, and Israel and the Philistines placed themselves battle-array against battle-array. is a circumstantial clause, and the predicate is introduced with , as is placed at the head absolutely: “ and as for the army which, etc., it raised a shout.” , lit. to make a noise in war, i.e., to raise a war-cry.
1Sa 17:22 David left the vessels with the provisions in the charge of the keeper of the vessels, and ran into the ranks to inquire as to the health of his brethren.
1Sa 17:23 Whilst he was talking with them, the champion (middle-man) Goliath drew near, and spoke according to those words (the words contained in 1Sa 17:8.), and David heard it. is probably an error for ( Keri, lxx, Vulg.; cf. 1Sa 17:26). If the Chethibh were the proper reading, it would suggest an Arabic word signifying a crowd of men (Dietrich on Ges. Lex.).
1Sa 17:24-25 All the Israelites fled from Goliath, and were so afraid. They said ( is a collective noun), “ Have ye seen this man who is coming? ( , with Dagesh dirim as in 1Sa 10:24. Surely to defy Israel is he coming; and whoever shall slay him, the king will enrich him with great wealth, and give him his daughter, and make his father’s house (i.e., his family) free in Israel,” viz., from taxes and public burdens. There is nothing said afterwards about the fulfilment of these promises. But it by no means follows from this, that the statement is to be regarded as nothing more than an exaggeration, that had grown up among the people, of what Saul had really said. There is al| the less probability in this, from the fact that, according to 1Sa 17:27, the people assured him again of the same thing. In all probability Saul had actually made some such promises as these, but did not feel himself bound to fulfil them afterwards, because he had not made them expressly to David himself.
1Sa 17:26-27 When David heard these words, he made more minute inquiries from the bystanders about the whole matter, and dropped some words which gave rise to the supposition that he wanted to go and fight with this Philistine himself. This is implied in the words, “ For who is the Philistine, this uncircumcised one (i.e., standing as he does outside the covenant with Jehovah), that he insults the ranks of the living God! ” whom he has defied in His army. “He must know,” says the Berleburger Bible, “that he has not to do with men, but with God. With a living God he will have to do, and not with an idol.”
1Sa 17:28 David’s eldest brother was greatly enraged at his talking thus with the men, and reproved David: “ Why hast thou come down (from Bethlehem, which stood upon high ground, to the scene of the war), and with whom hast thou left those few sheep in the desert? ” “ Those few sheep,” the loss of only one of which would be a very great loss to our family. “ I know thy presumption, and the wickedness of thy heart; for thou hast come down to look at the war;” i.e., thou art not contented with thy lowly calling, but aspirest to lofty things; it gives thee pleasure to look upon bloodshed. Eliab sought for the splinter in his brother’s eye, and was not aware of the beam in his own. The very things with which he charged his brother – presumption and wickedness of heart – were most apparent in his scornful reproof.
1Sa 17:29-30 David answered very modestly, and so as to put the scorn of his reprover to shame: “ What have I done, then? It was only a word ” – a very allowable inquiry certainly. He then turned from him (Eliab) to another who was standing by; and having repeated his previous words, he received the same answer from the people.
1Sa 17:31 David’s words were told to Saul, who had him sent for immediately.
1Sa 17:32-40 David’s resolution to fight with Goliath; and his equipment for the conflict. – 1Sa 17:32. When in the presence of Saul, David said, “ Let no man’s heart (i.e., courage) fail on his account (on account of the Philistine, about whom they had been speaking): thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine.”
1Sa 17:33-35 To Saul’s objection that he, a mere youth, could not fight with this Philistine, a man of war from his youth up, David replied, that as a shepherd he had taken a sheep out of the jaws of a lion and a bear, and had also slain them both. The article before and points out these animals as the well-known beasts of prey. By the expression the bear is subordinated to the lion, or rather placed afterwards, as something which came in addition to it; so that is to be taken as a nota accus. (vid., Ewald, 277, a), though it is not to be understood as implying that the lion and the bear went together in search of prey. The subordination or addition is merely a logical one: not only the lion, but also the bear, which seized the sheep, did David slay. , which we find in most of the editions since the time of Jac. Chayim, 1525, is an error in writing, or more correctly in hearing, for , a sheep. “ And I went out after it; and when it rose up against me, I seized it by its beard, and smote it, and killed it.” , beard and chin, signifies the bearded chin. Thenius proposes, though without any necessity, to alter into , for the simple but weak reason, that neither lions nor bears have any actual beard. We have only to think, for example, of the in Homer ( Il. xv. 275, xvii. 109), or the barbam vellere mortuo leoni of Martial (x. 9). Even in modern times we read of lions having been killed by Arabs with a stick (see Rosenmller, Bibl. Althk. iv. 2, pp. 132-3). The constant use of the singular suffix is sufficient to show, that when David speaks of the lion and the bear, he connects together two different events, which took place at different times, and then proceeds to state how he smote both the one and the other of the two beasts of prey.
1Sa 17:36-38 “ Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear; and the Philistine, this uncircumcised one, shall become like one of them (i.e., the same thing shall happen to him as to the lion and the bear), because he has defied the ranks of the living God.” “And,” he continued (1Sa 17:37), “the Lord who delivered me out of the hand (the power) of the lion and the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine.” David’s courage rested, therefore, upon his confident belief that the living God would not let His people be defied by the heathen with impunity. Saul then desired for him the help of the Lord in carrying out his resolution, and bade him put on his own armour-clothes, and bird on his armour. (his clothes) signifies probably a peculiar kind of clothes which were worn under the armour, a kind of armour-coat to which the sword was fastened.
1Sa 17:39-40 When he was thus equipped with brazen helmet, coat of mail, and sword, David began to walk, but soon found that he could do nothing with these. He therefore said to Saul, “ I cannot go in these things, for I have not tried them;” and having taken them off, he took his shepherd’s staff in his hand, sought out five smooth stones from the brook-valley, and put them in the shepherd’s thing that he had, namely his shepherd’s bag. He then took the sling in his hand, and went up to the Philistine. In the exercise of his shepherd’s calling he may have become so skilled in the use of the sling, that, like the Benjaminites mentioned in Jdg 20:16, he could sling at a hair’s-breadth, and not miss.
1Sa 17:41-54 David and Goliath: fall of Goliath, and flight of the Philistines. – 1Sa 17:41. The Philistine came closer and closer to David.
1Sa 17:42-44 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 1Sa 16:12); “ and then said to him, Am I a dog, that thou comest to me with sticks? ” (the plural 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).
1Sa 17:45-47 David answered this defiance with bold, believing courage: “ Thou comest to me with sword, and javelin, and lance; but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of Saboath, the God of the ranks of Israel, whom thou hast defied. This day will Jehovah deliver thee into my hand; and I shall smite thee, and cut off thine head, and give the corpse of the army of the Philistines to the birds this day … And all the world shall learn that Israel hath a God; and this whole assembly shall discover that Jehovah bringeth deliverance (victory) not by sword and spear: for war belongeth to Jehovah, and He will give you into our hand.” Whilst Goliath boasted of his strength, David founded his own assurance of victory upon the Almighty God of Israel, whom the Philistine had defied. is to be taken collectively. does not mean “God is for Israel,” but “Israel hath a God,” so that Elohim is of course used here in a pregnant sense. This God is Jehovah; war is his, i.e., He is the Lord of war, who has both war and its results in His power.
1Sa 17:48-49 When the Philistines rose up, drawing near towards David ( and simply serve to set forth the occurrence in a more pictorial manner), David hastened and ran to the battle array to meet him, took a stone out of his pocket, hurled it, and hit the Philistine on his temples, so that the stone entered them, and Goliath fell upon his face to the ground.
1Sa 17:50-51 1Sa 17:50 contains a remark by the historian with reference to the result of the conflict: “ Thus was David stronger than the Philistine, with a sling and stone, and smote the Philistine, and slew him without a sword in his hand.” And then in 1Sa 17:51 the details are given, namely, that David cut off the head of the fallen giant with his own sword. Upon the downfall of their hero the Philistines were terrified and fled; whereupon the Israelites rose up with a cry to pursue the flying foe, and pursued them “ to a valley, and to the gates of Ekron.” The first place mentioned is a very striking one. The “ valley ” cannot mean the one which divided the two armies, according to 1Sa 17:3, not only because the article is wanting, but still more from the facts themselves. For it is neither stated, nor really probable, that the Philistines had crossed that valley, so as to make it possible to pursue them into it again. But if the word refers to some other valley, it seems very strange that nothing further should be said about it. Both these circumstances render the reading itself, , suspicious, and give great probability to the conjecture that is only a copyist’s error for Gath, which is the rendering given by the lxx, especially when taken in connection with the following clause, “ to Gath and to Ekron ” (1Sa 17:52).
1Sa 17:52 “ And wounded of the Philistines fell on the way to Shaaraim, and to Gath and to Ekron.” Shaaraim is the town of Saarayim, in the lowland of Judah, and has probably been preserved in the Tell Kefr Zakariya (see at Jos 15:36). On Gath and Ekron, see at Jos 13:3.
1Sa 17:53 After returning from the pursuit of the flying foe, the Israelites plundered the camp of the Philistines. , to pursue hotly, as in Gen 31:36.
1Sa 17:54 But David took the head of Goliath and brought it to Jerusalem, and put his armour in his tent. is an antiquated term for a dwelling-place, as in 1Sa 4:10; 1Sa 13:2, etc. The reference is to David’s house at Bethlehem, to which he returned with the booty after the defeat of Goliath, and that by the road which ran past Jerusalem, where he left the head of Goliath. There is no anachronism in these statements; for the assertion made by some, that Jerusalem was not yet in the possession of the Israelites, rests upon a confusion between the citadel of Jebus upon Zion, which was still in the hands of the Jebusites, and the city of Jerusalem, in which Israelites had dwelt for a long time (see at Jos 15:63, and Jdg 1:8). Nor is there any contradiction between this statement and 1Sa 21:9, where Goliath’s sword is said to have been preserved in the tabernacle at Nob: for it is not affirmed that David kept Goliath’s armour in his own home, but only that he took it thither; and the supposition that Goliath’s sword was afterwards deposited by him in the sanctuary in honour of the Lord, is easily reconcilable with this. Again, the statement in 1Sa 18:2, to the effect that, after David’s victory over Goliath, Saul did not allow him to return to his father’s house any more, is by no means at variance with this explanation of the verse before us. For the statement in question must be understood in accordance with 1Sa 17:15, viz., as signifying that from that time forward Saul did not allow David to return to his father’s house to keep the sheep as he had done before, and by no means precludes his paying brief visits to Bethlehem.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Goliath’s Challenge to Israel. | B. C. 1060. |
1 Now the Philistines gathered together their armies to battle, and were gathered together at Shochoh, which belongeth to Judah, and pitched between Shochoh and Azekah, in Ephes-dammim. 2 And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together, and pitched by the valley of Elah, and set the battle in array against the Philistines. 3 And the Philistines stood on a mountain on the one side, and Israel stood on a mountain on the other side: and there was a valley between them. 4 And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. 5 And he had a 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. 6 And he had greaves of brass upon his legs, and a target of brass between his shoulders. 7 And the staff of his spear was like a weaver’s beam; and his spear’s head weighed six hundred shekels of iron: and one bearing a shield went before him. 8 And he stood and cried unto the armies of Israel, and said unto them, Why are ye come out to set your battle in array? am not I a Philistine, and ye servants to Saul? choose you a man for you, and let him come down to me. 9 If he be able to fight with me, and to kill me, then will we be your servants: but if I prevail against him, and kill him, then shall ye be our servants, and serve us. 10 And the Philistine said, I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that we may fight together. 11 When Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistine, they were dismayed, and greatly afraid.
It was not long ago that the Philistines were soundly beaten, and put to the worse, before Israel, and they would have been totally routed if Saul’s rashness had not prevented; but here we have them making head again. Observe,
I. How they defied Israel with their armies, v. 1. They made a descent upon the Israelites’ country, and possessed themselves, as it should seem, of some part of it, for they encamped in a place which belonged to Judah. Israel’s ground would never have been footing for Philistine-armies if Israel had been faithful to their God. The Philistines (it is probable) had heard that Samuel had fallen out with Saul and forsaken him, and no longer assisted and advised him, and that Saul had grown melancholy and unfit for business, and this news encouraged them to make this attempt for the retrieving of the credit they had lately lost. The enemies of the church are watchful to take all advantages, and they never have greater advantages than when her protectors have provoked God’s Spirit and prophets to leave them. Saul mustered his forces, and faced them, 1Sa 17:2; 1Sa 17:3. And here we must take notice, 1. That the evil spirit, for the present, had left Saul, ch. xvi. 23. David’s harp having given him some relief, perhaps the alarms and affairs of the war prevented the return of the distemper. Business is a good antidote against melancholy. Let the mind have something without to fasten on and employ itself about, and it will be the less in danger of preying upon itself. God, in mercy to Israel, suspended the judgment for a while; for how distracted must the affairs of the public have been if at this juncture the prince had been distracted! 2. That David for the present had returned to Bethlehem, and had left the court, v. 15. When Saul had no further occasion to use him for the relief of his distemper, though, being anointed, he had a very good private reason, and, having a grant of the place of Saul’s armour-bearer, he had a very plausible pretence to have continued his attendance, as a retainer to the court, yet he went home to Bethlehem, and returned to keep his father’s sheep; this was a rare instance, in a young man that stood so fair for preferment, of humility and affection to his parents. He knew better than most do how to come down again after he had begun to rise, and strangely preferred the retirements of the pastoral life before all the pleasures and gaieties of the court. None more fit for honour than he, nor that deserved it better, and yet none more dead to it.
II. How they defied Israel with their champion Goliath, whom they were almost as proud of as he was of himself, hoping by him to recover their reputation and dominion. Perhaps the army of the Israelites was superior in number and strength to that of the Philistines, which made the Philistines decline a battle, and stand at bay with them, desiring rather to put the issue upon a single combat, in which, having such a champion, they hoped to gain the victory. Now concerning this champion observe,
1. His prodigious size. He was of the sons of Anak, who at Gath kept their ground in Joshua’s time (Josh. xi. 22), and kept up a race of giants there, of which Goliath was one, and, it is probable, one of the largest. He was in height six cubits and a span, v. 4. They learned bishop Cumberland has made it out that the scripture-cubit was above twenty-one inches (above three inches more than our half-yard) and a span was half a cubit, by which computation Goliath wanted but eight inches of four yard in height, eleven feet and four inches, a monstrous stature, and which made him very formidable, especially if he had strength and spirit proportionable.
2. His armour. Art, as well as nature, made him terrible. He was well furnished with defensive armour (1Sa 17:5; 1Sa 17:6): A helmet of brass on his head, a coat of mail, made of brass plates laid over one another, like the scales of a fish; and, because his legs would lie most within the reach of an ordinary man, he wore brass boots, and had a large corselet of brass about his neck. The coat is said to weigh 5000 shekels, and a shekel was half an ounce avoirdupois, a vast weight for a man to carry, all the other parts of his armour being proportionable. But some think it should be translated, not the weight of the coat, but the value of it, was 5000 shekels; so much it cost. His offensive weapons were extraordinary, of which his spear only is here described, v. 7. It was like a weaver’s beam. His arm could manage that which an ordinary man could scarcely heave. His shield only, which was the lightest of all his accoutrements, was carried before him by his esquire, probably for state; for he that was clad in brass little needed a shield.
3. His challenge. The Philistines having chosen him for their champion, to save themselves from the hazard of battle, he here throws down the gauntlet, and bids defiance to the armies of Israel, v. 8-10. He came into the valley that lay between the camps, and, his voice probably being as much stronger than other people’s as his arm was, he cried so as to make them all hear him, Give me a man, that we may fight together. He looked upon himself with admiration, because he was so much taller and stronger than all about him; his heart (says bishop Hall) nothing but a lump of proud flesh. He looked upon Israel with disdain, because they had none among them of such a monstrous bulk, and defies them to find a man among them bold enough to enter the list with him. (1.) He upbraids them with their folly in drawing an army together: “Why have you come to set the battle in array? How dare you oppose the mighty Philistines?” Or, “Why should the two armies engage, when the controversy may be sooner decided, with only the expense of one life and the hazard of another?” (2.) He offers to put the war entirely upon the issue of the duel he proposes: “If your champion kill me, we will be your servants; if I kill him, you shall be ours.” This, says bishop Patrick, was only a bravado, for no nation would be willing thus to venture its all upon the success of one man, nor is it justifiable; notwithstanding Goliath’s stipulation here, when he was killed the Philistines did not stand to his word, nor submit themselves as servants to Israel. When he boasts, I am a Philistine, and you are servants to Saul, he would have it thought a great piece of condescension in him, who was a chief ruler, to enter the lists with an Israelite; for he looked on them as no better than slaves. The Chaldee paraphrase brings him in boasting that he was the man that had killed Hophni and Phinehas and taken the ark prisoner, but that the Philistines had never given him so much as the command of a regiment in recompence of his services, whereas Saul had been made king for his services: “Let him therefore take up the challenge.”
4. The terror this struck upon Israel: Saul and his army were greatly afraid, v. 11. The people would not have been dismayed but that they observed Saul’s courage failed him; and it is not to be expected that, if the leader be a coward, the followers should be bold. We found before, when the Spirit of the Lord came upon Saul (ch. xi. 6), none could be more daring nor forward to answer the challenge of Nahash the Ammonite, but now that the Spirit of the Lord had departed from him even the big looks and big words of a single Philistine make him change colour. But where was Jonathan all this while? Why did not he accept the challenge, who, in the last war, had so bravely engaged a whole army of Philistines? Doubtless he did not feel himself stirred up of God to it, as he did in the former case. As the best, so the bravest men, are no more than what God makes them. Jonathan must now sit still, because the honour of engaging Goliath is reserved for David. In great and good actions, the wind of the Spirit blows when and where he listeth. Now the pious Israelites lament their king’s breach with Samuel.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
First Samuel – Chapter 17
The Philistine Champion, vs. 1-11
When Saul had grown better of his mania he had to contend again with a Philistine invasion of the country. This time they invaded the tribe of Judah. Three places are mentioned. Their gathering place was Shochoh (or Socoh, as it is also called), in the hill country of Judah sloping down to the Mediterranean Sea. Their army arrayed itself between Socoh and Azekah, across the valley of Elah, about five miles north of Socoh. The area was called Ephes-dammim (also called Pasdammim), scene of bloody encounters between Israel and the Philistines, the name meaning “boundary of blood.” Saul gathered his army and set his battle in array along the valley of Elah facing the Philistines.
Pitched on opposite mountains with the valley between them the two armies faced off against each other. At this point the Philistines put forth a champion to challenge Israel, Goliath, a descendant of the giants whom Caleb drove out of Hebron (Jos 11:21-22). Goliath was six cubits and a span in height, or about nine feet, six inches. He was attired in very formidable military apparel. A brass helmet protected his head, an armored coat covered his upper torso. This coat weighed five thousand brass shekels. His legs were protected from the sword’s edge by brass covering also. Goliath was well supplied also with weapons. The target between his shoulders was a spear. Its staff was as long as a weaver’s beam, and the head of it contained six hundred shekels of iron. In addition he also had a man to accompany him bearing a shield to help ward off the thrusts of sword and spear, or to turn aside arrows.
This huge man defied Israel to send out one to accept his challenge to fight one on one. He ridiculed Saul and his army as a dictatorial overlord and a bunch of groveling slaves. If one of them would come out to fight, Goliath said, the winner would be acclaimed as the winner for the whole army. If Goliath is overcome the Philistines would serve Israel, but if Goliath should kill the Israelite champion he agreed that the Israelites should be their servants. Goliath had an unfair advantage, from the fleshly standpoint, so that he should not be counted a great, brave champion. Rather it seems cowardly that such a monstrous man -should be willing to call it an even draw for an ordinary man. He should have been ready to fight two men!
Saul and the whole army of Israel were terribly afraid and filled with dismay. This condition results from failure to live in obedience to the Lord’s commands (see Jos 1:8-9). To be dismayed is to be indecisive at a time when a decision is needed.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
CRITITCAL AND EXPOSITORY NOTES
1Sa. 17:1. The Philistines gathered together their armies. Jamieson considers that this was twenty-seven years after their overthrow at Michmash. Shochoh, now Shuweikek, a village in the hilly region between the mountains of Judah and the plain of Philistia, about eleven miles south-west of Jerusalem and of Bethlehem. Azekah. Not certainly identified, but probably the same as Zakariyeh, another site of ancient ruins, about two miles distant, on the same side of the valley. Ephes-dammim, now Damm, four miles north-east of Shuweikek.
1Sa. 17:2. Valley of Elah, or the Terebiuth Valley. A long, broad, depressed plain, lying between two parallel ranges of hills. The terebiuth, the shittimwood (the butin of the Arabs): probably some remarkable tree of this species which grew there. It is now Wady-es-Sumt, valley of the acacia tree, with which at present it abounds. This valley, formed by the junction of three lateral onesviz., Wady-el-Musrr from the east, Wady-es-Sr from the south, and another, name unknown, from the northopens into the great Wady-Srr, anciently the Valley of Sorek. It is a fertile plain flanked on the north and south by lowly hills, and abounding with grain produce, except in the spots covered by acacia thickets and olive plantations. Robinson states that the largest terebiuth he saw in all the country was in Wady-es-Sr, a little above the spot where it emerges into Wady-es-Smt. (Jamieson.)
1Sa. 17:4. Champion. Literally, the man in the midst, the middlemanone who advances between two armies to decide the battle by single combat. Wordsworth renders it the mediator. Six cubits and a span. The cubit is variously computed at eighteen or twenty-one inches. The height of Goliath cannot therefore be certainly estimated, but must have been from nine to ten-and-a-half feet. According to the calculation made by Thenius, about nine feet two inches Parisian measure; a great height no doubt, though not altogether unparalleled, and hardly greater than that of the great uncle of Iren, who came to Berlin in the year 1857. According to Pliny, the giant Pusia and the giant Secundilla, who lived in the time of Augustus, were ten feet three inches (Roman) in height; and a Jew is mentioned by Josephus who was seven cubits in height, i.e., ten Parisian feet, or if the cubits are Roman, nine-and-a-half. (Kiel.)
1Sa. 17:5. Coat of mail. Literally, a scale-corslet. A corslet made of metal plates overlapping each other like the scale of a fish. Five thousand shekels. The copper shekel is estimated to have weighed about an ounce. According to Thenius, the cuirass of Augustus the Strong, which has been preserved in the historical museum at Dresden, weighed fifty-five pounds. (Kiel.)
1Sa. 17:6. Greaves. Boots for the defence of the leg, rising to nearly the knee, and without feet, terminating at the ankle; made of bulls hide, leather, wood, or in one plate of metal, but rounded to the shape of the leg, and often lined with felt or sponge. Some of the ancient greaves, however, did not come so far up as the knee. (Jamieson.) Target. Rather a lance or short spear. Thenius proposes to alter the expression between his shoulders, because it does not appear applicable to a spear or javelin, which Goliath must have suspended by a strap, but only to a small shield slung over his back But the difficulty founded upon the expression has been fully met by Bochart, in the examples which he cites from Homer, Virgil, etc., to prove that the ancients carried their own swords slung over their shoulders. And Josephus understood the expression in this way. Goliath had no need of any shield to cover his back, as this was sufficiently protected by his coat of mail. Moreover, the allusion to the same piece of armour in 1Sa. 17:45 evidently points to an offensive weapon, and not to a shield. (Kiel.)
1Sa. 17:7. Weavers beam. Rather under five feet long. (Jamieson.) One bearing a shield. Rather, the shield. In consequence of their great size and weight, the Oriental warrior had a trusty and skilful friend, whose office it was to bear the large shield. (Jamieson.)
1Sa. 17:8. Am I not a Philistine? Rather, the Philistine. The meaning is, Why would you engage in battle with us? I am the man who represents the strength of the Philistines, and ye are only servants of Saul. If ye have heroes, choose one out, that we may decide the matter in a single combat. (Keil.)
1Sa. 17:10. I defy; or, I have mocked. (Keil.) Goliaths scorn and contempt of Israel lay not merely in the reproach that they were Sauls slaves, and in the tone of his words, but in the challenge itself, because it was not answered. (Erdmann.)
1Sa. 17:34. A lion and a bear. At present lions do not exist in Palestine, although they must in ancient times have been numerous. The lion of Palestine was in all probability the Asiatic variety described by Aristotle and Pliny, as distinguished by its short, curly mane. It was less daring than the longer-maned species, but when driven by hunger it not only ventured to attack the flocks in the desert in the presence of the shepherd (Isa. 31:4), but laid waste towns and villages (2Ki. 17:25-26). The shepherds sometimes ventured to encounter the lion single-handed, and the vivid figure employed by Amos (1Sa. 3:12), the herdsman of Tekoa, was but the transcript of a scene which he must have often witnessed. The variety of the Asiatic bear which inhabits the Himalayas is especially ferocious, and it is probable that the same species among the mountains of Armenia is the animal of Scripture. (Biblical Dictionary.)
1Sa. 17:36. Thy servant slew, etc. These useful feats of David seem to have been performed with no weapon more effective than the rude staves usually carried in the hand of an Eastern shepherd, particularly the iron-headed club (Psa. 23:4). I have known, says Dr. Wilson (Lands of the Bible) a shepherd in India encounter with it a tiger which he found mangling one of his goats. It is much in use among the Fellahin of Wady Msa, and the Arabs in general. (Jamieson.)
1Sa. 17:38. Saul armed David, etc. David must therefore have been near the stature of Saul, or he could not have worn his armour; it might, however, have been a loose corslet, or capable of a change by tightening.
1Sa. 17:40. His sling. The sling consisted of a double rope, with a thong, probably of leather, to receive the stone. The slinger held a second stone in his left hand. Shepherds in the East carry a sling and stones still for the purpose both of driving away and killing the enemies of the flock. It was and is a favourite weapon in Syria and Arabia. (Jamieson.) Some of the Fathers of the Church, and a few modern commentators, see in this encounter of David and Goliath a type of our Lords encounter with Satan. Wordsworth says, So our David, the Good Shepherd, went forth to meet the enemy, not with sword or spear but with a pastoral staff, nor did He put forth His Divine power by any miraculous exercise of it against the tempter. He chose five stones out of the brook; He took the five books of Moses out of the flowing streams of Judaism, etc., etc.
1Sa. 17:43. Am I a dog, etc. The staff was ordinarily employed not against men but beasts. Similar are the scornful defiances which warriors of antiquity mutually gave at the beginning of a combat. (Erdmann.)
1Sa. 17:45. The Lord of Hosts, etc. Jehovah Sabaoth (see on 1Sa. 1:3). The name of the Lord is for David the totality of all the revelations by which the living God has made Himself known and named among His people. Of these elements, which form the conception of the name of God, he heresuitably to the situationadduces those which characterise Him in respect to His warlike and ruling power as captain and conqueror of His people. (Psa. 24:10.) (Erdmann.)
1Sa. 17:49. The stone sunk. Wordsworth thinks that here a supernatural power was put forth.
1Sa. 17:52. The valley, etc. As no name is given to this valley, and as the Hebrew word for Gath is very similar, both Keil and Erdmann think that Gath ought to stand here, as in the following verse. This direction of the flight resulted from the nature of the country. The Wady Sumt, where the conflict took place, passes northward from Socoh, turns after two or three miles westward by the villiage Sakarieh, emptying into the Wady Simchim. About a mile from this is the village of Aijur, which is held to he ancient Gath, and so the Philistines fled through that valley that Robinson also traversed when he journeyed from Jerusalem to Gath. Another portion of the Philistines remained in Wady Sumt and fled northward, where the Wady Sumt takes the name of Wady Surar, in which lies the present city Akir. (Sthelin). (Travellers are not quite agreed as to the site of Gath).
1Sa. 17:54. And David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem, etc. The word translated tent is an antiquated term for dwelling place. The reference is to Davids house at Bethlehem, to which he returned with his booty after the defeat of Goliath. There is no anachronism in these statements, for the assertion made by some, that Jerusalem was not yet in the possession of the Israelites, rests upon a confusion between the citadel of Jebus upon Zion, which was still in the hands of the Jebusites, and the city of Jerusalem, in which Israelites had dwelt for a long time. (See Jos. 15:63 and Jdg. 1:8). Nor is there any contradiction between this statement and 1Sa. 21:9, where Goliaths sword is said to have been kept in the tabernacle at Nob: for it is not affirmed that David kept Goliaths armour in his own home but only that he took it thither. Again, the statement in 1Sa. 18:2, to the effect that after Davids victory over Goliath Saul did not allow him to return to his fathers house any more, is by no means at variance with this explanation of the verse before us. For the statement in question must be understood as signifying that from that time forward Saul did not allow David to return to his fathers house as he had done before. (Keil).
1Sa. 17:55. Whose son is this youth? etc. Some critics regard these last four verses as an interpolation, as well as the paragraph between 1Sa. 17:12-31. Their opinion is founded upon apparent in discrepancies in the narrative, most of which have been met in the comments. Keil and other commentators see no reason for doubting their genuineness. The following are their solutions of the apparent contradiction in this question of Saul, to the statement in 1Sa. 16:21-23. It is only necessary to admit that Davids absence at home had been long (and there is no exact chronological datum); that Saul had rarely seen him except in moments of madness; that Abner had been absent from court when David was there; and that the personal appearance of the latter had changed (suppositions which, taken singly or together, are not improbable), and Sauls ignorance becomes natural. (Translator of Langes Commentary.) Wordsworth likewise suggests that David now appeared, not as before in the costume of a courtier or warrior, but in the homely dress of a shepherd, and that Sauls question does not necessarily imply ignorance of David, as he asks not his name, but the name of his father. He had promised that whosoever killed the Philistine should have his own daughter in marriage, and he naturally wished to know the parentage of his future son-in-law. Dr. Jamieson adds to these the suggestion that the rumour of Samuels commission to anoint another king, and his journey to Bethlehem for that object, together with the fact that David had come from that village, and the suspicion, after the conquest of Goliath, which procured him so much glory throughout the nation, that David was destined for the throne, might have so excited his jealousy that he dissembled, and, pretending not to know him, kept his vigilant eye upon him with a view to accomplish the destruction of this young and formidable rival.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.1Sa. 17:1-11; 1Sa. 17:30-58
FAITH IN THE SEEN AND IN THE UNSEEN
This narrative furnishes us
I. With examples of faith in the seen and temporal. Such was the faith
1. Of Goliath. The tendency of all men is to put confidence in that which they can apprehend with their sensesthat which appeals to their outward man. Physical strengthmaterial greatness of any kindanything that belongs to the seen and temporalare the objects of their trust. In their opinion the race is always to the physically swift and the battle to the strong; they believe with the first Napoleon that Providence is always on the side of great battalions, and in their estimate of things the unseen God goes for nothing because He is unseen. The faith of the Philistine was not in any unseen powernot even in the false gods of his own nationbut in his own arm of fleshin his own extraordinary size and bodily strength. In this he is but a type of the great majority of men in all ages and in all nationsnot only those who possess no written revelation of the unseen God, but of the far greater proportion of those who profess to believe in His existence.
2. Of Saul. Even Saul was dismayed when he heard the words of the Philistine (1Sa. 17:11), even he sought to restrain the shepherd youth from going forth to meet the man of war, although he knew that the latter was an uncircumcised Philistine, and that Davids confidence was in the living God. One of the first duties of a man in Sauls position is to acquaint himself with the history of the nation whom he rules, and lay to heart the lessons to be gained from it. And it could not be that he was ignorant of the great heroes of Israel who had gone before himof Abraham, who with God for his shield had been able with three hundred men to put to flight the armies of the aliensof Moses, who forsook Egypt and led Israel through the Red Sea because he endured, as seeing Him who is invisibleof Gideon, of Barak, of Samson, and of Jephthah, who through faith subdued kingdoms and obtained promises (Heb. 11:32-33). How much was there in Gods dealings with his forefathers to inspire him with hope and confidence in the unseen Jehovah, and to remind him that two are enough for any conflict if one is the Living God. If Saul had been in any degree worthy of his title and his position he would have been the first to accept the challenge of the heathen, and would have rejoiced in the opportunity of adding his own name to the long roll of Hebrew heroes who had proved over and over again how much more there is on the side of him who trusts in the Unseen and Eternal than on the side of those whose confidence is in the seen and temporal. But instead of this he furnishes an example of cowardice which had its root in the unbelief which had been the curse of almost all his kingly life, and which had brought upon him his present misery. There had been a short bright spot in his career when he, too, had been conscious that it was the Lord who wrought salvation in Israel, and when he had fought and conquered in that assurance (1Sa. 11:11-13). But the clouds of unbelief had long since obscured his vision of the unseen and the real, and made him a slave to the seen and the seeming. We cannot wonder that the armies of Israel manifested the same disposition. When the head is diseased the body will be affected also, when the well is poisoned the streams will be impure, and when the head of a community has no faith in God the moral disease is likely to run through all ranks and conditions of men beneath him. Seeing that unbelief in the unseen made Saul a coward, it is not surprising to find his army manifesting the same craven fear of the giant of Gath. We have
II. An example of faith in the unseen and eternal.
1. This faith was founded upon an experience of Divine help in past dangers. If a man has been in great peril of mind, body, or estate, and has in the day of his extremity been delivered by a friendly and powerful arm, he carries about with him ever after a consciousness of that deliverance and a faith in the person who saved him which nothing can destroy. If he is ever brought again into like circumstances or even into a more perilous position he will naturally turn again for help where he found it before. When a nation has been delivered from the hand of her enemies mainly by the courage of one heart and the skill of one ruling mind, she will instinctively confide in the same leader in her next time of danger. The eye of faith looks back upon past deliverances and sees in them the hand of Godthis being so, in the next day of peril and need she appeals for help to the same Almighty source and confidently expects to receive it. This is a most logical resolutionBecause thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of Thy wings will I make my refuge. (Psa. 63:7). If we have present confidence in an arm of flesh because of help afforded in the past, how much more should we have faith in an unchangeable God in a present time of need when we can recall instances of His gracious interposition in past necessities. This is the argument of David, and such has ever been and ever will be the argument of faith, The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, He will deliver me out of the hand of the Philistine. But only a man accustomed to discern an unseen hand in all the events of his life would have seen God in the deliverance from the lion and the bear, and only such an one therefore could have drawn hope and confidence from it for the present greater peril. Davids life had been a life of faith in the unseen, and such a man is ready for any emergency. All the deliverances of his past life had been referred to the living God, and therefore he was not now afraid to trust Him for a greater and more important victory.
2. This faith adopted the means most likely to lead to a victorious issue. The faith of David was not the faith of a fanatic nor of one who interprets all Gods promises without reference to conditions to be observed by man. He took a common-sense view of the matter, and used the best weapons within his reach to bring God into co-operation with his faith and his effort. The sling was the only weapon which was at all adapted to Davids use under the circumstances. It would have been madness and presumption for the shepherd youth to have attempted a close encounter with Sauls weapons or with any weapons of that kind. But he had been accustomed from his childhood to use the sling which was especially adapted for use at a long range, and with which an expert could take a most certain aim (Jdg. 20:16). He had no need to come within reach of the Philistines sword or measure himself with him in a hand-to-hand combat. The very distance at which he stood would compensate for his inferior weight and add to the force of the blow, and the stone could be aimed at the only part of the giants body which was unprotected by armour, viz., his forehead. Although we may see a supernatural hand in the issue of the event, we must remember that the effort of David was in harmony with natural laws and not against them, and that his confidence in God did not lead him to neglect the use of means, and those the very best at his disposal. The men of the strongest faith are the least given to presumption, but always put forth well-directed effort.
III. Faith in the unseen and Eternal justified by results. The expectations and desires of faith rest upon a solid foundation. The faith of David rested upon the Divine promises looked at in the light of the Divine faithfulness, and it was so strengthened by his own experience that he ventured confidently to predict the result before it came to pass (1Sa. 17:26). At this period of his history his desires were in entire sympathy with God, and he had therefore full ground for his confident prophecy that the Lord would deliver Israels enemy into his hand. And the result fully justified his strong confidence, and showed that God regards such a bold reliance upon Himself with especial favour. The faith of Gods children in all ages rests upon the same foundation, and whenever the Church of God is threatened by some apparently mighty foe they have the same warrant as David had for predicting beforehand that victory shall be on their side because they are on the side of God.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
That the world hostile to Gods kingdom can long unpunished visit its scorn on the truth of the eternal and living God, is commonly a result of the inner weakness, disorder, and timidity of the members of the kingdom of God. When, therefore, there arises a man from their midst who, with mighty word and deed, encounters and conquers the foe, this is a direct interposition of Gods hand in the development of His kingdom, and such a man is His chosen instrument for the casting down of the haughty worldly powers, and for a new gathering together and elevation of His people.Langes Commentary.
When we think of the tribal inheritance of Judah, still in a large degree retained by the Philistines, who ever and anon arose to reclaim it all, and sometimes nearly succeeded, we have a striking analogy to the heart of the believer, wherein divers sins and lusts do still contend for the mastery; and sometimes one of them, attaining Goliath-like proportions, threatens to enslave him altogether. Each of us has his own giant to fight, and here, too, it must be single combat, with no one to help us but He who went forth with the stripling David. Or, yet again, in contending with external evils, we may sometimes feel that they have assumed such magnitude as to appal us. Thus, which of us is not brought almost to a standstill when he surveys the ignorance, infidelity, etc., by which we are surrounded? It seems to us sometimes, in moments of depression, as if these evils were stalking forth defiantly before the armies of the Living God, and laughing them, Goliath-like, to scorn; and our courage is apt to cool as we contemplate this show of force. But the God of David liveth, and He will still give us success. The great danger that besets the Christian at such times is that of attempting to fight with the worlds weapons. The worldling will always overcome him when he does so, because the Christian in such armour is not at home. Let him go forth with the cross of Christ in his hand, and by that he will conquer; but if he seek a lower weapon, and try to fight with force of law, or with earthly philosophy, or with mere social expedients, he will inevitably fail. What Davids sling and stone were in the valley of Elah, that is the cross of Christ in the theological controversies, and social wranglings, and moral antagonisms of our age.Dr. W. M. Taylor.
1Sa. 17:10. Degenerate professors of religion often receive just rebukes from most decided enemies. In human accomplishments the opposers of the truth of God have frequently possessed an undisputed superiority; confiding in this they have defied, and still do defy, the advocates of spiritual truth to engage with them.Scott.
1Sa. 17:11. The time was when Saul slew forty thousand Philistines in one day, and perhaps Goliath was in that discomfiture; and now one Philistine is suffered by him to brave all Israel for forty days. Whence is this difference? The Spirit of God, the spirit of fortitude, was now departed from him. Saul was not more above himself when God was with him, than he is below others now that he is left of God. Valour is not merely of nature; nature is ever like itself; he that is once valiant should never turn coward. But now we see the greatest spirits inconstant He that is the God of Hosts gives and takes away mans hearts at His pleasure. Neither is it otherwise in our spiritual combats We have no strength but what is given us; and if the Author of all good gifts remit His hand for our humiliation, either we fight not, or are foiled.Bp. Hall.
1Sa. 17:32. While base hearts are moved by example, the want of example is encouragement enough to an heroical mind; therefore is David ready to undertake the quarrel, because no man else dare to do it. Even so, O Saviour, when all the generations of men run away affrighted from the powers of death and darkness, Thou alone hast undertaken and confounded then.Bp. Hall.
1Sa. 17:37. In this recognition of God and confidence in Him, with which David entered upon public life, we have the root of the difference between him and Saul. The tendency of Sauls life was towards himself; anything inconsistent with that in him, or about him, was but fitful and spasmodic. But it was just the reverse with David. The leaning of his soul was toward God, and though at times self and sin sadly and terribly asserted their power, yet these things were only occasional, and out of keeping with the usual course and current of his character. His sins, like Sauls impulses towards good things, were but occasional eruptions of that which it was the habit of his soul to repress; his piety, like Sauls impiety, was the principle of his life.Dr. W. M. Taylor.
To God he ascribes, not only his success in life, but his physical prowess. And we must pause, ere we call such utterances mere Eastern metaphor. It is far more probable they were meant as, and were literal truths. David was not likely to have been a man of brute gigantic strength. So delicate a brain was probably coupled to a delicate body. Such a nature, at the same time, would be the very one most capable under the influencecall it boldly inspirationof a great and patriotic cause, of great dangers and great purposes; capable, I say, at moments, of accesses of almost superhuman energy, which he ascribed, and most rightly, to the inspiration of God.Kingsley.
1Sa. 17:39. Let Sauls coat be never so rich, and his armour never so strong, what is David the better if they fit him not? It is not to be inquired how excellent anything is, but how proper. Those things which are helps to some may be encumbrances to others. An unmeet good may be as inconvenient as an accustomed evil. If we could wish another mans honour, when we feel the weight of his cares we should be glad to be in our own coat.Bp. Hall.
History has presented many and diverse examples in the sphere of the spiritual life similar to this heroic march of David. Luther, in opposition to timid learned men, threw aside the heavy armour of scholastic wisdom, and stepping forward in freedom vanquished the giant of Rome with the five heads of his catechism. And other witnesses and combatants of the Church have with holy courage broken through the restraints of homiletic or liturgic forms, and in the free effusions and creations of their divinely anointed spirits, have given the tone to a new and more animating style of preaching, and thereby have opened the way to a new quickening and elevating of the life of the Church into greater fruitfulness.Krummacher.
1Sa. 17:44. Was ever such a proof given of the sin and folly of boasting, as in the case of Goliath? And yet, as we would say, how natural it was in him! We can almost sympathise with his disappointment when he found that the champion who was to meet him was so little worthy of his steel. We can almost admire the chivalrous spirit that scattered defiance among a host of enemies. But just as it is so natural, and because it is so natural, is this spirit of boasting dangerous. In the spiritual conflict it is the surest presage of defeat. It was the Goliath spirit that puffed up the apostle Peter, when he said to his Master, Lord, I will go with Thee to prison and to death. It is the same spirit against which the apostle Paul gives his remarkable warning, Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall.Blaikie.
1Sa. 17:48-54. The defeats which are prepared for the world by the kingdom of God:
1. Through what sort of combatants? Through such as (a), like David, heroically lead the van of Gods host and decide the conflict (1Sa. 17:48), and (b) such as bravely bring up the rear, perseveringly pursuing the already smitten foe.
2. With what sort of weapons? (a) With weapons which they themselves have according to their calling through Gods grace, and wield in reliance on Gods help (1Sa. 17:49), and (b) with weapons which they take from the foe, in order to give him the finishing stroke with his own weapon (1Sa. 17:50-51).
3. With what result? Annihilation of his power on his own ground (1Sa. 17:52), and in respect to the booty, rich gains (1Sa. 17:53-54).Langes Commentary.
1Sa. 17:51. What needed David load himself with an unnecessary weapon? one sword can serve both Goliath and him. If Goliath had a man to bear his shield, David hath Goliath to bear his sword, wherewith that proud, blasphemous head is severed from his shoulders. Nothing more honours God than the turning of wicked mens forces against themselves. There are none of His enemies but carry with them their own destruction. Thus didst Thou, O Son of David, foil Satan with his own weapon: that whereby he meant destruction to Thee and us, vanquished him through Thy mighty power, and raised Thee to that glorious triumph and super-exaltation wherein Thou art, wherein we shall be with Thee.Bishop Hall.
1Sa. 17:54. David brings the head of the Philistine champion in triumph to Jerusalem. Our David, Jesus Christ, ascended in triumph to the heavenly Jerusalem, bearing His trophies with Him, leading captivity captive (Psa. 68:18; Eph. 4:8.)Wordsworth.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Goliaths Challenge. 1Sa. 17:1-11
Now the Philistines gathered together their armies to battle, and were gathered together at Shochoh, which belongeth to Judah, and pitched between Shochoh and Azekah, in Ephes-dammim.
2 And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together, and pitched by the valley of Elah, and set the battle in array against the Philistines.
3 And the Philistines stood on a mountain on the one side, and Israel stood on a mountain on the other side: and there was a valley between them.
4 And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span.
5 And he had a 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.
6 And he had greaves of brass upon his legs, and a target of brass between his shoulders.
7 And the staff of his spear was like a weavers beam; and his spears head weighed six hundred shekels of iron: and one bearing a shield went before him.
8 And he stood and cried unto the armies of Israel, and said unto them, Why are ye come out to set your battle in array? am not I a Philistine, and ye servants to Saul? choose you a man for you, and let him come down to me.
9 If he be able to fight with me, and to kill me, then will we be your servants: but if I prevail against him, and kill him, then shall ye be our servants, and serve us.
10 And the Philistine said, I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that we may fight together.
11 When Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistine, they were dismayed, and greatly afraid.
1.
Where were Shochoh, Azekah, and Ephes-dammim? 1Sa. 17:1
These places are in the Valley of Elah, now called Wady es Sunt. This valley begins a few miles northwest of Hebron and runs in a northerly direction between the mountains of Judah and the lower hills of the Shephelah forming the border of the Philistine Plain. Shochoh, now called Suweikeh, is about nine miles down the valley. This spot was on the Philistine side of the valley, the western side. To meet the description of the Scripture text, modern-day explorers look for a place which has on each side a mountain slope suitable for the camp of an army. It would need to be a valley wide enough to give room for Goliaths daily advance into it with his challenge. Finally, a brook must flow along the valley where smooth, round stones could be found nearer Sauls side of the valley than the Philistines side. J. W. McGarvey, in his Lands of the Bible (page 260), says that just such a point was found by him. He found it a short distance north of Shochoh. Above the spot, the valley was too narrow and the hills too steep, while the brook was either in the middle or too near the western side. At the point he located, however, the western hills have a moderate slope. They recede to a kind of amphitheater. A sloping ridge stands on the opposite side with a valley on each side of it. No doubt here were stationed the two armies with something more than a quarter of a mile of space between them. The brook, a raging torrent in the winter, but dry in the summer, flows within sixty or seventy yards of the eastern side of the valley. David, in advancing, was compelled to cross it. The bed is full of smooth, round stones from one to six inches in diameter. With scarcely a moments hesitation David could have picked up five of these stones to suit his purpose. Mr. McGarvey and his companions picked up five apiece, any one of which would be the very thing with which to knock down a giant! The word Ephes-dammim comes from the root which means boundary of blood. It is called Pas-Dammim (1Ch. 11:13). No doubt the bloody contest between Israel and the Philistines gave the place its name. Probably this was a name for the valley where the battle was pitched. Azekah comes from a root meaning tilled. It is known as a town in the plain of Judah (Jos. 15:35). It seemed to be a place of considerable strength (Jer. 34:7), and it had suburban villages in later times (Neh. 11:30). The southern coalition of the Canaanite kings were defeated at this place by Joshua, and their army destroyed by an extraordinary shower of hailstones (Jos. 10:10-11). This location must have been farther down the valley and to the north of the battle field.
2.
Who was Goliath? 1Sa. 17:4
Goliath was a survivor of the famous race of Anak (Num. 13:28). The spies compared them to the Nephilim or giants of Gen. 6:4. The home of Goliath is named as being Gath, one of the chief cities of the Philistines. His height was six cubits and a span, which is, according to the calculations made by Thenius, about nine feet and two inches. The armor of Goliath corresponded to his stature, his coat of mail not being made of rings worked together like chains, but a coat made of plates of brass, lying one upon the other like scales. Upon his feet were greaves of brass, slung over his back was a small shield, and carried before him was a huge shield. The object of this description is to show how impregnable the man seemed to be. Added to all this is a description of his offensive weapon, a spear whose shaft was like a weavers beam and whose head weighed some seventeen pounds.
3.
What challenge did he hurl at the armies of Israel? 1Sa. 17:8-10
It was, and is, the Arab custom for a warrior to vaunt his own prowess and to satirize his enemies, as a challenge to single combat. Goliath offers himself as a sample of his nation and bases his challenge upon the uselessness of general engagement when the single combat would settle the whole matter. The whole issue of the war was to be staked on the duel, and the challenge became a taunt, when no one was brave enough to accept it. At his words, all Israel, even Saul, were dismayed and greatly afraid; because not one of them dared to accept the challenge to fight with such a giant.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(1) Now the Philistines gathered together their armies to battle.There is nothing to tell us how long a time had elapsed since the victory of Saul over Amalek and the other events related in the last chapter. The compiler of the book is henceforth mainly concerned with the story of David, and how he gradually rose in popular estimation. The history does not profess to give anything like a consecutive account of the reign and wars of Saul. It was evidently compiled from documents of the time, but put into its present shape long afterwards. Probably, writes Dean Payne Smith, at each prophetic school there would be stored up copies of Psalms written for their religious services, ballads such as those in the Book of Jashar, and in the book of the wars of the Lord, narratives of stirring events like this before us, and histories both of their own chiefs, such as was Samuel (the original founder of these famous educational centres), and afterwards Elijah and Elisha, and also of their kings.
Pitched between Shochoh and Azekah.The locality was some twelve or fifteen miles southwest of Jerusalem, and nine or ten from Bethlehem, the home of the family of Jesse. The name Ephes-dammim, the boundary of blood, is suggestive, and tells of the constant border warfare which took place in this neighbourhood.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
1. Socoh One of the cities of Judah. It has been identified with the modern Suweikeh, fourteen miles southwest of Jerusalem.
Azekah Ephes-dammim These places have not been satisfactorily identified, but we incline to locate Ephes-dammim at the ruins of the modern Damum, a little to the east of Suweikeh; in which case Azekah may be, as Van de Velde has conjectured, at Ahbek, a little to the northeast of Damum.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Goliath Challenges Israel With No Takers. David Is Sent To Take His Brothers Food ( 1Sa 17:1-19 ).
This passage brings us face to face with two figures, the first the formidable Philistine warrior, Goliath, who challenges Israel to send a man to fight him, with no takers, and the second a shepherd boy who is sent to take food to his brothers who are in the Israelite army and to gather news of them.
Analysis.
a
b And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together, and encamped in the vale of Elah, and set the battle in array against the Philistines (1Sa 17:2).
c And the Philistines stood on the mountain on the one side, and Israel stood on the mountain on the other side, and there was a valley between them. And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span (1Sa 17:3-4).
d And he had a helmet of bronze on his head, and he was clad with a coat of mail; and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of bronze, and he had greaves of bronze on his legs, and a javelin of bronze between his shoulders. And the staff of his spear was like a weaver’s beam, and his spear’s head weighed six hundred shekels of iron, and his shield-bearer went before him (1Sa 17:5-7).
e And he stood and cried to the armies of Israel, and said to them, “Why have you come out to set your battle in array? Am not I a Philistine, and you servants to Saul? Choose you a man for you, and let him come down to me. If he be able to fight with me, and kill me, then will we be your servants, but if I prevail against him, and kill him, then shall you be our servants, and serve us” (1Sa 17:8-9).
f And the Philistine said, “I defy the armies of Israel this day. Give me a man, that we may fight together” (1Sa 17:10).
e And when Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistine, they were dismayed, and greatly afraid (1Sa 17:11).
d Now David was the son of that Ephrathite of Beth-lehem-judah, whose name was Jesse, and he had eight sons: and the man was an old man in the days of Saul, stricken in years among men. And the three eldest sons of Jesse had gone after Saul to the battle, and the names of his three sons who went to the battle were Eliab the first-born, and next to him Abinadab, and the third Shammah. And David was the youngest, and the three eldest followed Saul. And David went to and fro from Saul to feed his father’s sheep at Beth-lehem (1Sa 17:12-16).
c And the Philistine drew near morning and evening, and presented himself forty days (1Sa 17:17).
b And Jesse said to David his son, “Take now for your brothers an ephah of this parched grain, and these ten loaves, and carry them quickly to the camp to your brothers, and bring these ten cheeses to the captain of their thousand, and see how your brothers fare, and take their pledge” (1Sa 17:18).
a Now Saul, and they, and all the men of Israel, were in the vale of Elah, fighting with the Philistines. (1Sa 17:19).
Note that in ‘a’ the Philistines were gathered to battle against Israel, and in the parallel Israel were in the Vale of Elah fighting with the Philistines. In ‘b’ Saul and the men of Israel were gathered in the Vale of Elah, and in the parallel we learn how they are being fed. In ‘c’ the Philistine champion came out to challenge Israel, and in the parallel he comes regularly to challenge Israel. In ‘d’ we have the details concerning Goliath as a mighty man of war, and in the parallel we have the details stressing that David is a mere feeder of sheep whose elder brothers are men of war. In ‘e’ the Philistine issues his challenge, and in the parallel the Israelites are greatly afraid. Central in ‘f’ is the fact that the Philistine is defying the armies of Israel, and is seeking a man whom he can fight. These are two central themes in the whole passage, Goliath’s defiance of Israel and their God, and the man whom God has chosen to put him in his place.
1Sa 17:1
‘ Now the Philistines gathered together their armies to battle, and they were gathered together at Socoh, which belongs to Judah, and encamped between Socoh and Azekah, in Ephes-dammim.’
Once again the Philistines had gathered their fighting forces to seek to bring Israel into subjugation. This time they had approached the lowland territory of northern Judah near Azekah but had immediately found themselves faced with a large Israelite army under Saul. The place where this took place was at Ephes-dammim, (the boundary of blood), a place where no doubt much blood had been spilled in past border battles.
1Sa 17:2
‘ And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together, and encamped in the vale of Elah, and set the battle in array against the Philistines.’
Saul and the men of Israel had ‘gathered together’ as a result of the call to arms going out to the tribes and they were encamped on a slope in the Vale of Elah in which there was a ravine separating the two armies. Their forces were all set in their battle lines with weapons at the ready.
1Sa 17:3
‘ And the Philistines stood on the mountain on the one side, and Israel stood on the mountain on the other side: and there was a valley between them.’
The scene is set. On the mountain on one side of the valley were the Philistines with their chariots, and horsemen, and weapons of iron, and on the mountain on the other side were the Israelites, mainly fighting on foot and only having bronze weapons, while between them was the valley itself through which went a ravine which helped to keep the two armies apart.
1Sa 17:4-7
‘ And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span, and he had a helmet of bronze on his head, and he was clad with a coat of mail, and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of bronze, and he had greaves of bronze on his legs, and a javelin of bronze between his shoulders. And the staff of his spear was like a weaver’s beam, and his spear’s head weighed six hundred shekels of iron, and his shield-bearer went before him.’
But there was another snag. The Philistines had issued a challenge through their ‘champion’ (more literally ‘the man in the space between’). He had come down into the valley and laid down his challenge for someone to meet him in single combat. This was a regular custom in those days, and such a combat would be seen as having a significant impact on what followed, because it would be seen as demonstrating whose side the gods were on. No army liked to fight if its champion had been defeated, for it was seen as a mirror image of what would follow. Thus it was a challenge that could not be ignored.
And the further problem was that this champion was huge. He was nine foot six tall, covered in huge and impressive armour reinforced with copper or bronze, and bristling with offensive weapons, such as spear, sword and javelin. There is no good reason for doubting the statistics. Skeletons of men of that size coming from that era have been dug up in Palestine, and they crop up throughout the ages. The coat of mail would have been made of overlapping plates of metal and have reached down to the knees. The greaves protected the shins.
He was named ‘Goliath’ and came from Gath. He may have been descended from the Rephaim (Deu 2:20-21; 2Sa 21:22) or the Anakim (Jos 11:21-22). It is quite probable that ‘Goliath’ was the name given to whoever was the recognised Philistine champion at the time, so that when this Goliath died another Goliath would replace him. This would explain how he could later seem to be slain again (2Sa 21:19). We can compare how the early Philistine commander-in-chiefs were all called Phicol, and their kings Abimelech (Genesis 20; Gen 21:22-34; Genesis 26; Psalms 34 heading). For a similar phenomenon compare also the Pharaohs in Egypt and the Tartans who were commanders-in-chief over the Assyrian army (2Ki 18:17).
1Sa 17:8-9
‘ And he stood and cried to the armies of Israel, and said to them, “Why are you come out to set your battle in array? Am not I the Philistine, and you servants to Saul? Choose you a man for you, and let him come down to me. If he be able to fight with me, and kill me, then will we be your servants, but if I prevail against him, and kill him, then shall you be our servants, and serve us.” ’
Each day this giant of a man would stride out into the valley with his shield bearer in front of him, and hurl his challenge at the Israelite army. And every day the Israelites looked at him, cowered back, and grew more and more afraid, for they knew that if no one dared to face Goliath it proved that YHWH was not with them. And they were aware only too well of what that would mean.
Then Goliath would laugh at their battle array and ask them why they went to all the trouble to arm themselves when all that they had to do was send out a champion to meet him. Once they were ready to do that they could come to an agreement that whichever champion won, their army would be seen as the victors and the other army would submit. It was all so easy (if you had such a man as your champion).
“The Philistine.” That is, the one who represented the whole of the Philistine army. Whoever fought him would, as it were, be fighting the whole of the Philistine army. Note how the title is repeated. All saw him in this way.
1Sa 17:10
‘ And the Philistine said, “I defy the armies of Israel this day, give me a man, that we may fight together.” ’
As the days went by his challenge grew more and more fierce. He defied the armies of Israel and called for a man to fight him. He was getting impatient. In this verse we note two of the themes of the whole passage, the Philistine’s defiance of Israel, and therefore of YHWH, and the fact of a man who will arise to deal with him once and for all. His ‘prayer’ will be answered.
1Sa 17:11
‘ And when Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistine, they were dismayed, and greatly afraid.’
But all that these words did was sow terror among the ranks of Israel, which was of course their purpose. It is very probable that the Philistines did not expect an Israelite response. Who would want to fight Goliath alone? But they knew that the longer it went on, the more dismayed the Israelites would become for they would know that it presaged disaster not to meet him, and they would be little short of terrified.
1Sa 17:12
‘ Now David was the son of that Ephrathite of Beth-lehem-judah, whose name was Jesse, and he had eight sons, and the man was an old man in the days of Saul, stricken in years among men.’
And suddenly into the picture in the mind of the writer comes a new development. Although they did not yet realise it the Israelites had an answer in the man on whom was the Spirit of YHWH. The writer knows this and that is why he gives David’s full details here, even though he has given them to us before. For this is Israel’s champion, David, the youngest son of Jesse the Ephrathite of Bethlehem-judah, the Jesse who had eight sons as described in the last chapter. And this Jesse was himself very old, which was why he was not with the army, while this David was one of his sons, his youngest. Of course we know of him already from the previous chapter, but the details are mentioned again in detail in order to bring out his importance in this situation. It is clear that he was not yet twenty as he had not been of an age to join up with the army.
1Sa 17:13
‘ And the three eldest sons of Jesse had gone after Saul to the battle, and the names of his three sons who went to the battle were Eliab the first-born, and next to him Abinadab, and the third Shammah.’
His youth is emphasised by the fact that his three oldest brothers were with the army and were named Eliab, Abinadab and Shammah. So he comes from a war-like family, but is not a warrior himself. But the other four brothers, like David, were also not in the army. That would be because they also were under twenty, or because they had recently married (Deu 24:5).
1Sa 17:14
‘ And David was the youngest; and the three eldest followed Saul.’
And David was the youngest and could not enlist in the army, even though the three eldest had. Even granted that the other four included twins, with one or two also recently married, he could in fact not have been more than seventeen. Thus we recognise that David was from a soldierly family and of an age too young to fight. In contrast his three elder brothers followed Saul and were with him on the battlefield (Of course, like many young men of his age, David would not have seen it that way. He probably felt that he was quite old enough to fight).
1Sa 17:15
‘ Now David went to and fro from Saul to feed his father’s sheep at Beth-lehem.’
As we know from earlier on David spent some time as a musician to Saul when Saul was going through his bad periods, but we learn here that he combined that with his duties as a shepherd, especially when Saul was on the front line and thus fully occupied, which would be quite often. Part of the reason for David’s visits would be in order to keep his brothers supplied with food. Many Israelite family members would be doing the same for their relatives.
This fact that David is a mere feeder of the sheep, and not even qualified to be a warrior, is deliberately contrasted in the chiasmus with the picture drawn of the mighty Goliath.
1Sa 17:16
‘ And the Philistine drew near morning and evening, and presented himself for forty days.’
Meanwhile ‘the Philistine’ who was the cause of their problems still came out each morning and evening and presented his challenge. This had by now continued for ‘forty days’. ‘Forty days’ is a recognised length of time indicating a portentous period in which YHWH is involved (Gen 7:17; Gen 8:6; Exo 24:18; Exo 35:28; 1Ki 19:8). But the Philistine was unaware of that. He scoffed at YHWH. Thus he was not aware that the ‘forty days’ hung like a dark shadow over his head.
1Sa 17:17-18
‘ And Jesse said to David his son, “Take now for your brothers an ephah of this parched grain, and these ten loaves, and carry them quickly to the camp to your brothers, and bring these ten cheeses to the captain of their unit, and see how your brethren fare, and take their pledge.” ’
And while the Philistine was presenting himself for forty days YHWH was preparing His champion. Jesse called David and told him to take food to his soldier brothers and to the captain of their unit, and to obtain news of how they fared and to bring back some evidence that they were still alive. We often do not stop to ask ourselves how armies were provisioned, especially when on their own territory where looting could not, of course, be allowed. Here we are given a solution. The families of the soldiers would send them provisions, and even extra provisions for others. Parched corn consisting of grains of wheat roasted in a pan were a common form of food in Palestine. It will be noted that while the brothers are expected to make do with basic food, their captain receives something somewhat more luxurious. He would be a man of high rank and important in Israel. ‘Ten’ may here indicate ‘a number of’ (compare Gen 31:41; 1Sa 1:8).
“Their pledge.” The pledge required would be something, such as a note of hand, which demonstrated that the brothers were still alive.
1Sa 17:19
‘ Now Saul, and they, and all the men of Israel, were in the vale of Elah, fighting with the Philistines.’
Meanwhile, the writer reminds us, Saul and all the men of Israel, were in the vale of Elah fighting with the Philistines. He recognises that this account would be read out at the festivals and wants to keep the audience up to date. There may also be an intentional indication here that not one of ‘all of the men of Israel’ could solve Israel’s problems. It would require a teenager who was not yet a man, but who was filled with the Spirit of YHWH. The emphasis is on the fact that when YHWH delivers it will not be as a result of Israel’s capabilities.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
1Sa 17:1-58 David and Goliath – The story of David and Goliath is perhaps the most popular story in the Old Testament. Many preachers have described this battle as being between good and evil, between the power of God and the power of Satan. This symbolism is very accurate. Any child of God who has ever taken a promotion into a job environment and faced harsh opposition knows such battles. He or she knows that there are demonic strongholds that must be torn down. He quickly sees these strongholds manifested in particular individuals who stand in opposition against the things of God.
In the same way, Goliath stood as a stronghold of Satan, being used by the Evil One to bring fear to God’s people. When David killed Goliath, he broke a major stronghold of Satan. David continued the battle, but none were as important as the victory that came from the first battle.
Such is the experience to a child of God who stands for righteousness in a new job environment, or on a mission field. Once this major opponent is defeated, the other battles seem less formidable. I have gone through a number of these spiritual battles.
In 1993, I was promoted to a supervisor with an apartment maintenance company. I will never forget walking into the office and hearing country-western music, smelling cigarette smoke and listening to profanity. When the other staff members had gone home that evening, I walked the office and stood against the powers of darkness. At one point, I had to confront hatred and rebellion with a colleague, but the Lord took me through this time safely and the other battles were much easier.
Such an experience happened when I first came to the mission field in 1997. After about 18 months, my pastor had to call me home on furlough while he organized legal action against some corrupt directors on the Christian television ministry. This battle came with death threats and much anger, but was won when we stood for righteousness. I was given the job to manager the television station after this ordeal, but the biggest stronghold had been defeated.
David was a man of war. He did more to conquer the kingdom of darkness than any other individual in the Old Testament. Every piece of ground that he gained positioned him for greater victories, until he became the most powerful king of his day. God will always stand with His children when they are asked to take a stand for righteousness.
1Sa 17:4 And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span.
1Sa 17:4
[32] James C. VanderKam says, “In some of the major Greek manuscripts, Goliath shrinks to a mere four cubits and a span 6’9” (no text gives David’s height). The first copy of Samuel from cave 4 also reads four as the number of cubits in Goliath’s stature.” See James C. VanderKam, The Dead Sea Scrolls Today (London: SPCK Publishing, 1994), 130.
Brenton, “And there went forth a mighty man out of the army of the Philistines, Goliath, by name, out of Geth, his height [was] four cubits and a span .”
“Now there came down a man out of the camp of the Philistines, whose name was Goliath, of the city of Gath, a man of vast bulk, for he was of four cubits and a span in tallness,”(Josephus, Antiquities 6.9.1)
1Sa 17:4-10 Comments The Description of Goliath Note how the author lingers on the details of Goliath (1Sa 17:4-7) even before he speaks. His size was intimidating. He armour was threatening. He words were frightening (1Sa 17:8-10).
1Sa 17:26 And David spake to the men that stood by him, saying, What shall be done to the man that killeth this Philistine, and taketh away the reproach from Israel? for who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?
1Sa 17:26
1Sa 17:34 And David said unto Saul, Thy servant kept his father’s sheep, and there came a lion, and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock:
1Sa 17:35 1Sa 17:34-35
1Sa 17:36 Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear: and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God.
1Sa 17:36
1Sa 16:13, “Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brethren: and the Spirit of the LORD came upon David from that day forward. So Samuel rose up, and went to Ramah.”
1Sa 17:37 David said moreover, The LORD that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said unto David, Go, and the LORD be with thee.
1Sa 17:37
1Sa 17:38 And Saul armed David with his armour, and he put an helmet of brass upon his head; also he armed him with a coat of mail.
1Sa 17:39 1Sa 17:38-39
Psa 18:1, “To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, the servant of the LORD, who spake unto the LORD the words of this song in the day that the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul: And he said, I will love thee, O LORD, my strength. The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower. I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies.”
Rom 13:14, “But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.”
Gal 3:27, “For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”
1Sa 17:40 And he took his staff in his hand, and chose him five smooth stones out of the brook, and put them in a shepherd’s bag which he had, even in a scrip; and his sling was in his hand: and he drew near to the Philistine.
1Sa 17:40
1Sa 17:40 “and chose him five smooth stones out of the brook” Comments – David understood that the smoothness of stones improved their accuracy when placed in a slingshot.
1Sa 17:43 And the Philistine said unto David, Am I a dog, that thou comest to me with staves? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.
1Sa 17:43
Eph 6:12, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”
Illustration:
Mar 8:32-33, “And he spake that saying openly. And Peter took him, and began to rebuke him. But when he had turned about and looked on his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying, Get thee behind me, Satan: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men.”
1Sa 17:45 Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied.
1Sa 17:46 1Sa 17:45-46
1Sa 17:47 And all this assembly shall know that the LORD saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the LORD’S, and he will give you into our hands.
1Sa 17:47
2Ch 20:15, “And he said, Hearken ye, all Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and thou king Jehoshaphat, Thus saith the LORD unto you, Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God’s .”
1Sa 17:50 So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and smote the Philistine, and slew him; but there was no sword in the hand of David.
1Sa 17:50
Our point of faith must be grounded in God’s word and as we act on our point of faith, victory comes. Illustration: Note the various ways people received healing from Jesus Christ, blessed be His wonderful name.
David believed he had to do something to win the victory, and he did it.
1Sa 17:50 Comments – Man has prepared weapons for battle, but God determines the victory (Pro 21:31). Note:
Pro 21:31, “The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the LORD.”
YLT, “A horse is prepared for a day of battle, And the deliverance is of Jehovah!”
1Sa 17:58 And Saul said to him, Whose son art thou, thou young man? And David answered, I am the son of thy servant Jesse the Bethlehemite.
1Sa 17:58
1Sa 17:25, “And the men of Israel said, Have ye seen this man that is come up? surely to defy Israel is he come up: and it shall be, that the man who killeth him, the king will enrich him with great riches, and will give him his daughter, and make his father’s house free in Israel.”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Goliath’s Defiance of Israel
v. 1. Now, the Philistines, v. 2. And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together and pitched by the Valley of Elah, v. 3. And the Philistines stood on a mountain on the one side, v. 4. And there went out a champion out of the camp of the philistines, v. 5. And he had an helmet of brass upon his head, and he was armed, v. 6. And he had greaves of brass upon his legs, v. 7. And the staff of his spear was like a weaver’s beam; and his spear’s head weighed six hundred shekels of iron v. 8. And he stood and cried unto the armies of Israel, v. 9. If he be able to fight with me and to kill me, then will we be your servants; but if I prevail against him and kill him, then shall ye be our servants and serve us. v. 10. And the Philistine said, I defy the armies of Israel this day, v. 11. When Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistine, they were dismayed,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
David Plays for Saul
v. 14. But the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, v. 15. And Saul’s servants said unto him, Behold now, an evil spirit from God, v. 16. Let our lord now command thy servants which are before thee to seek out a man who is a cunning player on an harp, v. 17. And Saul said unto his servants, Provide me now a man that can play well, and bring him to me, v. 18. Then answered one of the servants and said, Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse, the Bethlehemite, that is cunning in playing, v. 19. Wherefore Saul sent messengers unto Jesse and said, Send me David, thy son, which is with the sheep, v. 20. And Jesse took an ass laden with bread, and a bottle, v. 21. And David came to Saul and stood before him, v. 22. And Saul sent to Jesse, saying, Let David, I pray thee, stand before me, v. 23. And it came to pass, when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
ADVANCE OF DAVID IN REPUTATION BY THE SLAUGHTER OF GOLIATH (1Sa 17:1-58.).
EXPOSITION
GOLIATH‘S DEFIANCE OF ISRAEL (1Sa 17:1-11).
1Sa 17:1
The Philistines gathered together their armies. As the object of the historian is not to give us an account of the Philistine wars, but only to record the manner of David’s ripening for the kingly office, nothing is said as to the space of time which had elapsed between Saul’s victory at Michmash and the present invasion. We are, however, briefly told that “there was sore war against the Philistines all the days of Saul” (1Sa 14:52), and apparently this inroad took place very many years after Saul’s establishment upon the throne. The Philistine camp was at Ephes-dammim, called Pas-dammim in 1Ch 11:13. The best explanation of the word gives as its meaning the boundary of blood, so called from the continual fighting which took place there upon the borders. Shochoh, spelt more correctly Socoh in Jos 15:35, was one of fourteen villages enumerated there as lying in the Shephelah, described by Conder (‘Tent Work,’ 2:156) as a region of “low hills of limestone, frowning a distinct district between the plain and the watershed mountains.” In this district Socoh lay northeast of Eleutheropolis (Beth-jibrin), midway between it and Beth-shemesh, from each of which places it was distant about eight or nine miles. It is now called Shuweikeh. For Azekah see Jos 10:10.
1Sa 17:2, 1Sa 17:3
The valley of Elah. I.e. of the terebinth tree. A valley between them. Conder (‘Tent Work,’ 2:160) describes the spot from personal observation thus: “Saul, coming down by the highway from the land of Benjamin, encamped by the valley on one of the low hills; and between the two hosts was the gai or ravine.” In the A.V. no exactness of rendering is ever attempted, and both the emek, the broad strath or valley of Elah, with gently sloping sides, and the flag, the narrow, precipitous ravine, are equally rendered valley. Really the gai is most remarkable, and fully explains how the two hosts could remain in face of one another so long without fighting; for Conder proceeds, “Two points require to be made clear as to the episode of David’s battle with Goliath: one was the meaning of the expression gai or ravine; the other was the source whence David took the ‘smooth stones.’ A visit to the spot explains both. In the middle of the broad, open valley we found a deep trench with vertical sides, impassable except at certain placesa valley in a valley, and a natural barrier between the two hosts. The sides and bed of this trench are strewn with rounded and waterworn pebbles, which would have been well fitted for David’s sling. Here, then, we may picture to ourselves the two hosts, covering the low, rocky hills opposite to each other, and half hidden among the lentisk bushes. Between them was the rich expanse of ripening barley, and the red banks of the torrent, with its white, shingly bed. Behind all were the distant blue hill walls of Judah, whence Saul had just come down. The mail clad champion advanced from the west through the low corn, with his mighty lance perhaps tufted with feathers, his brazen helmet shining in the sun. From the east a ruddy boy in his white shirt and sandals, armed with a goat’s hair sling, came down to the brook, and, according to the poetic fancy of the Rabbis, the pebbles were given voices, and cried, ‘By us shalt thou overcome the giant.’ The champion fell from an unseen cause, and the wild Philistines fled to the mouth of the valley, where Gath stood towering on its white chalk cliff, a frontier fortress, the key to the high road leading to the corn lands of Judah and to the vineyards of Hebron.”
1Sa 17:4-7
A champion. Literally, “a man of the two middles,” i.e. one who enters the space between the two armies in order to decide the contest by a single combat. Of Gath. In Jos 11:21 this town is mentioned, together with Gaza and Ashdod, as still having among its inhabitants men of the race of Anak. Whose height was six cubits and a span. In our measure his height was eight feet five and one-third inches; for the cubit is sixteen inches, and the span (really the hand-breadth) is five and one-third inches. A span, sit, is eight inches, but the word used here is zereth. See on these measures, Conder, ‘Handbook,’ p. 79. This height, though very great, has been attained to in modern times. Armed with a coat of mail. Literally, “clothed in a shirt of scales,” i.e. a corselet made of metal scales sewn on cloth so as to overlap one another. It was flexible, and protected the back and sides as well as the kent. Five thousand shekels of brass. Really copper, as brass was then unknown. Conder gives the shekel as equal to two-thirds of an ounce. This would make the corselet weigh at least two hundred weight, an enormous load to carry even for a short time. Goliath’s other equipments correspond in heaviness, and largely exceed the weight of medieval suits of armour. Greaves of brass upon his legs. The thighs were protected by the corselet, so that only the legs required defensive armour. This would account for the weight of the corselet, as it was much longer than the cuirass, as worn by the Greeks and Romans. A target. Really, “a javelin.” It was carried at the back, ready to be taken in the hand and thrown at the enemy when required. The versions have a different readingmagan, shield, for chidon, javelin. The shield was carried before him by an armour bearer. The staff. The written text has a word which usually signifies shaft, arrow, for which the Kri substitutes wood, the noun actually found in 2Sa 21:19; 1Ch 20:5; but most probably the word used here is an archaic name for the handle or staff of a spear. Six hundred shekels. The weight of the iron head of the spear would be about twenty-five pounds. However tall and strong Goliath may have been, yet with all this vast weight of metal his movements must have been slow and unready. He was got up, in bet, more to tell upon the imagination than for real fighting, and though, like a castle, he might have been invincible if attacked with sword and spear, he was much too encumbered with defensive armour to be capable of assuming the offensive against a light armed enemy. To David belongs the credit of seeing that the Philistine champion was a huge imposition.
1Sa 17:8-11
He stood and cried unto the armies. Literally, “the ranks,” the word being the noun formed from the verb translated set in array, just below. The same word is used throughout (see 1Sa 17:10, 1Sa 17:20, 1Sa 17:21, 1Sa 17:22, 1Sa 17:26, 1Sa 17:45). Am not I a Philistine? Hebrew, “the Philistine,” the champion on their side. I defy the armies. Hebrew, “I have cast scorn or insult upon the ranks of Israel this day.” The sense is not so much that he defied them as that they were dishonoured by not accepting his challenge. They were dismayed. That is, terrified, and made uncertain what to do (comp. Jer 1:1-19 :36). We have seen from Mr. Condor’s account that each army held an impregnable position on the two sides of the ravine, which neither could cross without the certainty of being defeated in the attempt by the other side. Under such circumstances there seemed no way of deciding the contest except by a single combat. But though Saul and his warriors were too terrified at Goliath’s appearance to venture to meet him, still they held their ground for forty days, inasmuch as it was evidently impossible for him to cross the ravine clad in such cumbrous armour, nor did the Philistines venture to make the attempt, us the Israelites would have taken them at a manifest disadvantage.
DAVID‘S VISIT TO THE CAMP (1Sa 17:12-31). The Vatican codex of the Septuagint omits the whole of this section, and it was inserted in the Alexandrian copy by Origen. It is found, however, in the other versions; and possibly this treatment of David’s history as of a person unknown, just after the account given of him in 1Sa 16:1-23; did not seem so strange to readers in old time as it does to us, with whom reading is so much more easy an accomplishment. It is, nevertheless, one of the many indications that the Books of Samuel, though compiled from contemporaneous documents, were not arranged in their present form till long afterwards. It was only gradually that Samuel’s schools dispersed throughout the country men trained in reading and writing, and trained up scholars capable of keeping the annals of each king’s reign. The Books of Kings were, as we know, compiled from these annals; but probably at each prophetic school there would be stored up copies of Psalms written for their religious services, ballads such as those in the Book of Jashar, and in the Book of the Wars of Jehovah, narratives of stirring events like this before us, and histories both of their own chiefs, such as was Samuel, and afterwards Elijah and Elisha, and also of the kings. There is nothing remarkable, therefore, at finding information repeated; and having had in the previous narrative an account of a passing introduction of David to Saul as a musician, which led to little at the time, though subsequently David stood high in Saul’s favour because of his skill upon the harp, we here have David’s introduction to Saul as a warrior.
1Sa 17:12-14
Jesse went among men for an old man in the days of Saul. This translation is taken from the Vulgate; but the Hebrew is, “And the man in the days of Saul was old, gone among men.” Some explain this as meaning “placed,” i.e. “reckoned among men of rank;” but probably an aleph has dropped out in the word rendered men, and we should read “gone,” i.e. “advanced in years.” Old is used in a very indefinite way in the Books of Samuel; but as Jesse had eight sons, of whom the youngest was now grown up, he must have been nearly sixty. Went and followed. Hebrew, “And there went the three elder sons of Jesse went after Saul to the war.” Some grammarians consider that this repetition of the verb is intended to give it the force of a pluperfect,they had gone,but it is more probably an error, and one of the two verbs should be omitted.
1Sa 17:15
David went and returned from Saul. This is a very important statement, as it shows that the writer, in spite of what is said in 1Sa 17:55-58, knew that David had visited Saul at his court, and become personally known to him. Apparently it had been but a short visit, possibly because after the fit of melancholy had passed away there was no return of it for the present; and if David had been back at Bethlehem for two or three years, a young man changes so much in appearance at David’s time of life that it is no wonder that neither Saul nor Abner recognised him in his shepherd’s dress. For some reason, then, or other David had not remained with Saul at Gibeah, but had resumed his pastoral life at Bethlehem, and the statements made in 1Sa 16:21-23 belong to the time immediately after the combat with Goliath, and not before.
1Sa 17:16-19
The Philistine …. presented himself. I.e. took his stand (see on 1Sa 10:23; 1Sa 12:7, 1Sa 12:16). This verse takes up the narrative, disturbed by the inserted explanation about David’s family relations. The extraordinary formation of the ground, as described in 1Sa 17:3, shows how it was possible for this challenge to go on for forty days without either army advancing or retiring. During this long time it seems to have been the business of the friends at home to supply the combatants with food, and so Jesse sends David with an ephah, about three pecks, of parched cornas the word is spelt in the Hebrew it means “parched pease.” Also ten loaves, and, for the captain of their thousand, ten cheesesrather, “ten slices of fresh curd.” David was also to take their pledge. Apparently neither Eliab nor his brethren could write, and therefore they would send back to their father some token previously agreed upon to show that they were in good health, and had received the supplies sent them. Now Saul, etc. This is a part of Jesse’s speech, telling David where he would find his brethren. For were, the right translation is, “They are in the terebinth valley, fighting with the Philistines.”
HOMILETICS.
1Sa 17:1-11
Aggression not defence.
The facts are
1. The armies of Israel and Philistia are drawn up in array, with a valley between them.
2. A gigantic champion, heavily armed and proud of his strength, challenges any one of Saul’s army to a personal encounter, and with lofty words defies the armies of Israel.
3. Saul and his men are in great fear. The episode given by the sacred writer is one of those occurrences likely to arise under the conditions of ancient warfare. It must be viewed by us as one of the events which Providence overruled for the gradual introduction of David to the notice of Israel. But in this section we may confine attention to truths not immediately affecting him.
I. We have here AN EXHIBITION OF THE WAR SPIRIT. This giant was under the influence of a mere love of fighting. It was not a question of rightness or wrongness, but of slaying or being slain. The modicum of patriotism was overlaid by the lust of contention. This passion dwells more or less in all men. Its mildest form is a contentious spirita quarrelsome temper, a desire to try our strength against others. It has found wide and pernicious scope in the history of nations. There is a tendency to foster this unhallowed spirit even in civilised, so called Christian countries. The profession of soldier, the pomp of military parade, the zest with which battles are described, the haze of glory thrown around the unutterable horrors of war, and rivalry among men for distinction in actionall show that the war spirit is fostered. Is it not true that a mere desire to find actual occupation in fighting determines the first choice of multitudes in entering on warlike enterprises? The evils of this spirit are patent. In itself it is a debasement of our nature. The God of peace and love is our Father, and we are to be his children in the spirit that governs us. The execution of law and right is a totally different thing. The woes it has brought on the world, in deaths, widows, orphans, poverty, desolations, debts, suspicions, and engendered vices, can never be told. It is the duty of every Christian to strive to crush it out, by careful training of the young, by discouragement of popular passions, by enforcement of the teaching and Spirit of Christ, and by earnest prayer that the Church may be firm in protest against it.
II. We have also AN EXHIBITION OF PRIDE IN HUMAN STRENGTH. This giant thought himself mighty, and he boasted in his strength. Boastfulness in any form is disgraceful. Man is not in a position to magnify himself on any possession, for it is as a shadow, and may quickly vanish. Pride in mere physical strength is the lowest form of boasting, save that in actual vice. A quick, bright, intelligent mind is of more account than height of stature and strength of limb. Yet self-satisfaction in intellectual qualities and powers is evidence of a moral weakness which renders man inferior in the higher realms of life. We have need to learn that man at his best estate is vanity; that it is not by might nor by power that the highest achievements are wrought in the spiritual sphere.
III. We have also A REVERSION OF THE NATURAL ORDER OF THINGS. The natural order is that which follows from the normal constitution and relations of things. By appointment Israel were the possessors of the land. The promise had read thus: Be true and obedient, and ye shall possess the land in peace, and be exalted above all nations (Deu 28:1-13). Had the conditions been faithfully observed, God long ere the days of David would have subdued their enemies (Psa 81:13-16). Or, had new enemies trespassed on their borders, Israel would have assailed in confidence, and not be assailed in great fear. Aggression on the foes of God and man is the work of God’s people; there is a reversion of the natural order when they are barely able to hold their own, and tremble at the aggressive onslaughts of the foe. The attitude and work of the Church in relation to the manifold forms of evil in the world is not inaptly indicated in Israel’s original relation to the abominable nations that once held and begirt the promised landnamely, aggression till the earth is subdued to Christ. If there are defiant systems assailing the Church of God and making inroads upon her, it is because she has been unfaithful in her aggressive work. If we do not make aggression on the domain of sin, the forces of evil will gain power and make positive aggression on the domain of religion. Vices of all kinds, and infidelity in brazen forms, flourish and become more than defensive in action when Christians lose faith in their mission and sink to the level of other men. Not even the vilest of men nor the hardiest unbeliever will venture to assail a pure and very devoted spiritual life.
General lessons:
1. The Christian Church should consider how much of the prevalence of the war spirit is due to her imperfect treatment of the natural tendency to it.
2. Those who despise the low type of life which glories in mere brute force should remember that, from the higher spiritual sphere, glorying in any mere human possession may be regarded in the same light.
3. The earnest cultivation of spiritual life will be proved by the aggression which, as individuals, we make on our besetting sins, and, as communities, on the sins of the world.
1Sa 17:12-19
Cooperation in spiritual warfare.
The facts are
1. Three of Jesse’s sons are with the army opposing the Philistines.
2. David, being relieved from attendance on Saul, keeps the flock at Bethlehem.
3. Jesse sends David to the camp with provisions, and instructs him to look after the welfare of his brethren. It is possible that Jesse may have surmised that some considerable developments would soon arise out of Samuel’s recent visit to Bethlehem and the wonderful interest taken in young David. At all events, it was providential that he sent him from caring for sheep to care for his brethren on the battlefield. Leaving out of view the moral condition of Israel and its consequences, as dwelt on in the last section, we may regard the army of Saul as being engaged in the service of the living God (1Sa 17:26, 1Sa 17:36), virtually against the foes of the kingdom of the Messiah. David’s visit to the army with provisions and messages relating to the welfare of his soldier brothers, therefore, brings out the relation that should subsist between those engaged in open conflict in the service of God and such as are not called to serve in that form.
I. The EXIGENCIES OF THE CHURCH REQUIRE SOME TO BE SPECIALLY ENGAGED IN OPEN CONFLICT WITH SIN. The circumstances of Israel necessitated just then that some of God’s people should devote themselves to the campaign as soldiers. Combination under the guidance of skill would effect what isolated private effort could not touch. In the Christian economy every true follower of Christ is a soldier, following the lead of the Captain of our salvation. Nevertheless, the circumstances in which Christians find themselves demand that some should be more emphatically fighting men, to undertake, in combination with others, arduous work which can never be done by Christians in a private and isolated capacity. Hence we have men, separated from various occupations, consecrating all their time and energies not merely in defence of the gospel, but in making war upon the manifold evils which obstruct the triumph of Christ. These sustain a relation to others, whose time is otherwise employed on purely personal pursuits, similar to that of the army at Elah to the Jesses and Davids engaged in domestic and rural occupations.
II. The CONFLICT THUS OPENLY MAINTAINED INVOLVES THE INTERESTS AND CLAIMS THE SUPPORT OF ALL. Obviously every one in Israel was concerned in the issue of the conflict with the Philistines. All that free people hold precious was at stake. If it was in the power of noncombatants to render aid, clearly it ought to be forthcoming. In a higher and wider sense is it true that the business of Christ’s soldiers at home and abroad is the business of the entire body of believers, irrespective of age, position, or ability. The Church is one body, and the sufferings or pleasures of one member are of moment to all the members. The feeling which suggests that certain efforts to save men are no concern but to those engaged in them is unintelligent and unchristian. The call to hold forth the word of truth is to the one body of the faithful. Our sympathy with Christ’s mission is real only as we identify our hopes, and aspirations, and endeavours with those of all who have the “same mind.” Consequently, every consideration of humanity, of brotherly regard, of love for Christ, and joy in his advancing conquests, should stimulate aid to those on the high places of the field.
III. THERE ARE AVAILABLE MEANS BY WHICH EVERY ONE MAY RENDER SUBSTANTIAL AID IN THIS WARFARE. Jesse’s forethought and David’s readiness contributed to the strength and encouragement of the absent warriors. Likewise every one in Israel could aid in the conflict by contributions of food and clothing, and by cherished sympathy and prayer. In modern nations every member of the community renders assistance in war, by payment of taxes, combination of counsel, deep and variously expressed sympathy, and that quota from each one which makes up the sum of support to be found in public opinion. The means by which the scattered members of Christ’s Church can fulfil their duty to their brethren devoted entirely to the campaign against sin are varied and effective.
1. By loyally bearing the common cause on the heart. This may become a habit if we will but make an intelligent study of what is due from us. Its value to the distant and near soldiers of the cross is clear to the spiritual eye. Moral natures are knit together by subtle bonds.
2. By special acts and seasons of prayer. Emphasis given to our general sympathy by special pleading with God on behalf of his faithful servants is the all-powerful means of taking our share in the one great conflict. Even the greatest of apostles felt that he would do his work better if friends would but respond to his appeal, “Brethren, pray for us.” This is an aid which may be rendered by young and old, hale and weak, the rich and poor. Only eternity will reveal how much, among the many concurring causes that issue at last in the full triumph of Christ, is due to the prayers even of the helpless invalids, and poor, unheard of saints that dwell in cottage homes.
3. Moral and material support. We may seize opportunities for assuring our brethren, whose hearts are often faint and weary, that we do carry their cares and sorrows, and do regard their work as ours. We rob devoted men of strength when we are chary of letting them know our deep interest in them. The material support is also within the reach of most. To devote a portion of our means to Christ’s cause is a great privilege. Had the Church devoted half on Christian enterprise that has been devoted to questionable self-indulgences, the joys of men and angels would ere this have been doubled.
General lessons:
1. We should encourage by example and personal influence in young people an intelligent interest in all Christian work because it is Christian.
2. Where true love exists, ingenuity will devise means of cheering those engaged in arduous service.
3. The spiritual unity of the Church may thus be largely realised, notwithstanding diversity of organisations.
HOMILIES BY B. DALE
1Sa 17:1-11. (THE VALLEY OF ELAH.)
Israel smitten with fear.
“They were dismayed, and greatly afraid” (1Sa 17:11).
1. The renewed attempt of the Philistines to subjugate Israel shows, in comparison with their former invasion, a decrease of power. They did not penetrate into the heart of the land (1Sa 13:5), but advanced only a short distance from their own border, and “pitched between Shochoh and Azekah, in Ephes-dammim,” a dozen miles southwest of Bethlehem. They had been driven back and held in check.
2. It could hardly have been possible, but for the rashness of Saul in “the war of Michmash,” by which the opportunity of inflicting a fatal blow was lost. Hearing, perhaps, of his condition, and perceiving signs of the laxity of his rule, they sought to repair their defeat.
3. It found the people of Israel, notwithstanding their previous success, ill-prepared to repel the aggression. Although they went to meet the enemy, and encamped opposite to them, they did nothing more. In the spirit of a better time they would have immediately fallen upon them in reliance upon “the Lord of hosts” (Deu 32:30); but now they were paralysed with fear, especially at the appearance of the gigantic champion who came out against them. The Philistines desired to make the issue depend on a single combat between this man and any Israelitish warrior who might be appointed to meet him; and he “drew near morning and evening, and presented himself forty days” (1Sa 17:16). A similar fear has sometimes pervaded the Christian community in the presence of the enemy.
I. IT IS INSPIRED BY FORMIDABLE OPPONENTS.
1. Their number is great. They consist not merely of one or two, ‘but of a host of giants.
(1) Within: carnal affections, corrupt tendencies, proud thoughts, evil imaginations, and wrathful passions.
(2) Without: ignorance, error, unbelief, superstition, intemperance, licentiousness, worldliness, and “all ungodliness.”
(3) In the background of all “the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience” (Eph 2:2).
2. Their appearance is imposing. They seem to be possessed of extraordinary might, and arrayed in terrible armour, and are of great renown. “Am I not that Philistine” (1Sa 17:8), who has exhibited such prowess and slain so many foes? “He arose, and came, and drew nigh, like a stalking mountain, overlaid with brass and iron” (M. Henry).
3. Their attitude is proud, boastful, defiant, contemptuous, and increasingly confident of victory as day after day the challenge is renewed, and no one dares to answer it. “The first challenge to a duel that we ever find came out of the mouth of an uncircumcised Philistine” (Hall). How often has the contemplation of such adversaries filled even good men with dismay! While we measure our natural strength against the forces of evil our case is hopeless. “Who is sufficient for these things?”
II. IT RESULTS PROM PREVIOUS UNFAITHFULNESS.
1. Distrust of God and alienation from him. Faith prevents fear. It looks to God, judges of the power of the enemy in the light of his omnipotence, unites to him, and inspires with unbounded courage (1Sa 14:6; 1Sa 14:47); but unbelief is blind and weak and fearful (Mat 8:26). And dismay in great emergencies reveals the absence or feebleness of faith in the preceding and ordinary course of life.
2. Outward acts of disobedience to the Divine will diminishing moral power, and producing inward distraction and dread.
3. Sympathy with a faithless leader, and participation in the “spirit of fear” (2Ti 1:7) which he possesses. Saul had forsaken the Lord. He had not the presence of Samuel with him; nor, apparently, that of the high priest; nor did he seek the Divine counsel as aforetime. He ruled independently of Jehovah; and the people loved too much “to have it so,” sharing in his faithlessness and fear. A faithless and fearful leader cannot have faithful and fearless followers.
III. IT INCURS DESERVED REPROACH (1Sa 17:8, 1Sa 17:26)uttered by the enemy, and echoed in the conscience of the people, on account of
1. The cowardice of their conduct.
2. The inconsistency of their position, as professed servants of the living God: unfaithful to their calling, trembling before the votaries of “gods that were no gods” (1Sa 17:44), and bringing dishonour upon the name of Jehovah. “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you” (Rom 2:24; Pro 25:26).
3. The likelihood of their defeat, of which it is a virtual acknowledgment, and to which it must infallibly conduct, unless a better spirit be infused into them. “How is it that ye have not faith?” (Mar 4:40).
Learn that
1. The spirit of fear can be expelled only by the spirit of faith.
2. Fearfulness in conflict, difficulty, and danger indicates a lack of faith, and should constrain to renewed trust in God.
3. In their greatest extremity God does not abandon his people to despair, but provides for them “a way of escape.”D.
1Sa 17:17, 1Sa 17:18. (BETHLEHEM.)
Parental solicitude.
Family life occupies a prominent place in the Books of Samuel, and the affectionate concern of parents for their children is often mentioned (see 1Sa 2:24; 1Sa 10:2). Jesse, who, in consequence of his advanced age (1Sa 17:12), was himself unable to go against the Philistines, had his three elder sons in the army of Israel; and after they had been absent for some weeks, sent their youngest brother with provisions for their need, to make inquiries about their welfare, and “take their token,” by which he might be assured thereof. Such solicitude as he displayed is
I. NATURAL.
1. Arising out of the instinctive affection which is felt by parents.
2. Continuing throughout the whole of life.
3. Commended by the heavenly Father, who puts it into the heart; and often illustrated, directed, and regulated by the teachings of his word (Gen 18:19; Gen 22:2; 2Sa 18:33; Eph 6:4; 1Ti 5:8).
II. CONSIDERATE.
1. Of the distance of children from home, and of their deprivation of parental oversight, counsel, and restraint.
2. Of their need: temporal, spiritual, and eternal.
3. Of their peril: from their own tendencies, their intimate associations, and their open enemies.
III. PRACTICAL. Expressed
1. In sending them presents of that which is best adapted to their wants.
2. By the hand of a brother (Gen 37:14; Gen 43:11).
3. With the request of a token of affectionate regard for the gratification of a heart that desires and seeks their happiness.
IV. ILLUSTRATIVE of “the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man” (Tit 2:4). The relation of an earthly father to his children is a shadow of that of the heavenly Father to men; it was doubtless appointed from the first to be such, and the loving care which arises out of it is, in comparison with that of the “Father of spirits,” only as a ray of light compared with the sun. This also is
1. Natural and spontaneous, for “God is love.”
2. Considerate (Psa 103:13, Psa 103:14). “In thee the fatherless findeth mercy (Hos 14:3).
3. Practical. “I have loved you, saith the Lord,” etc. (Mal 1:2; Mat 7:11; Joh 3:16).
Exhortation:
1. To parents. Let your kindness to your children be such as accords with that of your heavenly Father to you, and as affords a true image of it.
2. To children. Show kindness to your parents in return for their kindness to you (1Sa 22:3), as your heavenly Father requires.
3. To all. “If I be a father, where is mine honour?” (Mal 1:6).D.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
SECOND SECTION
Sauls New War with the Philistines and Davids Exploit with its Diverse Consequences for Him and for his Relation to Saul
1Sa 17:1 to 1Sa 19:7
I. The two Camps and Goliaths arrogant Challenge
1Sa 17:1-11
1Now [And] the Philistines gathered together their armies to battle, and were gathered together at Shochoh [Socoh], which belongeth to Judah, and pitched 2between Shochoh [Socoh] and Azekah, in Ephes-dammim.1 And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together, and pitched by [in] the valley of Elah 3[of the Terebinth], and set the battle in array against the Philistines. And the Philistines stood on a [the] mountain on the one side, and Israel stood on a [the] mountain on the other side, and there was a valley [the ravine 4was] between them. And there went out a champion2 out of [from] the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and 5a span. And he had an helmet of brass [copper] upon his head, and he was armed with [clothed in] a coat of mail [corselet of scales]; and the weight of the coat 6[corselet] was five thousand shekels of brass [copper]. And he had greaves3 of brass [copper] upon his legs, and a target [javelin] of brass [copper] between his 7shoulders. And the staff of his spear was like a weavers beam, and his spears head4 weighed six hundred shekels of iron; and one bearing a shield [the shield-bearer] 8went before him. And he stood and cried unto the armies [ranks]5 of Israel, and said unto them, Why are ye come out to set your battle in array? am I not a [the] Philistine, and ye servants6 to Saul? choose you a man for you, and 9let him come down to me.7 If he be able to fight with me, and to [om. to] kill me, then will we be your servants; but [and] if I prevail against him and kill him, 10then shall ye be our servants and serve us. And the Philistine said, I defy the armies [ranks] of Israel this day; give me a man that we may fight together. 11When [And] Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, [ins. and] they were dismayed and greatly afraid.
II. David and Goliath. 1Sa 17:12-54
12Now [And] David was the son of that [this] Ephrathite of Bethlehem-Judah, whose name was Jesse; and he had eight sons; and the man went among men for an old man in the days of Saul [the man in the days of Saul was old, advanced in 13years].8 And the three eldest sons of Jesse went and followed [had followed]9 Saul to the battle; and the names of his three sons that went to the battle were 14Eliab, the first-born, and next unto him Abinadab, and the third Shammah. And 15David was the youngest; and the three eldest followed Saul. But [And] David 16went and returned from10 Saul to feed his fathers sheep at Bethlehem. And the 17Philistine drew near morning and evening, and presented himself forty days. And Jesse said unto David his son, Take now for thy brethren an ephah of this parched corn, and these ten loaves, and run [carry them quickly] to the camp to thy brethren; 18And carry these ten cheeses [pieces of cheese11] unto the captain of their thousand, and look how thy brethren fare, and take their pledge [and bring a 19token12 from them]. Now [And] Saul and they and all the men of Israel were13 20in the valley of Elah [of the Terebinth], fighting with the Philistines. And David rose up early in the morning, and left the sheep with a keeper, and took, and went, as Jesse had commanded him, and he [om. he] came to the trench [wagon-rampart] as [and] the host was going forth14 to the fight and [ins. they] shouted for the battle. 21For [And] Israel and the Philistines had [om. had] put the battle in array 22army against army [line against line]. And David left15 his carriage [baggage] in the hand of the keeper of the carriage [baggage], and ran into the army [ranks], 23and came and saluted [asked after the welfare of] his brethren. And as he talked with them, behold, there came up the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name [Goliath the Philistine by name, of Gath16], out of the armies [from the ranks17] of the Philistines, and spake according to the same words; and David 24heard them. And all the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him, 25and were sore afraid. And the men of Israel said, Have ye seen this man that is come up? surely [for] to defy Israel is he come up; and it shall be that the man who killeth him, the king will enrich18 him with great riches, and will give him 26his daughter, and make his fathers house free in Israel. And David spake to the men that stood by him, saying, What shall be done to the man that killeth this Philistine, and taketh away the reproach from Israel? for who is this uncircumcised 27Philistine, that he should defy the armies [ranks] of the living God? And the people answered him after this manner, saying, So shall it be done to the man 28that killeth him. And Eliab, his eldest brother, heard when he spake unto the men, and Eliabs anger was kindled against David, and he said, Why camest thou down hither? and with whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know thy pride and the naughtiness of thine heart; for thou art come down that 29thou mightest see the battle (for to see the battle art thou come down). And David said, What have I now done? Is there not a cause [Was it not a word 30merely19]? And he turned from him toward another, and spake after the same 31manner; and the people answered him again after the former manner. And when [om. when] the words were heard which David spake, [ins. and] they rehearsed them before Saul; and he sent for him.
32And David said to Saul, Let no mans heart fail because of him; thy servant 33will go and fight with this Philistine. And Saul said to David, Thou art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him, for thou art but a youth, and he a 34man of war from his youth. And David said unto Saul, Thy servant kept his fathers sheep, and there came a [the] lion and a [the] bear,20 and took a lamb21 35out of the flock; And I went after him and smote him and delivered it out of his mouth; and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard,22 and smote him 36and slew him. Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them,23 seeing he hath defied the armies [ranks] 37of the living God. David said moreover [And David said], The Lord [Jehovah] that delivered me out of the paw [hand]24 of the lion and out of the paw [hand] of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of the Philistine. And Saul said unto 38David, Go, and the Lord [Jehovah] be25 with thee. And Saul armed David with his armor [clothed David with his military dress], and he [om. he] put an helmet26 of brass [copper] upon his head, also he [and] armed [clothed] him with a coat of 39mail [corselet of scales]. And David girded his sword upon his armor [dress] and he [om. he] assayed27 to go, for he had not proved it. And David said unto Saul, 40I cannot go with [in] these, for I have not proved them. And David put them off him. And he took his staff in his hand, and chose him five smooth stones out of the brook, and put them in [into] a [the] shepherds bag28 which he had, even [namely] in [into] a [the] scrip;28 and his sling was in his hand, and he drew near to the Philistine.
41And29 the Philistine came on and drew near [the Philistine drew nearer and 42nearer] unto David, and the man that bare the shield went before him. And when [om. when] the Philistine looked about [om. about] and saw David, [ins. and] he disdained him, for he was but [om. but] a youth and ruddy and of a fair countenance.30 43And the Philistine said unto David, Am I a dog, that thou comest to 44me with staves? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. And the Philistine said to David, Come to me, and I will give thy flesh unto [to] the fowls of 45the air and to the beasts of the field.31 Then said David [And David said] to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a [om. a] sword and with a [om. a] spear and with a [om. a] shield [javelin], but I come to thee in the name of the Lord [Jehovah] of hosts, the God of the armies [ranks] of Israel, whom thou hast defied. 46This day will the Lord [Jehovah] deliver thee into my hand, and I will smite thee and take thine head from thee, and I will give the carcasses32 of the host [army] of the Philistines this day unto [to] the fowls of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that [and] all the earth may [shall] know that there is a God in Israel 47[Israel hath a God]. And all this assembly shall know that the Lord [Jehovah] saveth not with sword and spear; for the battle is the Lords [Jehovahs], and he 48will give you into our hands. And33 it came to pass, when the Philistine arose and came [went] and drew nigh to meet David, that David hasted and ran toward the 49army [line] to meet the Philistine. And David put his hand in [into] his bag, and took thence a stone, and slang it, and smote the Philistine in his forehead, and 50the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell upon his face to the earth. So [And]34 David prevailed over the Philistine with a [om. a] sling and with a [om. a] stone, and smote the Philistine and slew him, but [and] there was no sword in the hand 51of David. Therefore [And] David ran and stood upon the Philistine, and took his sword, and drew it out of the sheath thereof, and slew him and cut off his head therewith. And when [om. when] the Philistines saw their champion was dead, 52[ins. and] they fled. And the men of Israel and of Judah arose and shouted, and pursued the Philistines until thou come to the valley [ravine35] and to the gate of Ekron. And the wounded of the Philistines fell down by the way to Shaaraim, 53even [and] to [as far as] Gath and to [as far as] Ekron. And the children of Israel returned from chasing after the Philistines, and they spoiled their tents 54[camps]. And David took the head of the Philistine, and brought it to Jerusalem, but [and] he put his armour [trappings] in [into] his tent.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1Sa 17:1-11. The camps of the Philistines and the Israelites confronting one another. Goliaths appearance on the scene and his arrogant challenge. The power of the Philistines was not broken; they rose with renewed strength against Israel, and made another attempt to reduce them to subjection. The Philistine army assembled at Socoh, now Shuweikeh. This is, however, not the Socoh (also called Shuweikeh) three German [fourteen English] miles southwest of Hebron on the spurs of the mountains of Judah (Jos 15:48), but the Socoh west of these mountains in the plain of Judah, about four German [nineteen English] miles southwest of Jerusalem, and about three German [fourteen Eng.] miles southwest of Bethlehem (Jos 15:35) in Wady Sumt (Acacia-valley), which Robinson, II., 604 [Am. ed., II., 20, 21] regards as the same with Terebinth-valley (1Sa 17:2), while, according to Thenius, the latter is probably to be looked for in a branch of that Wady, in Wady Sr, which runs up towards Beit-Nusib. Azekah, whither (Jos 10:10) Joshua pursued the five kings who were besieging Gibeon, from Gibeon, that is, to the southwest. Its position is in general determined by that of Ephes-dammim, the present ruins of Damum, about one Germ. [four and three-fourths Eng.] mile northeast of Shuweikeh. The rendezvous of the army was Socoh, the camp was at Ephesdammim. On the nature of the ground, according to Robinson, see Ritter, XVI. 114 sq.36
1Sa 17:2. The Israelitish army assembled and encamped in the Terebinth-valley. As the Israelites must have moved from the north-east, the Terebinth-valley must be placed north-east of the Philistine position, and regarded as a plain in Wady Sur or Massur.
1Sa 17:3. The position of the opposing armies towards the mountain, on the declivity of the mountain (this is not in conflict with the Israelitish position in the Terebinth-vale, if we suppose lowlands descending from the heights), the two separated by the still deeper bed of a brook, is vividly described.
1Sa 17:4. Goliath comes forwarddescription of his person. He is called the man of the midst, middleman [champion] because he advances between the two armies (1Sa 17:8-9) to decide the matter by single combat. (Maurer: , interval between two things, here between two armies ( , Eur. Phn. 5:1285, on which the Schol. says: the space between armies where single combats took place), whence , one who decides a contest by single combat between two army-lines. Sept. Al., (1Sa 17:23), error for ). See examples of similar single combats among the Oriental nations in Sthelins Leben Davids, Bas. 1866, p. 4.37 Neither of the armies dares to attack. Saul and Israel feared the Philistines, instead of bravely attacking the hereditary enemy of the Theocracy in reliance on the help of the Lord. The explanation is found in Sauls false attitude towards the Lord. The king reckons only with human factors, believing that he has forfeited all claim to help from above. What wonder that his position seems to him in general doubtful, and he thinks it prudentunbelief makes us cowardsto act merely on the defensive. (F. W. Krummacher.) The plu. out of the camps of the Philistines does not justify us in accepting the arbitrary rendering of the Sept., out of the ranks; it refers to the various camp-divisions out of which Goliath came (comp. Ew. 178 d).Gath, one of the five Philistine capital-cities, has now disappeared without trace. When Joshua destroyed the giant race of the Enakim (Jos 11:21 sq.) in this region, there remained some of them only in Gaza, Gath, and Ashdod (1Sa 17:22). Goliaths height is given exactly: six cubits and a span. The change in the Sept. of the six to four is due to the desire to give plausibility to what seemed incredible. According to Thenius (die althebr. Lngen und Hohlmasse in den Theol. Stud. und Krit., 1846, p. 117 sq.) Goliaths height was 9 feet 1 inch (Parisian).38 See in Then, and Keil (Comms. on this verse) examples of like tallness in ancient and modem times. The skeletons of Pusio and Secundilla, mentioned by Pliny (N. H. 7, 16) were a Paris inch longer [10 ft. 3 in. Roman measure.] [Keil mentions a giant who came to Berlin in the year 1857, who was as tall as Goliath; and Chang, the Chinese giant, lately in England, was 7 feet 8 inches high (Bib. Com). On the giants of the Bible see the dictionaries of Winer (Riesen), Herzog (id.), Smith, and Fairbairn.Tr.].
1Sa 17:5-7. Goliaths arms are in keeping with his bodily size: 1) copper-helmet; 2) scale-corselet; (, according to Num 11:9 sq.; Deu 14:9 sq.; Eze 29:4 = scale), a harness or corselet made of overlapping metallic plates (, Aq. clad with scales), not of chain-rings. Such scale-corselets were common in ancient oriental wars. See Layard, Nineveh and its Remains, II. 4, and Bochart, Phal. III. 13. [Also Kitto, Saul and David, p. 211 sq., and Philippson in loco.] The weight of the corselet, or coat-of-mail, was 5000 shekels; the shekel was not a full German loth [half-ounce]; Then.: about 139 Dresden pounds. The corselet probably descended far down the body, as we see in the pictures of Assyrian warriors in Layards Nineveh. 3) copper-greaves on the legs. (Read plu. greaves, as in all ancient VSS.) These greaves did not cover the thighs (Bunsen), which in oriental fashion were protected by the corselet. 4) a copper-lance between his shoulders. The Heb. lance (), is to be retained in spite of the reading shield () in Sept., Vulg., Syr., Arab. The text is confirmed by 1Sa 17:45, where the shield would be out of place, with two offensive arms (Then.).39 As the ancients carried even their swords on their shoulders (Il. 2, 45; Bochart, Hieroz. 1,2, 8), there is nothing strange in his carrying the javelin between the shoulders. 5) a spear, whose shaft (read for , comp. 2Sa 21:19; 1Ch 20:5) was like a weavers beam, and whose head weighed 600 shekels of iron, somewhat over 16 Dresden pounds, quite in keeping with the other statements (Then.). 1Sa 17:8-11. Goliaths contemptuous and fear-inspiring challenge. 1Sa 17:8. He stood and cried to the ranks of Israel: Why are ye in battle array? behold, I represent the whole Philistine people, and ye are servants of Saul. Send one of you to fight with me, and let him come down to me; Goliath was standing, namely, in the valley, beneath the Israelites who were encamped on the hill-side.
1Sa 17:9. The proposed agreement to decide the question of subjection by the single combat, which, in Goliaths opinion, would undoubtedly result in favor of the Philistines. Clericus here cites the combat between the Horatii and the Curiatii, and the agreement (Liv. I. 23) between the Romans and Albans that the nation, whose citizens conquered in the combat, should rule the other in peace.
1Sa 17:10. Goliaths scorn and contempt of Israel lay not merely in the reproach that they were Sauls slaves and in the tone of his words, but also in the challenge itself, because it was not answered.40
1Sa 17:11. Fear and trembling take possession of Israel with Saul at the head. F. W. Krummacher: Israel is afraid, because its king is. They dare not in childlike spirit appropriate the promises of Jehovah. The wings that should bear them up in trustful upsoaring to the Lord of Hosts are crippled.
1Sa 17:12-31. David in the camphis preparation for the combat with Goliath.
1Sa 17:12. The full account of the person and family of David tells what we already know from chap. 16., and yet reads as if nothing had been said of his origin. This suggests that the Redactor of the Book here appends and works in a narrative concerning David, which began with the family history, and then related the combat with Goliath and its occasion. This view is supported by the that or this (), which is evidently added in order to connect the words with 16:1. Vulg. properly: the above-mentioned Ephrathite. The last words of 1Sa 17:12 relating to Jesse, the Ephrathite (that is, of Ephrath, the old name of Bethlehem, Gen 48:7, see Rth 1:1-2), are difficult. The rendering, with retention of the text, was come among the weak (D. Kimchi, S. Schmid, Keil) [Eng. A. V. went among men] is opposed to the ordinary meaning of the Heb. () = people, men. Bunsens explanation: belonged to the men of standing is, by his own judgment, possible only by an arbitrary insertion, and is otherwise meaningless. [Comp. the Targum: belonged to the , the vigorous young men.Tr.] Hitzig (see in Thenius) renders: he was an old man among men, which arbitrarily omits , went. It seems best, with Grotius, Thenius, after Sept., Vulg., Syr., Arab., to substitute in years () instead of the text, and render he was advanced in years. This phrase indeed is not found elsewhere, but we have the similar phrase advanced in days (Gen 24:1; Jos 13:1) = aged. This statement of Jesses age gives the reason why he does not himself go into the field, but only his three oldest sons. In the pluperfect went had gone (Ew. 346 c, A. 3the verb standing in sequence is then explained as plup. by means of its own perf.) we have a trace of the effort of the Redactor to work the new narrative, to which the simple went belonged, into the whole history. The pluperfect was necessary here, because the account of Davids family carries us into a time anterior to the already related appearance of Goliath.41 While we have here eight sons of Jesse (and so 1Sa 16:10 sq.), only seven are named in 1Ch 2:13-15, David being there the seventh. Clericus rightly supposes that there the name of one of Davids brothers is by error omitted. The name of the third, here and 1Sa 16:6-9 written Shammah, is Shimeah in 1Ch 2:13 [Eng. A. V.: Shimmi perhaps after Vulg.Tr.] and 20:7, Shimei in 2Sa 21:21 [so Kethib, but Qeri is Shimeah; Erdmann writes , putting the vowels of the Qeri under the Kethib, comp. 1Ki 1:8.Tr.] and Shimeah in 2Sa 13:3; 2Sa 13:32.
1Sa 17:14. The words: and the three eldest followed Saul are a repetition of the statement in 1Sa 17:13, and show the pains the Redactor took to introduce his new material clearly and connectedly.
1Sa 17:15. Here the narrator takes up the and David of 1Sa 17:12, after having explained that the three oldest brothers had followed Saul to the war. David was going and returning from Saul to feed his fathers sheep in Bethlehem; that is, he did not remain constantly at the court of Saul, but went back and forth, to court, and then home to attend to his pastoral duties. This he could do, since Saul was not always in the gloomy state which required Davids harp. Inasmuch as it appears from what follows that this going and returning from Saul was not from the theatre of war (for then he would already have given account of his brothers, and also his appearance there surprises them), it must have fallen in the time before Saul went to the war. According to this David was not constantly at the court of Saul, and from time to time exchanged the harp for the shepherds staff. Although, according to 16:21, he is Sauls armor-bearer, he is yet not with him in the field; he is even (1Sa 17:33) a boy ignorant of war, and (1Sa 17:28) an unauthorized spectator of the battle. This has been regarded as in conflict with 1 Samuel 16., and therefore the section 1Sa 17:12-31 has been declared to be a later interpolation (Mich., Eichh., Dath., Berth., after the Vat. Sept., which omits it), or by another author than that of 1 Samuel 16, and in conflict with the latter (De Wette, Then., Ew., Bleek, Winer, Sthelin). But it is unnecessary to suppose a contradiction here. If Joab, the General, had ten armor-bearers (2Sa 18:15; comp. 2Sa 23:37), King Saul would certainly have more than one, as to which note that in 16:21 it is not said that David became the armor-bearer of Saul [properly: he became an armor-bearer to him.Tr.]. As totally unpracticed in war (so 1 Samuel 16. supposes him to be), David, notwithstanding his enrolment among the court-esquires (armor-bearers), could not be needed by Saul in war, and he needed not to he taken along for his music, because in the midst of military affairs Sauls mind was concentrated on one point, held by one thought. Finally, the words of 16:21, 22, do not exclude the supposition that David went to and fro to his father; they rather open a way for it, since his service with Saul had respect to a definite end, which no longer existed when Sauls condition of mind was for a long time better. And so this statement in 1Sa 17:15 may be very well harmonized with that of 16:2123; they do not exclude each other. The sentence [1Sa 17:15] is to be taken, in connection with the second half of 1Sa 17:14, in a pluperfect sense, and as an addition of the Redactors, the aim of which is to furnish the connection between 16:21, 22, and the following narrative of Davids visit from Jesse to the army, which is from another source than 1 Samuel 16.[Paraphrase of 1Sa 17:12-17 : Let us leave the army for the present in order to introduce another personage. David was the son of a Bethlehemite named Jesse (already mentioned in 1 Samuel 16.), who, an old man, did not himself go to the war, but had sent his three oldest sons. The youngest, David, had been at Sauls Court, but had been going to and fro to his fathers house. It was while the Philistine champion above-mentioned was daily offering his challenge (for he repeated it forty days) that Jesse determined to send David to his brethren.Tr.].
1Sa 17:16 connects itself in content with 1Sa 17:8, and prepares the way for the progress of the narrative, in order to show how Davids conduct on the field of battle over against the bearing of the Philistine was motived by the insolence of the latter. Thenius: If 1Sa 17:12-31 were interpolated, this explanatory insertion could not be accounted for at all.
1Sa 17:17. Parched peas (, , Lev 23:14; 2Sa 17:28) [or parched grain.Tr.].According to Thenius the Ephah = 3 Dresden pecks. And carry them quickly to thy brethren, that is, the parched grain and the bread.[Bib. Comm.: All the circumstances necessary for the understanding of the narrative having been explained, it now proceeds more smoothly.Tr.]
1Sa 17:18. Cheeses, that is, pieces of cheese or curds (literally, milk, so the ancient VSS.). The word cannot mean milk-portion, that is, one milking of a cow (Mich., Schulz), since, as Then, properly remarks, David could not have carried ten such portions with the rest of his load. This gift David is to carry to the captain over a thousand, the chiliarch, under whose command his brothers were. A sketch from military folk-life, such as we often even now see. And inquire of their welfare (), comp. 2Sa 11:7; Gen 37:14; 2Ki 10:3.And take their token, that is, take a token from them, that we may see and know that they are well, and that thou hast been with them (Berl. Bib.). The old expositors have here made unnecessary difficulty. The pledge was a token, which, though David had seen them, would be of special value to the fathers heart as an immediate sign from their own hands of their being alive and well (in place of a letter).
1Sa 17:19 is not an explanatory remark of the Narrator or Redactor, but a part of Jesses speech to David, who is thus instructed where to find his brothers; we must therefore render in present time: And Saul are in the terebinth-vale.[This construction is favored by the phrase: and they, which seems more appropriate in Jesses mouth. Yet the rendering of Eng. A. V. is allowable.Tr.]
1Sa 17:20 relates the arrival of David on the field of battle, and thus introduces us into military life, 42 means properly wagon-track; it is doubtful how it is to be rendered here and in 26:5, 7. The Complut. Sept. translates by , rounding, in accordance with the meaning of , to be round, and the usual form of ancient camps (Winer, R.-W. I. 681). This points not to a wagon-rampart, but to the round circumvallation. Vulg. wrongly: ad locum Magala.[The Syr. has camp, the Chald. fortification, the Arab. army or camp. Erdmann renders camp-wall, Philippson wagon-rampart, Bib.-Com. wagons, i.e. wagon-rampart, Calvin, the place of wagons. This last seems to be the literal meaning of the word (so margin of Eng. A. V.), and best suits the circumstances of 1Sa 26:5; 1Sa 26:7; the wagons were made into a fortification or rampart. The renderings of Syr. and Arab, are general, of the nature of paraphrases.Tr.] The host is not connected with the preceding verb (and came to the host), but begins an independent sentence, in which the original construction and the host which is interrupted by the phrase and they shouted, the subject of which is supplied from host.43And they shouted in the battle, that is, raised the war-cry. We need not change the Heb. prep. in to to; it is a pregnant construction: they shouted as men do in battle [or better they shouted (and advanced) into the battle.Tr.]
1Sa 17:21 gives the position of the opposing armies.
1Sa 17:22. His baggage, the present that he had to deliver [and anything else that he might have with him.Tr.]He came and asked after his brothers, in order to learn of their well-being. Clericus: for he knew that the tribe of Judah was in the front, Num 2:3; Num 10:14.44
1Sa 17:23. Goliaths advance, already described in 1Sa 17:4, and here repeated, first directs Davids attention to him, and incites him to the resolution to fight the champion. [Eng. A. V. came up] is not came on (De Wette), but ascended, that is, he came over the valley so near to the Israelites, that he advanced some distance up the height on which they were encamped, in order to throw more contempt into his challenge.(The Kethib, , can be rendered neither caterva hominum (Gesen.), nor loca plana (), nor spelunc (); these meanings give no good sense. It is better to take the Qeri with Sept. and Vulg. [Chald.] ranks, or, still better with Then. [Syr.] the Sing. the line.)Surprising is the description of Goliath: Goliiath the Philistine his name, instead of Goliath his name, the Philistine of Gath, as the Vulg. [so Eng. A. V.] translates. We need not, however, transpose the Heb. text (Then.), since in the popular language Goliath the Philistine may have become a proper name. We see here too that the author is drawing from a narrative whose description of Goliath (which the author retains, though he had already, 1Sa 17:4, described him) contained this popular designation of the grant.
1Sa 17:24. Even the sight of Goliath fills the Israelites with fear and trembling.
1Sa 17:2-5.45The [Eng. A. V. surely] after have ye seen? gives the ground of the exhortation therein contained to get ready with anger at Goliaths insolent bearing towards Israel; it corresponds to Germ. ja, Eng. surely. Comp. Mic 6:3; Job 31:18; Ges. 155, 1, e (d).And the man who shall kill him, him will the king enrich, etc. This indicates that Saul had already issued a proclamation, urging the combat with the giant. As generals and princes were accustomed to encourage to such deeds of arms by offering large prizes (Jos 15:16; Jdg 1:12; 2Sa 18:11; 1Ch 11:6), so, according to the talk which passed among the people, Saul had promised the highest possible reward to the conqueror of Goliath: great riches, his daughter to wife, and freedom from taxation. This last is the meaning of , not, as Ewald holds, elevation to the rank of free lord, or baron, as the middle rank between king and subjects.[The word is synonymous with our free; see its use in Exo 21:2; Deu 15:12; Job 3:19; Job 39:5; Psa 88:5 (6), of slaves set free, of a dead man free from the cares of life, of the wild ass at liberty. Here probably of freedom from taxes.Tr.].46As in 1Sa 17:27 the people give the same answer to Davids question (1Sa 17:26), which supposes this offering of rewards to be a usual thing, we must conclude that Saul actually made these promises (though nothing is afterwards said of their fulfilment), especially as the same thing is repeated in 1Sa 17:27. From Sauls tendency to rash and exaggerated action, and from his changeableness, we can easily understand both the promise and his unwillingness to perform it.
1Sa 17:26. The ground and justification of Davids question concerning the reward of slaying the Philistine is furnished by the high significance of the deed as expressed in the words: and take away the reproach from Israel; this significance lends the deed such value that Saul, in Davids opinion, must assign it a high prize.For who is this Philistine, etc.These words do not, in the first instance express Davids desire to fight the Philistine (Keil), but they contain the ground of the preceding thought, that the insult offered Israel by the Philistine must be wiped out. This ground lies in the contrast (already indicated in the preceding words the Philistine Israel) between the stand-point of the Philistine as an uncircumcised who has no community with the living God, and stands outside of Gods covenant with Israel, and the stand-point of this covenant-people, which is expressed in the words: ranks of the living God. How should this insult of the unclean Philistine cleave to the people of Israel, who are consecrated to the living God, whose battle-line, therefore, is also devoted to him? The living God is emphasized over against the dead idols of the Philistines. Since the Philistine has reviled the people of God, the covenant-people of the Lord, he has directed his scorn and derision against the living God Himself; and he who does the deed that takes away this reproach from Israel, will have God on his side, and do the deed with Gods help. In these words David is seized with holy anger, whose fire flames up from his theocratic sense of honor, to which violence is done by the Philistines challenge. His words already indicate his calling, which he has received from the Lord, to rouse the people of Israel, by awakening a new and vigorous theocratic spirit, out of the lethargy into which they had fallen in respect to their hereditary foe under the steadily sinking Saul (a lethargy illustrated in the repeated and unanswered challenge of Goliath), to the height of a true theocratic life.[Bib. Com.: The expression the living God occurs first Deu 5:26, then Jos 3:10; 2Ki 19:4; twice in the Ps. (42:2; 84:2), four times in the Prophets, and frequently in the New Testament. It is generally in contrast to false gods (1Th 1:9, etc.).Besides Isa 37:4; Isa 37:17; Jer 10:10; Jer 23:36; Hos 1:10 (2:1); comp. similar expressions in Psa 18:46; Jer 44:26, and the asseveration of Jehovah as I live and the significance of the divine name I am that I am.Tr.]
1Sa 17:28. Over against David appears his oldest brother Eliab as the representative of a totally different disposition. His words show not merely complete lack of brotherly love for David, but bitterness and hatred towards him. In contrast with Davids holy anger, his unholy anger is kindled at Davids talk with the soldiers. Perhaps envy and ambition lay at the bottom of this. His two questions: 1) Why hast thou come down?the down refers to the relatively elevated position of Bethlehemand 2) With whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness? 1) express the thought: Thou hast nothing to do here, belongest not here, indicating a haughty, quick-judging nature, and 2) reproach David with neglect of duty as keeper of his fathers flocks. While all Davids thought and feeling is on the great national disgrace and its removal, and his mind is concerned with plans for saving the honor of Israel and Israels God, Eliab in his low and blind zeal thinks only of the flock of sheep and the possible loss to them from lack of oversight; the type of a narrow soul, incapable of great thoughts and deeds. But from the reproach of inconsiderate neglect of duty, he passes to a two-fold serious accusation: I know thy arrogance and the naughtiness of thy heart, for to see the battle art thou come down.His zeal blinded by envy and jealousy, he ascribes Davids visit to the worst motives: 1) pride, in that he wishes to rise above his shepherd-life and play a part in the war, and 2) badness of heart, according to the connection wickedness, brutality, in that he wishes to enjoy himself and please his eyes in the battle. In Eliabs words we see the disposition which he falsely and with hate-blinded zeal ascribes to his brother.As he forms in word and bearing the sharpest contrast to David, so Davids conduct towards him (1Sa 17:29) is in sharpest contrast to him. His answer is quiet, passionless, but a decided and explicit disavowal of the wrong angrily charged on him.What have I now done? that is, nothing that I have done gives ground for the reproaches and accusations which you have addressed to me. Opposed to the done () is the following word ().Was it not a word merely?This is not: Was it not a command? namely, of my father, to come hither, must I not obey (Luther, Gesen.)? for this would be unintelligible to Eliab from its brevity. David would have expressed himself more definitely, if he had meant his fathers command. The reply refers to the word (1Sa 17:26) which David had spoken, as appears from what follows; and so the ancient VSS. The sense is: Is not this word permitted me? Can I not seek information by such a word?
1Sa 17:30. David turned from Eliab to another with the same question, and received the same answer. The meaning of (word) here and 1Sa 17:31 in reference to 1Sa 17:26 confirms the view of its meaning in 1Sa 17:29.
1Sa 17:31. In the presence of Saul, not to Saul, markedly expressive of respectful announcement (Then.). Davids zeal exhibited to the people for the honor of the Lord and of Israel was the cause of his again appearing before Saul, and the preparation for the deed of heroism by which he was to save the honor of Israel and its God against the scorn of the Philistine.
1Sa 17:32-40. Davids conversation with Saul on his resolution, and his preparation for the combat with Goliath.
1Sa 17:32. Let no mans heart fail because of him.To read (Then, after the Sept.) my lord (), instead of man () destroys the general character of the affirmation, which is here so appropriate; for, according to 1Sa 17:24, the fear of the Philistine was universal in Israel.Heart, here=courage; comp. Germ. beherztheit [literally heartedness; so Eng. courage, from French cur, heart.Tr.].The Pron. him is better referred to the Philistine; Then. refers it to Saul [let not my lords heart fail him], and Vulg. renders in eo, in him. David first expresses the general thought, no mans courage must fail on his account, and then individualizes it in the words I will exhibit such a manly courage.In this exhortation to courageousness David expresses his own stout courage over against the universally feared Philistine, and the want of courage in Israel. As proof of his courage he announces his determination to undertake immediately the combat with this Philistine.
1Sa 17:33. Against this Saul represents that David as a youth cannot venture on a battle with this man, who had been a warrior from his youth. [In 16:18 David is designated by the same term, man of war, which here describes Goliath; but this term would naturally have different meanings as used by the young man in 1 Samuel 16. and by Saul here, and moreover the contrast here rather rather refers to the ages of the two antagonists. David might seem to Sauls retainer a brilliant young warrior, and yet as a stripling seem to Saul unable to cope with this experienced warrior.Tr.]
1Sa 17:34 sq. To this remark of Saul David, in order to show his courage and strength, replies by narrating a victorious combat with a lion and a bear, which he had while keeping his fathers flocks. The Art. [omitted in 1Sa 17:34 in Eng. A. V.Tr.] before lion and bear is better understood as representing Davids immediate view of the animals in his description [the lion which I now in imagination see before me], than as pointing them out as the well-known animals.47 ( before is sign of the Acc., Ew. 277 d. Bttcher: As before the Nominative is always either limiting or emphasizing (Jer 45:4; Jer 38:16 Keth.; Eze 44:3 al.), the form and what the bear was very naturally expresses the sense and even the bear; for the black, ugly bear seemed to the Hebrew still more dreadful than the noble lion, and stands after the latter in a climax (Hos 13:7 sq.; Amo 5:19; Pro 28:15; Sir 47:3). Comp. 2Sa 17:8, where special strength and courage are ascribed to the bear. is clerical error for .) As we cannot suppose that the two animals united in a robbery, David must be regarded as here combining two combats, one with a lion, the other with a bear. The constant use of the singular suffix (1Sa 17:35), which with two subjects is surprising, is not to be explained (Keil) by supposing that David here combines the two exploits, killed the one beast and the other; for not only does the beard not suit the bear, but the impression made on us by the narrator is that he is thinking of one animal, not of two. It is better to understand 1Sa 17:35 of the lion, since he is first named in 1Sa 17:34, and the following statement suits him only. Against this cannot be urged the impropriety of speaking of a lions beard, for the ancients frequently mention it, Hom. Il., 15,275; 17,109; Mart. 10:9. Thus in the words there came the lion and the bear, there is a vivid description of Davids killing the lion, evidently with his shepherds staff. See 2Sa 23:20, where it is related of Benaiah, a captain of Davids, that he killed a lion in a pit. On the fact that lions are killed with sticks by the Arabs see Thevenot, Voyage de Levante, II., 13. Comp. Rosenm., Bibl. Thierreich, p. 132.48 1Sa 17:36. Here David first says expressly that he slew both beasts. He expresses his confident conviction that he will likewise slay the Philistine. The Philistines, this uncircumcised, shall be as one of them. But at the same time he grounds (seeing that) this conviction and certainty of victory on Goliaths wickedness, his defiance of the ranks of the living God, wherein we again see Davids strong and clear consciousness of the theocratic significance of this battle between the Philistines and the Israelites, whose covenant-God is contemned in His people and their army, and who therefore cannot abandon His peoples cause, which is His own.
1Sa 17:37. David again declares the ground of his confidence that he will conquer Goliath, namely, his trust in the mighty help of the Lord, which he founds on his experience of that help in the combat with the lion and the bear. The experience of the Lords help is the foundation of hope for new help.Saul accordingly permits him to go to the fight, and assures him that the Lord will be with him.
1Sa 17:38 sq. His garments () can from this connection mean only garments which pertained to warlike equipment (18:4), over which the sword was girded.
1Sa 17:39. That David puts on Sauls armor shows that he was of about the same stature with him. [Not necessarily, since the armor may have been capable of change of size by tightening.Tr.] David cannot go, he says, in these garments, not because they are too large, but because he is not accustomed to them. He sees that they would only hinder him in the fight, and lays them off.
1Sa 17:40. He exchanges the armor for his shepherds implements, staff and sling. The latter was as necessary to the shepherds as the former, in order to keep off the wild beasts. David must therefore have been well-practiced in its use.See an example of skill with the sling among the Benjaminites, Jdg 20:16. So he advanced against the Philistine.
1Sa 17:41-54. Davids victory over Goliath.
1Sa 17:41. The mutual approach of David and Goliath is here again described in a very lively manner: Goliath drew nearer and nearer to David, in consequence of Davids approach to him (1Sa 17:42). V. 42. As he comes nearer Goliath looks more closely at David and despises him, seeing in him not a warrior, but a pretty youth. This account tallies exactly with 16:12.
1Sa 17:43 sq. The Sept. reads: Am I as a dog, that thou comest against me with staff and stones? and David said, Nay, but worse than a dog. The Plu. staves seemed to them strange, and was therefore changed into the Sing., and this occasioned the additional words. It stands, as Keil observes, in scornful exaggeration of what seemed to the Philistine the wholly unsuitable armor of David. The words: worse than a dog, do not suit Davids character; they would be excessive abuse. The Philistines word: am I a dog? sets forth his feeling of insult at Davids coming against him with a staff, which was ordinarily employed not against men, but against beasts. And the Philistine cursed David by his god. Here is shown the innermost contrast which comes into play in the battle between Israelites and Philistines: the contrast between the living God and His people on the one hand, and the idolatrous, antitheocratic world on the other. Similar are the scornful defiances which warriors of antiquity mutually gave at the beginning of a combat.On 1Sa 17:44 comp. Eze 29:5.
1Sa 17:45 sq. Davids answer to Goliaths reproaches contains in an advancing line of thought the most important elements of his character: 1) he expresses most sharply that contrast between their two stand-points in their religious-moral aspect: Thou comest to me relying on thine own strength and thy powerful armor, but I come to thee in the name of Jehovah Sabaoth, the God of the ranks of Israel, whom thou hast defied. The name of the Lord is for David the totality of all the revelations by which the living God has made Himself known and named among His people. Of these elements, which form the conception of the name of God, he here, suitably to the situation, adduces those which characterize Him in respect to His warlike and ruling power as Captain and Conqueror of His people (Psa 24:10). The words, whom thou hast defied, form the factual ground of Davids second declaration, 1Sa 17:46 : The Lord will, because I come against thee in His name, give thee into mine hand, &c. David expresses his certainty of victory, but at the same time affirms that it will be Gods deed. Triumphal heroic courage before victory, and humble bowing before God as the bestower of victory are here united in David. The rendering of the Sept.: thy corpse and the corpses (of the army, &c.) is no doubt occasioned by the strangeness of the Sing. [Eng. A. V. has Plu. carcasses. See Text. and Gramm.Tr.]. Corpse () is to be taken collectively.3) By the help which God the Lord will grant His people in this victory, all the world will know that Israel has a God, not: that God is for Israel. The sense is: The other nations will learn that God does not suffer Himself to be mocked in His people, but as their covenant-God helpfully and mightily espouses their cause.
1Sa 17:47. 4) Together with the knowledge, which reaches beyond Israel to the heathen nations, that Israel has a protecting and saving God, for Israel themselves (here called all this assembly) the blessing of this not doubtful victory will be, that they shall know that the Lord needs not external mighty means, as sword and spear, for His help; for His is the battle, by His almighty will the issue of the battle is determined in His peoples favor, arms of war do not secure His help, but His power alone secures success, even when not those arms but seemingly feeble means are employed. He gives the enemy into the hand of His people.
1Sa 17:48 sq. Goliaths approach to David at the beginning of the combat is minutely and vividly described; as well as Davids preparation for the battle, and its speedy termination. Davids unbroken courage is made more evident by the remark that he went toward the line to meet the Philistine. The stone flung from the sling reached Goliaths forehead. The addition in the Sept. through the helm, is a superfluous interpretation. If his forehead and face were covered by the front of the helm, the stone might indeed penetrate through the latter. But it may also be supposed that Goliath, confident of victory, advanced against the despised shepherd-lad with uncovered forehead. Comp. W. Vischer, Antike Schleudergeschosse [Ancient Slings], Basel, 1866, p. 5, where he speaks of slingers who could hit the part of the enemys face at which they aimed.
1Sa 17:50 sq. expressly declares the superiority of David over Goliath with sling and stone, in accordance with Davids words, 1Sa 17:47, that victory is not determined by strength of warlike arms. To this refers also the added statement, David had no sword in his hand, which is at the same time the reason for the following statement, namely, the slaying of the giant with his own sword, with which David cut off his head. After the fall of Goliath the terrified Philistines take to flight, without trying a battle. The Israelites raised the battle-cry, and pursued them.
1Sa 17:52. The text reads: up to a ravine. This gives no good sense, since the ravine between the two armies cannot be meant, nor can we suppose such an indefinite locality, the word not having the Article. As Gath and Ekron are afterwards named as the limit of the pursuit, it is natural to suppose that here [ravine] stands by error for [Gath]. is usually understood of a city, Shaarim: on the road as far as Shaarim. Thenius objection, that no such city is mentioned elsewhere, is not tenable, for see Jos 15:36. Thenius renders after the Sept. in the way of the gates, understanding by this the whole space between the outer and inner gate, since city gates were in the form of a building, enclosing a space, and so had two doors (2Sa 18:24); against which is partly the absence of the Art., partly the double , up to, as the sign of direction and progress. According to the usual view the Philistines fled along the road from Shaarim partly towards Gath, partly towards Ekron, and many of them were slain. This direction of the flight resulted from the nature of the country. The Wady Sumt, where the combat took place, passes northward from Socoh, turns after two or three miles westward by the village Sakarieh (, Sept. Jos 15:36, ), emptying into the Wady Simchim; about a mile from this is the village of Ajjur, which is held to be ancient Gath (Rob. II. 6068 (Am. Ed., II., 66, 67); Ritter, XVI., 91), and so the Philistines fled through the valley that Robinson also traversed in his excursion from Jerusalem to Gath.49 Another portion of the Philistines remained in Wady Sumt and fled northward, where the Wady Sumt takes the name Wady Surar, in which lies the present city Akir. Sthelin, Das Leben Davids, p. 7 sq.
1Sa 17:53. From this hot pursuit of the Philistines up to their cities the Israelites turned back to spoil the enemys camp.
1Sa 17:54. David carried Goliaths head to Jerusalem. This is no anachronism, since only the fortress of Jebus on mount Zion was then in the hands of the Jebusites, the city Jerusalem being already in possession of the Israelites (Jos 15:63; Jdg 1:21). But why should not this city be selected as the place of deposit of this trophy, since it was the nearest to the field of battle? Goliaths arms, on the contrary, he put into his dwelling. [usually = tent, as in Eng. A. V.Tr.] is the ancient word for dwelling, as in 4:10; 13:2; 2Sa 18:17; 2Sa 19:8; 2Sa 20:1, and here the old homestead in Bethlehem is meant. It is no contradiction that we afterwards (21:9) find the sword of Goliath in the sanctuary at Nob; for meantime it might have been carried thither to be permanently kept as sign of the victory granted Israel by the Lord over their old hereditary enemy.
HISTORICORAL AND THEOLOGICAL
1. David and Goliath, with the two armies, represent the immediate contrast of the godly and antigodly life, of the Theocracy and the Antitheocracy within the world; on one side the sincere humility, which bows beneath the hand of the living God, will be only His instrument, only seeks His honor, only strives after the ends of His kingdom, and is therefore by God highly exaltedon the other side the pride and arrogance, which boldly lifts itself above everything divine, puts its trust only in earthly human power, pursues Gods kingdom and honor with scorn and contempt, stands up perpetually against Gods people to oppress them, but is at last cast down and judged by the Lord.
[At the end of the Psalter the Sept. has an additional Psalm referring to this combat, as follows: This is the autographic (though supernumerary) Psalm of David, composed when he had the single combat with Goliath. I was little among my brethren, and youngest in the house of my father. I kept my fathers sheep, my hands made an organ, my fingers joined together a psaltery, and who will tell it to my lord? He is the Lord, He heareth. He sent His messenger and took me from the sheep of my father, and anointed me with the oil of His anointing. My brethren were handsome and tall, and the Lord was not well pleased with them. I went forth to meet the Philistine, and he cursed me by his idols; and I drew his sword from his side, and beheaded him, and took away reproach from the children of Israel.
This is certainly not genuine (it is given also in the Syriac, Arabic, and thiopic versions), but it sets forth the religious-theocratic spirit with which David viewed the conflict. We might have expected that David would thus celebrate his victory; but there is no trace in the Heb. of such a Psalm.Tr.]
2. David and Eliab represent within the people of God the contrast between the disposition which looks above to the honor and the ends of the living God, and that which looks to earthly possession and earthly-worldly interests, which is not capable of recognising ideal moral motives in others, but judging by itself, ascribes to them only low and selfish aims. Selfishness, passionately roused by envy and jealousy, hinders a just judgment of the bearing and conduct of brethren, and leads to wicked accusation against them.
3. He alone can perform great things for the kingdom of God in its conflict with the hostile world, who like David 1) resists and overcomes himself, and shows true manly courage in patiently bearing the injustice of misunderstanding and calumniation, and not repaying evil with evil; 2) is filled with the fire of holy anger against ungodliness and sin, and of holy enthusiasm for the cause and honor of the Lord; 3) expects not victory from his own strength and human might, but trusts in the Lord alone.
4. That the world hostile to Gods kingdom can long unpunished visit its scorn on the truth of the eternal and living God, is commonly a result of the inner weakness, disorder, and timidity of the members of the kingdom of God. When, therefore, there arises a man from their midst who with mighty word and deed encounters and conquers the foe, this is a direct interposition of Gods hand in the development of His kingdom, and such a man is His chosen instrument for the casting down of the haughty worldly powers, and for a new gathering together and elevation of His people.
5. Those men of God, who contend for the honor and cause of the Lord and His kingdom on earth, are, in unshakable reliance on Him, sure of their victory precisely because they have not their own honor in view, and do not set their hope on human-earthly might. As their trust in their own strength vanishes, their trust in the Lords help increases, which is not dependent on anything creaturely. A life hidden in God is the source of the most courageous testimony and the greatest prowess, and in the name of God opposes the most inimical powers of this world, joyously certain of the victory of the Lords cause and of the ends of his kingdom.
See further the remarks in the Exegetical Exposition.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
[1Sa 17:10. Scott: Degenerate professors of religion often receive just rebukes from most decided enemies. In human accomplishments the opposers of the truth of God have frequently possessed an undisputed superiority; confiding in this, they have defied, and still do defy, the advocates of spiritual truth to engage with them; and they dream of a total and decided victory.Tr.]
1Sa 17:14 sqq. Schlier: David is acquainted with the Fourth Commandment, and knows that for him Gods way always goes in Gods commandment. No one has blessing and success in life who has not in youth learned obedience.
1Sa 17:16. Lange: Without a divine call one should not go into the peril of conflict.[This remark seems inappropriate here. The Israelites had every call of patriotism and honor, but they did not heed.Tr.]Schlier: They are the best rulers, in great things as in small, who have first themselves learned to hearken and serve. The best training for command is obedience.[Forty days. Two pictures, every morning and evening: the giant and boastful warrior, with huge weapons, stalking forth and defying Jehovah and His peopleand ten miles away the quiet youth, tending his sheep, bearing crook and sling and harp, trusting Jehovah, and all unconscious of his splendid destiny.
1Sa 17:20. Hall: If his fathers command dismiss him, yet will he stay till he have trusted his sheep with a careful keeper. We cannot be faithful shepherds, if our spiritual charge be less dear unto us; if, when necessity calls us from our flocks, we depute not those who are vigilant and conscionable.Tr.]
1Sa 17:22. Schmid: Often is that which to man appears thoughtless and rash, a work of the special Providence of God. So we must not be over-hasty in judging.
1Sa 17:23. Starke: To revile and talk big is the manner of Satan and all his comrades. Psa 73:8. O man, guard against it.To pious souls nothing is more painful than when they are compelled to hear the ungodly revile God. Psa 10:1 sq.[1Sa 17:24. Taylor: Which of us is not sometimes brought almost to a stand-still, when he surveys the ignorance, infidelity, intemperance and licentiousness by which we are surrounded? It seems to us, in moments of depression, as if these evils were stalking forth defiantly before the armies of the living God, and laughing them, Goliath-like, to scorn; and our courage is apt to cool as we contemplate this show of force. But we must not allow these feelings to prevail. The God of David liveth, and He will still give us success.Tr.]
1Sa 17:26. Hall: While base hearts are moved by example, the want of example is encouragement enough for an heroical mind. See 1Sa 17:23.
1Sa 17:28. Osiander: See what envy does: how hateful it makes pious people, and how it is wont to excite bitter hate and aversion among brethren! Pro 14:30.Schmid: Wrath and envy interpret everything in the worse sense, however good it may be in itself.Hall: There is no enemy so ready or so spiteful as the domestical.[Scott: In times of general formality and lukewarmness, every degree of zeal which implies a readiness to go further, or venture more in the cause of God, than others do, will be censured as pride and ambition; and by none more than near relations and negligent superiors: and such censures will seldom be unmingled with unjust insinuations, slanders and attempts to blacken a mans character.Tr.]
1Sa 17:29. Starke: We must not be turned away from the execution of the divine will by bad or by good words, by favor or by disfavor.Hall: He is fitted to be Gods champion, that hath learned to be victor of himself.[Taylor: When we are assailed in our home, or beyond it, with scorn and derision, let us remember that our real conflict in such a case is not with the scorner, but with ourselves. Let our effort be put forth not to silence him, but to control ourselves, and then we shall succeed in obtaining a victory over both.Tr.]
1Sa 17:30 : Schlier: If you wish to show manly spirit, conquer yourself; if you wish to be brave, subdue your wrath, and learn to curb yourself; if you wish to do great deeds, show it in little things, show it in the duties of common life, show it in the things which the world counts for little, but which are highly esteemed in the sight of God.Berl. Bible: David troubles himself little as to whether he is praised or blamed, if only God is glorified through him.[Hall: He whom the regard of others envy can dismay, shall never do ought worthy of envy. Never man undertook any exploit of worth, and received not some discouragement in the way.Tr.]
1Sa 17:32. Cramer: In need and peril one should look not alone, to his weakness and the greatness of the peril, but to God the Almighty (2Ch 20:12; 2Ki 19:14).Calvin: God often works in an extraordinary manner in those who undertake a great and glorious work. We must therefore carefully distinguish the general and ordinary powers of the faithful servants of God from their special and extraordinary gifts. When, therefore, we undertake to do something great and difficult, we should earnestly prove ourselves as to whether our powers suffice for it, and whether we trace in ourselves the movement and impulse of divine power, through which alone there is promised us a happy result.[1Sa 17:33. Hall: Davids greatest conflict is with his friends: the overcoming of their dissensions, that he might fight, was more work than to overcome the enemy in fighting.Tr.]
1Sa 17:34. J. Lange: Temptations, when they are rightly regarded and directed, serve to strengthen our joy of faith (Rom 8:35 sq.).
1Sa 17:36. Cramer: When God has once given us help we must always remember it, and encourage ourselves therewith for the future (2Co 1:8; 2Ti 4:16).Berl. Bible: In this way are the saints accustomed to strengthen and increase their faith through their experience; and so must we also learn to do (2Co 1:10).Calvin: On the manifestations of Gods grace which we have received we should build our hope for the future; for God is always like Himself, and His almightiness constantly the same, and those who call on Him He is always ready to help.Osiander: He who reproaches Gods people, reproaches God Himself.
1Sa 17:37. Starke: God often produces the greatest things by trifling, and to outward appearance contemptible means and instruments.Calvin: David goes not into the conflict clothed with human armor, but persists in the confidence firmly rooted in his soul, that God will without human equipment give him the victory over death. For Gods power and strength needs no human means; it is sufficient unto itself, and need borrow nothing elsewhere.Berl. Bible: He who wishes to assure himself of victory must throw away such weapons, and fight with the pure and simple word of God.[Hall: It is not to be inquired how excellent anything is, but how proper. Those things which are helps to some, may be incumbrances to others. An unmeet good may be as inconvenient as an accustomed evil.
1Sa 17:39-40. Davids weapons were really best suited to his undertaking. With heavy armor he would have been no match at all for the giant; but lightly armed, he could keep at a distance and might destroy him with his missiles. Fight the devil with fire, is a very foolish proverb, for with that weapon he will assuredly beat us. In like manner some imperfectly educated preachers attempt to meet the skepticism of the day by preaching about Science, Philosophy, or Criticism, when they might accomplish greatly more by speaking of those experimental and practical subjects which they know how to handle.Tr.]
1Sa 17:42 sqq. Schmid: He who despises his enemy before he has tried him, acts very unreasonably.Cramer: An undeserved curse does not stick (Mat 5:11).Berl. Bible: The world always despises believers as a worthless, unarmed mass, not at all furnished with carnal power.Simple souls have no other weapons than the cross and tranquillity. Therefore are they despised by haughty men.
1Sa 17:44. Starke: Cursing and big talk are the proper work of godless people. Seldom ever was there a good end of ostentation. Presumption is at once the presage and cause of ruin [from Hall].Schmid: God requites to the godless upon their own head the evil which they threaten and seek to carry out against the pious. Psa 7:17 [16]; 140:10 [9].
1Sa 17:45 sqq.Schmid: Against God no weapons avail, no strength, yea, not the whole world.Starke: There is no better fighting than under the shield of the Almighty (Psa 140:1 sq.)Berl. Bible: The shield that covers me is faith, my sword is the strength of God, in which I have put all my confidence; my spear is the entire freedom from all selfhood, so that I seek no other interest than that of God. In such equipment, namely in entire self-devotion, as I do not trouble myself about the result, I venture all I am and have. [Maurice: In this story everything is said to make us feel the feebleness of the Israelitish champion; everything to remind us that the nation of Israel was the witness for the nothingness of man in himself, for the might of man when he knows that he is nothing, and puts his trust in the living God. And this is the sense which human beings want now as in times of old. To disbelieve this is to fall down and worship brute force, to declare that to be the Lord. How soon we may come through our refinements, our civilization, our mock hero-worship, to that last and most shameful prostration of the human spirit, God only knows.Tr.]
1Sa 17:46. Calvin: Gods action is of such a kind that by His great deeds He draws all to wonder, and constrains even godless, scornful men to bow before His doing, and against their will to confess that it is not mans, but Gods work.
1Sa 17:47. Cramer: Where human help gives out, divine help begins again, that the honor may be Gods (Jdg 7:2).
1Sa 17:1-50. J. Disselhoff: The first sending of the anointed one out of stillness into strife: 1) He does not seek to hurry out of the stillness into the peril of the strife: but he goes with confidence when he is sent; 2) He seeks in the strife not his own interest, but only the honor of his Lord and the welfare of His people; 3) His only weapon is faith in the living God and His cause, and this weapon is his victory.F. W. Krummacher: David and Goliath: 1) Israels need, and 2) The divine deed of deliverance through David.
1Sa 17:1-11. The decisive conflict between the people of God and the world which is hostile to God: 1) The two camps, which stand over against each other (1Sa 17:1-3); 2) The weaponed might in which the enemy comes forth to challenge the host of Israel (48); 3) The decision as to servitude or dominion, with which this conflict is occupied (9); 4) The proving which the people of God have to stand in presence of the challenge to this conflict (10, 11).
1Sa 17:12-31. How the Lord leads His servants, in order to prepare them for the victorious conflict for the honor of His name: 1) Out of retirement into the stirring life of the world, 1Sa 17:12-13, (comp. with 16:1723); 2) Out of the conflict-stirred world into the stillness (1Sa 17:14-15); 3) Out of the stillness into the conflict of the world (1Sa 17:17-31).
1Sa 17:32-41. The brave spirit of a soldier of God over against the might of the enemy: 1) Wherein it shows itself: a) In the strength and encouragement with which it can lift up the dejected hearts of others (1Sa 17:32 a); b) In the bold resolution with which it goes to meet the mighty foe in conflict notwithstanding his apparent superiority (32 b); c) In the endurance of the temptation and assault which are prepared for it by taking counsel with flesh and blood (33); 2) Whereon it grounds itself: a) On the help of the Lord already experienced in victorious conflict (1Sa 17:34-36 a, 37); b) On the prize of the conflict, the honor of the Lord (36 b); c) On the divine equipment assumed instead of carnal weapons, namely, the power of the Lord (3841).
1Sa 17:42-54. Faith contending with the world for the honor of the Lord: 1) Called forth by scoffing at the Lords honor (4244); 2) Ready for conflict in the Lords name (45); 3) Sure of victory in reliance on the Lords help (4648); 4) Crowned with victory through the Lords might (4954).
1Sa 17:42-47. The battle-cry in the kingdom of God: The battle is the Lords. 1) The enemy is the enemy of the Lord and of His kingdom 4244); 2) The armor is the name of the Lord (45); 3) The combatants are the people of the Lord, whom He acknowledges as His possession (46); 4) The victory is the gift of the Lord, unto the honor of His name (4754).
1Sa 17:48-54. The defeats which are prepared for the world by the kingdom of God: 1) Through what sort of combatants? Through such as a) like David heroically lead the van of Gods host and decide the conflict (1Sa 17:48), and b) such as bravely bring up the rear, perseveringly pursuing the already-smitten foe. 2) With what sort of weapons? a) With weapons which they themselves have according to their calling through Gods grace and wield in reliance on Gods help (1Sa 17:49), and b) with weapons which they take from the foe, in order to give him the finishing stroke with his own weapon (50, 51). 3) With what sort of result? a) In respect to the foe: Annihilation of his power on his own ground (52), and b) in respect to the booty, rich gains (53, 54).
[1Sa 17:8-11. A man. 1) Often in civil and religious conflicts one man is wanted to fight the battles of his brethrenthe need of the hour is a man. 2) Often Providence is preparing the man, not far awayperhaps no one would now dream that he is the manhis pursuits would not suggest it, nor the character he has thus far developedhis friends do not know what is in him (16:11; 17:28)the enemy may despise him at his first appearance (43, 44). 3) Yet looking back one can always see that there was no accidentthat he had the suitable combination of native qualitiesand that his pursuits gave the requisite training.
1Sa 17:28-30. David and his brother. 1) The elder brother slow to recognize that his younger brother is a grown man. 2) The unjust judgment and unmerited public rebuke. 3) The young mans self-contained and conciliatory reply. 4) His quiet perseverance in acting out the sacred impulse within (1Sa 17:30, comp. 1Sa 17:26).Tr.]
III. The Immediate Consequences of Davids Exploit in Respect to his Relation to Saul
David at the Royal Court; his Friendship with Jonathan; Sauls Hatred towards Him; Sauls Attempt on his Life
17:5518:30
1. David at the Royal Court
1Sa 17:55-58
55And50 when Saul saw David go [going] forth against the Philistine, he said unto Abner, the captain of his host, Abner [om. Abner], Whose son is this youth? [ins. Abner]. And Abner said, As thy soul liveth, O king, I cannot tell [do not know]. 56, 57And the king said, Inquire thou whose son the stripling is. And as David returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him 58before Saul, with [and] the head of the Philistine [ins. was] in his hand. And Saul said unto him, Whose son art thou, thou [om. thou] young man? And David answered [said], I am [om. I am] the [The] son of thy servant Jesse the Bethlehemite.
Footnotes:
[1][1Sa 17:1. This name is variously spelled in the VSS. Sept., Vat., (omission of s and r for d), Aq. , Syr. Opharsemin (for Opharsemin, a common mode of inversion in Syriac writing of proper names, and r for d), Arab. Pharsamin (after the Syriac), Vulg. finibus Dommim (confines of Dommim, a translation of the first part of the Heb. word). These readings establish the form in the text, which, however, appears in 1Ch 11:13 as Pas-dammim (Sept. , Syr. Pasi demayo [Pasi, or well of the waters], Vulg. Phesodomim, Arab. well of Bethlehem [after Syr.]), probably a shortened form of our word.Tr.]
[2][1Sa 17:4. Chald. (misunderstanding the Heb., but serving to establish the text) a man from between them, Syr. giant. The Vulg. curiously renders spurious, that is, according to explanations suggested in Pooles Synopsis, giant, because giants were looked on as despising the laws of marriage, born of uncertain fathers, hence called sons of the earth. The rendering giant, mighty man,=one distinguished among () men, or a man of sons ().Tr.]
[3][1Sa 17:6. In the Heb. Sing., but according to all the ancient VSS. Plu.Tr.]
[4][1Sa 17:7. Literally flame, from the flashing of the metal, Aq., Th., .Tr.]
[5][1Sa 17:8. It seems better to express in the translation the distinction between army (, , ) and ranks ().Tr.]
[6][1Sa 17:8. Sept. writes badly Hebrews, and omits Art. before Philistine. The phrase the Philistine is conceived from the stand-point of the Jewish narrator (Wellh.).Tr.]
[7][1Sa 17:12. This word () is grammatically impracticable; it no doubt belongs to the original text, being the Redactors reference to the preceding narrative, 1 Samuel 16, and in order to indicate this reference in the translation, the word is rendered this, instead of that. It is retained in Chald., Vulg., Greek (, impossibly), and omitted (on account of the difficulty) in Syr., Arab.On the omission of 1Sa 17:12-31 in the Vat. Sept., see Erdmann in Introd. and Exposition.Tr.]
[8][1Sa 17:12. This corrected reading is adopted (from the Syriac) also by Maurer, Thenius, Wellhausen, and by Erdmann. Bib. Comm. prefers the reading of the Vulg.: old and of a great age among men ( being taken elliptically for ), which, however, is hardly defensible. The inversion of Eng. A. V. is not allowable. The Chald. has (in Jesses honor): the man in the days of Saul was old, counted among the choice young men. So in Talmud, Berakoth 58, 1, the explanation is: he went forth with the army, and went in with the army, and taught in the army (but Philippson renders: he had a retinue). These attempts all do violence to the text, which in its present form yields no good sense, but becomes natural and easy when we substitute or for . See Erdmanns Exposition.Tr.]
[9][1Sa 17:13. This construction is explained by the grammarians as pluperfect; yet its difficultness suggests an insertion of by clerical error, possibly from the following clause. At the same time this whole paragraph is marked by grammatical harshness, due to the connection which the Redactor keeps up with 1 Samuel 16.Tr.
[10][1Sa 17:15. Some MSS. have instead of , and one inserts before Bethlehem.Tr.]
[11][1Sa 17:18. Properly thick curds.Tr.]
[12][1Sa 17:18. Aq. (intercourse), Sym. (pay), Th. , Chald. their welfare, Syr. message.Tr.]
[13][1Sa 17:19. Or, if this be a part of Jesses speech, are; so Erdmann.Tr.]
[14][1Sa 17:20. The Art. is to be omitted before , otherwise , etc., must be the Accus. after , which gives an unnatural sense, and breaks the connection with .Tr.]
[15][1Sa 17:22. The Heb. is more lively: put his baggage from him upon the hand, etc.Tr.]
[16][1Sa 17:23. So the Heb. requires. The champions name was Goliath the Philistine.Tr.]
[17][1Sa 17:23. On the Kethib and Qeri see Erdmann, Exposition.Tr.]
[18][1Sa 17:25. The unusual Hiph. form (omission of chireq) is perhaps from assimilation to the preceding word, the doubled Nun depressing the pretonic syllable. Similar form in 1Sa 14:22.Tr.]
[19][1Sa 17:29. So also Erdmann, Philippson, Bib. Com., and the ancient VSS.Tr.]
[20][1Sa 17:34. On the Art. and see the Exposition. Maurer proposes to render with, equivalent to and. So Kimchi and Junius in 2Ki 6:5.Tr.]
[21][1Sa 17:34. The for is a remarkable instance of a perpetuated clerical error. Norzi and De Rossi state that all MSS. and early Edd. read ; but the Ed. of Athias has retained the erroneous form which is corrected by some other editors (as Walton).Tr.]
[22][1Sa 17:35. Sept. throat; other VSS. as Heb.Tr.]
[23][1Sa 17:36. Sept. here inserts: shall I not go and smite him, and take away to-day the reproach from Israel? so nearly the Vulg.an insertion from 1Sa 17:26.Tr.]
[24][1Sa 17:37. Th. mouth. The word hand should be retained, in the sense of power.Tr.]
[25][1Sa 17:37. The unapocop. Impf. sometimes occurs in optative sense, as in 1Sa 3:17, .Tr.]
[26][1Sa 17:38. Instead of some MSS. and edd. have .Tr.]
[27][1Sa 17:39. Sept. , labored in going, went with difficulty, as if they read , which is not a bad sense. Sym. gives , limped, and so other (anonymous) Grk. VSS. , which may represent the text-word or . The Vulg. renders began (and so Erdmann), and Syr., Arab., Chald., did not wish. The Heb. word () more commonly means to be content, willing, but in some cases expresses determination, resolution, making up ones mind to a thing. Thus in Deu 1:5 Moses determines, takes in hand, to explain the law, and in Jos 17:12 the Canaanites resolved and carried out their resolution to dwell in the land. Here David resolves, undertakes to walk in armor, because he had not tried it; if he had tried it before, he would not have made such a resolution. Thus in the Heb. stem lies the conception of resolving with the added idea frequently that the attempt is made to carry out the resolution, so that the Eng. undertake, assay, begin, succeed in (when the undertaking is carried out), fail (when the undertaking is not carried out), may in different connections properly render it. So a similar determination is often found in the Heb. and Chald. , which with the neg. means resolve not to do a thing.We may then maintain the Heb. text against the Sept., and we see that the Chald. and Syr. have introduced into their translation the expression of the failure which is expressed in the context, and may be involved in the Heb. .Tr.]
[28][1Sa 17:40. Fixture is not a good word; but some general term is needed for Heb. , like Germ. gerth or zeug. The double name here is suspicious; the second is omitted by Vulg., and translated by Sept.; but both are given in Chald. and Syr. One may be a gloss.Instead of smooth stones, L. de Dieu renders parts of stones, i.e. sharp pieces, and refers to Isa 57:6.Tr.]
[29][1Sa 17:41. This verse is omitted in Sept., but is in keeping with the liveliness of the whole description.Tr.]
[30][1Sa 17:42. Sept. and a few MSS. read eyes.Tr.]
[31][1Sa 17:44. Some VSS. and MSS. have earth.Tr.]
[32][1Sa 17:46. In the Heb. the word is Sing.; comp. Amo 8:3 for collective force. To this Wellhausen objects that the collective sense is inadmissible before , and therefore prefers the Sept. reading thy corpse and the corpses of the camp; yet may here easily=mass of corpses, as Chald. putrid flesh.Tr.]
[33][1Sa 17:48. The simpler form of this verse in the Sept.: and the Philistine arose, and went to meet David, seems not so much in accordance with the tone of the narrative as the more elaborate expression of the Heb.Tr.]
[34][1Sa 17:50. This recapitulatory verse (quite in the Heb. manner) is omitted in Sept.Tr.]
[35][1Sa 17:52. Erdmann and others take the Sept. reading Gath (), instead of ravine (), a not improbable correction; yet the VSS. sustain the Heb. reading, which, moreover, as the more difficult, would easily be changed into the obvious Gath. It is better to retain Shaaraim as a proper name, as a more natural geographical description of the direction of the rout; the rendering: in the gate-way, moreover, as a climax, ought to follow, not precede, the words: and to Gath and to Ekron.Tr.]
[36][See Arts. Socoh, Azekah, Ephesdammim, in Smiths Bib.-Dict.Tr.]
[37][Examples from classic history in Chandlers David.Tr.]
[38][According to other computations the cubit was eighteen inches, and the span nine inches, Goliaths height, therefore, nine feet nine inches. The copper-shekel is by some estimated at a little over an ounce.Smiths Bib.-Dict., Weights and Measures.Tr.]
[39][It is not necessary to suppose that the VSS. had a different reading from the Heb.; they were misled by the position of the kidon (lance) between the shoulders. See Bochart, Hieroz. II., 135140.Tr.]
[40][The Chald. adds in 1Sa 17:8 : I am that Goliath the Philistine, of Gath, that slew the two sons of Eli, the priests Hophni and Phinehas, and carried captive the ark of the covenant of Jehovah, and brought it to the house of Dagon, my Error, and the Philistines have not honored me by making me captain over a thousand. what great thing has Saul done that you should make him king? This Targum (of the fourth century) has not a few such fanciful expressions of the simple and graphic Heb. text.Tr.]
[41][On this construction see Text. and Grammat.Tr.]
[42] [Eng. A. V.: trench] the is to be taken with Thenius as local (comp. 10:10, ), and not as feminine ending. [So Gesenius and Buxtorf, but Winer and Frst as the masoretic pointing.Tr.]
[43][On this construction see Text. and Grammat. The better translation is: and he came to the rampart, and the host was going forth to the fight, and they shouted. etc.Tr.]
[44][This is a rash conclusion of Clericus.Tr.]
[45]The in with the unusual Dagh. dirimens (as in 10:24)comp. Ew. 23 (b) with 71.
[46][This throws incidental light on the development of the political organization in Israel, since we have here apparently a regular system of taxes.Tr.]
[47][On the varieties of lion and bear found in Palestine anciently and now, see the Arts. in Smiths Bib.-Dict.Tr.]
[48][See Bochart, Hieroz. III., cap. IV., who renders the lion or the bear, and so refers the exploit to either, which seems better. Beard may be used in a general way for chin. See Text. and Grammat.Tr.]
[49][Robinson declines to fix Gath; Mr. J. L. Porter (in Smiths Bib.-Dict.) places it on the Tel-es-Safieh.Tr.]
[50][1Sa 17:55. The passage 17:5518:5 is omitted by Vat. Sept., but by no other ancient version. Whether it was wanting in the Heb. MSS. used by the Alexandrian translators, or omitted by them to avoid an apparent contradiction, it is almost impossible with our present lights to decide. We do not know what MSS. they had. Erdmann and others regard the passage not as an interpolation, but as an account taken from an authority different from that of 16:1423, and irreconcilable with it. For a proposed reconciliation see Erdmanns Introduction and Note and Remark of Translator in the Exposition following.Tr.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
The Chapter we are now about entering upon, relates to us the insolence of the Philistines towards Israel, and the challenge made by their champion Goliath of Gath, daring any man in Israel’s army to single combat. The consequence of which, we are told, was, that Saul and all his army were dismayed. David coming from his father, on a message to his brethren into the camp of Israel, hears the challenge of Goliath, and accepts it. Going forth, not armed with the common weapons of slaughter, but in the confidence of God, he prevails over the Philistine, and kills him. In consequence thereof the Philistines are put to the rout, and Israel pursues them with a great slaughter. These are the principal matters contained in this chapter.
1Sa 17:1
(1) Now the Philistines gathered together their armies to battle, and were gathered together at Shochoh, which belongeth to Judah, and pitched between Shochoh and Azekah, in Ephesdammim.
The last accounts we had of the Philistines, their history left them perfectly subdued and overcome; and Israel, under Saul, was victorious everywhere. See 1Sa 14:47 . Perhaps the miserable state of Saul, gave occasion to the Philistines to renew their former insolence. When a man’s ways please the Lord (we are told) he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him. But when men slight the Lord, he can raise up enemies from every quarter. Pro 16 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Whose Son Art Thou, Young Man?
1Sa 17:58
When this shepherd boy entered the royal presence with the ghastly trophy, his fingers clutching the hair of Goliath’s head, the king looked at him with admiring wonderment, and put the plain, straightforward question of my text, ‘Whose son art thou, young man?’ It was natural that Saul should wish to know something of the antecedents of so brave a youth.
I. If there is anything more utterly contemptible than for one who has risen a bit in the world to be ashamed of his humble origin, it is the conduct of him who ridicules his low-born brother. I admire the prompt, straightforward answer which David gave to the king: ‘I am the son of thy servant Jesse, the Beth-lehemite.’ Sometimes we hear it remarked with a sneer and a curl of the lip concerning some young man who is doing well, ‘Oh, he has risen from the ranks’. Well, the more honour to him, if it is so; and the more shame upon the silly, contemptible snobbishness that could be guilty of such an utterance.
II. We shall not talk of rank now, but of character. Let me tell you that the purest blood this world has ever known is that of a Christian ancestry. It throws all other nobility and aristocracy into the shade. It is but too plain that grace does not run in the blood. The Bible itself teaches us this. A long line of Christian inheritance is something to rejoice in. ‘Whose son art thou, young man?’
III. I am not afraid to put the question even to those who have had no such advantage. I thank God that I have seen many a clean bird come out of a foul nest. If ever a man might have been supposed to have had bad blood in his veins, it was Hezekiah, who was the son of one of the worst monarchs that ever reigned over Israel. And yet he turned out a devout and holy man of God.
IV. I tell you that whether you realize it or not, you have, each of you, royal blood in your veins. Your pedigree traces back to the King of kings. St. Luke goes right up to the fountainhead when he finishes his genealogical table thus: ‘Which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God’. Awake to the glorious fact, and claim your high inheritance.
J. Thain Davidson, The City Youth, p. 126.
References, XVII. 68. R. D. B. Rawnsley, Sermons in Country Churches, p. 96. XVIII. 1-30. W. M. Taylor, David King of Israel, p. 39. XVIII. 4. J. M. Neale, Sermons for Some Feast Days in the Christian Year, p. 227. XVIII. 17. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. V. No. 250.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
Undeclared Royalty
1Sa 17:58
THAT is a very simple account for a man to give of himself, yet it answered the question which elicited it. Though but a stripling, David knew where to stop in his answers. On this occasion he could have startled Saul as Saul was never startled in his life, yet he held his peace! Truly, there is power in moderation; and truly, discretion is the supreme beauty of the valiant man. Notice with special care the exciting circumstances under which the answer was given. David stood before Saul with the head of the Philistine in his hand! Call up the scene! Look at the sinewy hand grasping the bleeding head of the boastful barbarian! See the flush upon the cheek of the young conqueror, then listen to the quiet answer! To be so self-controlled under such circumstances! Standing before the king, grasping the head of a man who made Israel quake, a nation looking at him, yet he speaks as if a stranger had accosted him in some peaceful retreat of the pasturage!
Now look at Saul. His position is very touching. Occasionally insane, he is today sober-minded and tranquil. Little does he know to whom he is speaking! David might have said, “Samuel came to my father’s house in search of a king. He passed by my brethren one by one; I was sent for at length from the sheepfold, and Samuel anointed me king of Israel. Behold in this bleeding head the first sign and pledge of my kingly power!” Instead of speaking so, he merely said, with a child’s beautiful simplicity, “I am the son of thy servant Jesse the Bethlehemite.”
Learn that men may be anointed long before their power is officially and publicly declared. God may have put his secret into their heart long before he puts the diadem upon their brow. We do not know to whom we are speaking. The child who looks so simple, almost insignificant, may become the man who shall render his age the greatest service, or bring upon it the most appalling ruin. You speak to the little one some gentle word, or bid him Godspeed, not knowing that in after-years he may repronounce to a hushed world the convictions fur which you could get no hearing, or may honour your memory by a successful vindication of its claim upon grateful regard.
Learn that God’s arrangements are not extemporaneous. The men who shall succeed to all good offices are known to him from the beginning to the end. Often in our impatience we concern ourselves to know what will be done in the event of this man dying, or that the king, the preacher, the prime minister, the commanding soldier. To us the prospect may be dark, but to God the whole course is clear; the successor is anointed, but not yet declared.
In studying the period of David’s history which is comprised between his anointing and the killing of Goliath, we shall discover some qualities in David which we may well imitate.
Soon after his anointing, David became harp-player to the king. This seems to be a descent. Are there not many apparent anticlimaxes in life? Is this a conspicuous example of them? “Play the harp! Why, I am king,” David might have said. “Why should I waste my time in attempting to prolong the life of the man who is upon my throne? The sooner he dies, the sooner I shall reign; not one soothing note will I evoke from my harp!” Had David spoken so, he would have dropped from the high elevation which becomes the spirit of a king. There are two ways of looking at this harp-playing. David saw it in its right aspect, and therefore to him it lost all its apparent humiliation. To a mere outsider it was harp-playing; to David it was an attempt to help a man by driving away an evil spirit. In playing the harp David was doing a great spiritual work. He was not trying to please the merely musical ear; he was not the paid servant of taste; he was a spiritual minister, and as such he was as the angel of God to the tormented man. It would help us in our work if we looked at its spiritual rather than at its merely outward aspect. The influence of a spiritual worker never ceases. David’s harp is being played still, and its strains are expelling many an evil spirit. Had his work been merely so much manipulation upon a musical instrument, his work would have perished with his physical existence; but David played with his soul as well as with his fingers; hence his strains linger in the air, and find their way into our hearts when weary with much sadness or beclouded by unusual fear. Let us remember that how high soever be the office to which we are anointed, there is no anticlimax in our attempts to redeem men from the power of evil spirits, or in any way, possible to us, to bring men out of the horror of great darkness into the sweet light of hope. Are we skilled in music? Let us help those who are sad. Have we this world’s goods? Let us seek out the poor, that they may bless us as the messengers of God. Have we power to say beautiful words? Let us speak to men who are weary of the common tumult which is around them. To help a man is the honour of true kingliness.
After this engagement as harp-player, David went home to pursue his usual avocations. How well he carried the burden of his prospects! We see no sign of impatience. He did not behave himself as a child who, having seen a toy, cries until it is put into his hands. David had the dignity of patience. He carried the Lord’s secret in a quiet heart. Was it not a trial to him to go back to the sheepfold? Had it been so, he would have wrested the word of the Lord to his own destruction. He would then have worked from the point of his own desires rather than from the point of the divine will. In little things as well as in great, men show their temper and quality. One sign of impatience at this point would have shown that David’s pride had overcome his moral strength. Who would rule, must learn to obey. Who would be master, must learn first and well the duties of a good servant. Are we conscious of superior powers? Let us show their superiority by the calmness of our patience, and by the repression of every wish that is marred by one element of selfishness.
When David came to see his fighting brethren, by the express instructions of his father Jesse, he disclosed a feature in his character in true keeping with what we have seen. When he had become acquainted with the case, he at once looked at outward circumstances in their moral bearing. Other men, including Saul himself, were talking about mere appearances. They did not see the case as it really was. Their talk, in fact, was strongly atheistic. They whispered to one another, in hot and panting breath, “Why, that staff of his is like a weaver’s beam; look at his spear’s head, it must weigh at least six hundred shekels of iron: I am told that the weight of his coat is five thousand shekels of brass; as for his height, it must be a span more than six cubits!” This was the talk that was proceeding when David ran into the army to salute his brethren. Is it not barbaric talk after all? It is external, mechanical, superficial. Now for another tone! David called Goliath, not a giant, not a soldier, but an uncircumciscd Philistine, who had defied the armies of the living God! This is a moral tone. This is precisely the tone that was wanted in the talk of degenerate Israel! As used by David, the very word uncircumcised involved a moral challenge. In effect, David said: “I do not look upon his height; I ask no questions respecting the strength of his muscles, the length of his staff, the circumference of his chest, the swing of his arm; he is an uncircumcised Philistine, and has defied the armies of the living God; it is none other than God himself whom the barbarian has defied; therefore shall judgment fall upon him swiftly, and the hand of the Lord shall tear him in pieces.” This tone retrieves the honour of any controversy. It brings strength with it, and hope, and dignity. Israel had fallen away from the right elevation; the contention had become one of muscle against muscle, of number against number. David said, It is a contention between light and darkness, between right and wrong, between God and the devil; to your knees, O Israel, and call upon the name of the living God!
Oh for one David in every controversy! Men lose themselves in petty details, they fight about straws, they see only the surface; David saw the spiritual bearing of all things, and redeemed a controversy from vulgarity and atheism by distinctly and lovingly pronouncing the name of God. The atheist counts the guns, the saint looks up to God; the atheist is terrified by the size of the staff, the saint is inspired by his faith in right and purity. Such a man cannot fail. If he could fail, life would be a continual mockery, and hope would be only a variety of despair. Sooner or later what is right must slay what is wrong. If we lose faith in that doctrine, we lose everything in life worth having; creation itself is unsafe:
David interpreted the past so as to qualify himself for the future. When Saul doubted his ability to cope with the Philistine, David recounted some of his recollections as a shepherd: “Thy servant kept his father’s sheep, and there came a lion, and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock: and I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth: and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him. Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear: and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God. The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the boar, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine” ( 1Sa 17:34-37 ). The past should be our prophet. David confided in the unchangeableness of God. Forms of danger vary; but the delivering power remains the same. Sometimes danger comes as a lion, sometimes as a bear, sometimes as a Philistine, sometimes as a devil. David did not ask what the special form was, he knew that God never changed, and that his power was the same in all cases. We know this right well; our path is strewn with lions and bears slain in the name of the Lord, yet we are as afraid of the next lion or the next Philistine as if God had never enabled us to smite an enemy!” Lord, increase our faith.” When our theology is right, our power over circumstances will be complete, and our theology is right when the heart’s whole trust is in the living Father, and our love goes out towards him through his one Son, Jesus Christ the Saviour. When our hold upon the true idea of God is lost, our life is disorganised and weakened; when our hold of that idea is firm, we “plant our footsteps in the sea, and ride upon the storm.” The great fight of life is a contention between the material and the spiritual. Goliath represents the material; he is towering in stature, vast in strength, terrible in aspect. David represents the spiritual: he is simple, trustful, reverent; the merely fleshly side of his power is reduced, to the lowest possible point, he fights under the inspiration of great memories, in a deeply religious spirit, not for personal glory but for the glory of the living God.
David went to his work in the name and fear of God. “I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts.” In that one word David disclosed the secret of his power. His mere personality ceased, and he became the minister of God. As a contest between strength and strength, the scene was simply ridiculous. Viewed materially, the Philistine was perfectly right when he disdained David, and scornfully laughed at the weapons which the stripling produced. Goliath showed a most justifiable contempt; as a materialist, he could indeed have adopted no other tone. David made no boast of his weapons. He pronounced the name of God, and put his life in the keeping of the Most High. It is as if David had said, “My fall will be the fall of God; it is not a fight between thee and me, O strong man; it is a fight between earth and heaven; the victory will not be given to the weapon, but to the hand that wields it; God shall hurl this stone at thee, thou uncircumcised boaster, and before it thou shalt be as a helpless beast.”
In the expression, “I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts,” we have a watchword which may be used by true men in all crises. Let us use it in temptation, in times of unjust opposition, in solemn trials of strength and patience; yes, and use it when Death itself challenges us to the combat! That grim monster will one day invite us to contest. He will call us out, that in the open field we may try our strength together. If we go in our own name, we shall be worsted in the fray; to Death itself let us say, “I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts,” and death shall be swallowed up in victory.
The application of the truths of this lesson is easy as a matter of inference, but hard as a matter of realisation. Some men save, others are saved. Such is the law of sovereignty. This law of sovereignty penetrates the whole scheme and fabric of life. David saved, Israel was saved; activity and passivity make up the sphere of this life. Without any attempt at fanciful spiritualising, we see in David the type of the one Saviour of the world, Jesus Christ, who bruised the serpent’s head, and won for us the one victory through which we may have eternal life. “Crown Him Lord of all.”
Prayer
Almighty God, who can bear the scourging of the rod that is in thine hand? Thou dost not willingly grieve or afflict the children of men. Thy purpose is directed by eternal love, though thy stroke be sometimes heavier than we can bear. Thou rememberest that we are dust. Our breath is in our nostrils; we hasten away like a cloud in the morning; our days arc few before thee. Be merciful unto us, through Jesus Christ, our infinitely sufficient and precious Saviour, and grant that the end of all discipline may be our likeness to the beauty of his holiness. Chasten us, that we may be good, but slay us not with the sword. When we arc in the furnace, be thyself our Refiner. When earthly things are plucked out of our hands, may it be that our hearts may be enriched with heavenly treasure. Lord, hear us. Son of God, come to us. Holy Spirit, dwell in us. May the holy word be to us a word of gracious explanation, lest we faint under the mysteries of thy providence. Whilst we pray, our hearts are waiting and watching at the cross. Amen.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
X
DAVID CHOSEN AS SAUL’S SUCCESSOR,
AND HIS INTRODUCTION TO THE COURT OF SAUL
1Sa 16:1-17:54
The rejection of King Saul introduces as his successor the most remarkable man of the Hebrew monarchy, or of any other monarchy. Apart from the history of David, we cannot understand the Psalms, and apart from the Psalms, we cannot understand the history. A great number of these Psalms, written by David himself, reflect and expound his own life experiences, and forecast the experiences of Christian people of all subsequent generations. Most of the others were written by his singers and their successors. There is for every Psalm an historic occasion and background.
Again, apart from David’s history, we cannot understand the marvelous development of the messianic hope from his time on. In like manner, in his own time and later, the great prophetic utterances root in his history, with their promises and foreshadowings. Indeed, the proofs of a high order of spiritual life in the old dispensation, and of the spiritual import of the Mosaic law are most abundant in David’s life, his worship, and the literature arising therefrom.
To take away the history of David, removes in an important sense, the foundation of the New Testament. This connection with the New Testament may be abundantly found in references to the history of David, and the exposition of it by our Lord and his apostles. Fortunately for the preachers of our day, there is a rich and trustworthy literature concerning this most notable king of history. Indeed, in view of this literature, so easily obtained, that preacher is inexcusable who remains in ignorance concerning David. No exigency of life, whether arising from poverty, sickness, or any other cause, can excuse the preacher who fails to study, in a thorough and systematic manner, the life of David.
The reader will recall the books recommended when we commenced this harmony; not a multitudinous and costly list for great scholars, but a list for students of the English Bible, all cheap, all good, all easily obtained, and it was stated at that time that when we came to the history of David, other books of like character would be named. Some, indeed, of the very best of these we reserve until we come to the study of the Psalter. The preacher who has in his library choice books on the law, the Psalter and the prophets is equipped for Old Testament exposition, and prepared to undertake the study of the New Testament. Every Sunday school teacher and every layman engaged in any public activity of kingdom-service should have these books. Now to these already named, to wit: Josephus, Edersheim, Dean, Geikie, Stanley, Hengstenberg, and to the three commentaries Kirkpatrick on Samuel in the Cambridge Bible, Blaikie on Samuel in the Expositor’s Bible, and Murphy on 1 Chronicles we will add and especially commend a little book entitled David King of Israel , by W. M. Taylor, author also of the famous book of the parables. It will be observed that the textbook has for its third part of Saul’s reign this appropriate heading: “The Decline of Saul and the Rise of David,” and that this history is found in 1 Samuel 16-31, supplemented by only five passages from Chronicles (1Ch 10:1-14 ; 1Ch 11:13-14 ; 1Ch 12:1-7 ; 1Ch 12:16-18 ; 1Ch 12:19-22 ) only thirty verses in all.
There are special items of interest touching David, which appear in the various genealogical tables of both Testaments, to wit:
1. His ancestry is clearly traced back to Adam, and his posterity forward to our Lord.
2. Twice is his descent marked from one of twins struggling in the mother’s womb, the history in each case remarkable. You will find the history in Gen 25:21-26 ; Gen 38:1-30 .
3. On the maternal side are two foreigners, Rahab the Canaanitess and Ruth the Moabitess, thus connecting both David and our Lord with the Gentiles.
4. He came in the line of all the promises from Adam to his own time.
5. He came in the royal line according to the prophecy of his dying ancestor, Jacob: The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, Nor the Ruler’s staff from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes: And unto Him shall the obedience of the peoples be.
6. His birthplace and home is Bethlehem, and it was the birthplace of his greater son, our Lord.
There is some difficulty in determining his place in the family, that is, whether he was the seventh or the eighth son of Jesse. The scriptures that furnish an explanation of statements that he was the seventh son and the eighth son are 1Sa 16:10-11 ; 1Sa 17:12 ; 2Sa 17:25 ; 1Ch 2:15 ; 1Ch 27:18 . This section presents eight sons, of whom David is declared to be the youngest, and in the next chapter it expressly says that Jesse had eight sons, and again affirms that David was the youngest; but 1Ch 2:15 makes David the seventh. A careful examination of all these passages yields this explanation: He was the seventh son of Jesse by his first wife, but younger than another son of Jesse by his second wife; therefore he was the seventh son in the sense meant, and yet he was the eighth and the youngest son of Jesse.
As we progress in the history, we will find other members of David’s kindred becoming quite prominent in the history, and some of them adding much to the troubles and tragedies of his life. His three oldest brothers are mentioned in this section as being in Saul’s army, and Elihu, another brother, when David organized the kingdom, becomes captain of the tribe of Judah. Amasa, the son of his sister, Abigail, is a very prominent figure in the history, and with Abishai, Joab, and Asahel, sons of his sister, Zeruiah, have much more to do with his history. One of his uncles, Jonadab, becomes an occasional counselor in his reign, and one of his brothers becomes a mighty champion.
Our story commences under the following conditions: First, Saul, under two great tests, failed to comply with the kingdom charter, losing the dynasty by the first, and his personal right to reign by the second, but he is yet king de facts though not de jure. That means he is king in fact, but not in right. Jehovah has utterly withdrawn from any communication with him, and an evil spirit is leading him to ruin. The Philistines still wage war against him. Samuel, the aged prophet, has withdrawn from him, and is teaching in his school of the prophets at Ramah. Jehovah has already announced to Saul, not only the loss of the throne to his dynasty and his personal rejection as king, but that the Lord hath sought him a man after his own heart, and commanded him to be captain over his people; but so far there has been no designation of this man, and you must particularly note that after the designation his rule does not commence until Saul has wrought out his own ruin.
The section opens with Jehovah’s designation of the man by lot, and his anointing by Samuel. Samuel’s fear that Saul will kill him if he anoints a successor is assuaged by Jehovah’s directions as to the method and purpose of the anointing. It is not the divine purpose to bring about a division of Israel under rival kings; therefore Samuel must go to Bethlehem to offer sacrifices, which would not attract Saul’s attention; then the designation by lot there, with the anointing, are private acts. The object of this is to begin the preparation of David for the kingly office, which he is not to assume until the time designated by Jehovah. At no time while Saul lives does either the Spirit impress David to assume the kingly office for which he has been anointed, nor does David of his own motion conspire against Saul, or in any way seek to weaken his authority. This time the basis of God’s choice is not physical stature and strength, as in Saul’s case, but the state of the heart in God’s sight.
The choice surprises everybody but God. Neither Samuel nor the family, nor David himself would have judged as Jehovah judged. Seldom indeed can parents, brother or sister point out the member of the family who shall become illustrious, nor does the illustrious one himself always anticipate his future honor and position. A boy often aspires to great things, and imagines most vividly the glories that shall rest on him when he shall have the world in a sling, and vividly pictures to himself a homecoming when all the other members of his family shall find shelter under his wings, and all the neighbors who had failed to recognize his budding genius shall stand with mouths agape, while salvos of artillery, unfurled banners, flower-decked streets proclaim his honor, while bands are playing “See, the Conquering Hero Comes!” But time, the great revealer, shows these egotistical fancies to be as “the airy nothings” of a dream.
A boy in East Texas offered to take me from one preaching place to another, in order, as he stated, to tell me that he would be the governor of Texas, but I haven’t heard from him since. Shakespeare says, “Some men are born great; some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them,” but being born to a high honor, or having it thrust upon you, will only add to your unfitness and make your failure more conspicuous, if you have not the character and training to wear it well.
It may be that some one of my readers, in casting his horoscope, has seen himself a preacher cutting a wide swath, salary of $10,000 a year, no building able to hold his congregations, and glaring headlines in the great dailies announcing that he is “shaking the foundations of hell and opening the portals of heaven.”
Some of my admiring friends, judging from my great knowledge of the history of wars, predicted that I would at least become a corps commander, should a war arise in my time. A war came and left me a high private, while only such “little” men as Lee, Jackson, Stuart, and the Johnstons on one side, and Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, and Thomas on the other side, wrote their names in the niches of the temple of fame but these “little” men were all trained at West Point.
The history we are studying makes it evident that Saul had neither the character nor the training to become a great ruler, but David had both. Woe to any of us who under-estimate the knowledge of these three things: (1) a right state of heart toward God, (2) the discipline of preparation and training, and (3) dependence on the power of the Holy Spirit.
Only men of great heart, great preparation, and great power with God achieve anything worth while in the ministry. David’s early life in the fields and valleys and mountains, with its isolation and loneliness given to meditation and reflection, put him near to nature’s heart and impressed him with the fact that an individual man is insignificant in the scheme of God’s great universe, and hence taught him to sing: “When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; what is man, that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou visitest him?” and also taught him to sing, “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge.” His occupation gave him the shepherd’s heart, and evoked that sweetest of all hymns: “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want,” and that same shepherd office called out high courage that made him triumph in solitary grapple with the lion and the bear that would prey upon his flock, and gave him a matchless skill with the sling that would one day smite down a boasting giant.
The hardships of this calling in such a field gave him toughness of fiber and power of endurance. He could bear hunger and cold and heat without fainting. He himself says that he became as “fleet of foot as a wild gazelle,” and could conquer a goat in climbing a mountain. His association with the school of the prophets gave him devotion of spirit, and developed that natural cunning of fingers that struck the strings of a harp in a way never equalled by any other hard. His music would not only charm a serpent, soothe a savage breast, drive away melancholy, but would dispossess the devil, and above all things, with his anointing, the Spirit came upon him, and was never taken away from him. Only once he let Satan prompt him to do a disastrous thing, and once only through sin was he constrained to pray, “Take not thy Holy Spirit from me, and renew a right spirit within me.”
Apart from this early life preparation, before he appears in public and begins to reign so long and so well, there awaits him a novitiate of training under sufferings and persecutions such as seldom fall to the lot of man. His personal appearance is described in 1Sa 16:12 and 1Sa 17:2 , as ruddy of face, brilliant of eye, very handsome in his person. We are able to distinguish the Spirit’s power that came on David from the same power on Saul. In Saul’s case, it was only occasional, and finally utterly withdrawn; in David’s case, the “Spirit abode on him from that day forward.” An old writer thus distinguishes between a sinner and a saint: “The Spirit visits a sinner, but dwells with a saint; and conversely, Satan visits a saint, but dwells with a sinner.” A very fine thought. Here we come upon a controversy: What was the occasion of David’s first introduction to the court of Saul? Was it the harp-playing of 1Sa 16:14-23 , or was it the slaying of Goliath and the consequent victory, as told in 1Sa 17 ? If the first, how do you account for Saul’s ignorance of David when he appears on the second occasion, 1Sa 17:55-58 , that is, Saul’s asking Abner, “Who is this young stripling?” and Abner’s saying, “I don’t know.” They don’t seem ever to have heard of him. Some critics contend that 1 Samuel 16-17 are from different historic sources, and that they contradict each other flatly and irreconcilably in giving the occasion of David’s introduction to the court of Saul. Moreover, they say that if the harp-playing precedes the other, then the ignorance of not only Saul himself, but of the whole court concerning David and his father, is inexplicable, especially as in the nature of the case there could be no great interval of time between the two events, since David is, in the second, twice called a “stripling.”
The possibility of two sources is conceded, but not the certainty of it. It is the custom of inspired writers to repeat on new occasions enough of the past history to make clear the context. The court of Saul was ignorant of David and his family on both occasions. The first time, only one of the servants knows anything about David and his family, and his skill of song and speech, and Jehovah’s presence with him. The servant’s word about David, and his family would make no great or lasting impression on Saul and his court. The chief thing with them was the curing of Saul, and when after several harp playings, the cure seems permanent, the human helper returns to the care of his flocks and is swiftly forgotten. You will understand their ignorance from the fact that Samuel’s anointing of David was not in the public eye, but in private, and the spiritual endowment that followed would be known only by a few neighbors having knowledge of David’s shepherd life; none of it was known abroad. His ministrations and harp playing were in the sick room and not before the court. Moreover, Saul himself, while possessed of an evil spirit, suffered from mental aberration, which naturally impaired his memory, and while the record of the harp playing shows that Saul loved the healer, we all know by experience how grateful to the physician is every patient in the moment of relief, but if we continue well, how easily the physician passes out of our memory and life, until we get sick again. It is somewhat like the old proverb: When the devil is sick, The devil & saint would be; When the devil is well, The devil of a saint is he!
Solomon says in his penitential book, “There is no remembrance of former generations,” (Ecc 1:11 ). But there is no need to quote this general reflection of Solomon, since one of the most striking characteristics of human courts is that presence only keeps one in mind. Absence obliterates you from the memory of the great, to whom yesterday is a “long time ago,” and with whom the new man or the new event fills all the vision. As an illustration of the characteristic of kings to forget their benefactors, the great Earl of Stratford, himself a notable illustration of this fact, said, when his death warrant was signed by the ungrateful Charles I, “Put not your trust in princes,” so we needn’t concern ourselves about the contradictions the critics are so ready to find.
In all literature no book can be found more natural, more true to life, more vivid and simple in its records of past events, than 1 Samuel. Each event is recorded as by an eyewitness in its own independent setting, absolutely devoid of any strain to appear consistent with previous statements. Any lawyer will tell you that the evidence of a witness is to be distrusted when he labors to harmonize one statement with another. He is sure to tell a lie when he does that.
Our conclusion, then, is fixed that the harp-playing preceded the Goliath incident. Indeed, the evidence is positive that David did not continue at Saul’s court on his first introduction. You were told in 2Sa 17:12 that he would only come when there was the sickness, and then go back to his home; but after his second introduction, as you learn from 1Sa 18:2 , Saul did not allow him to go home any more.
Sir Walter Scott, in one of his romances, makes the harp playing of a beautiful girl drive away the temporary madness of a highland chief. In which romance is this incident related? I will ask also, What did Shakespeare say about the man devoid of music? Can you answer that? The question also arises: How do you explain the healing of Saul? The answer is obvious. The Spirit of the Lord in David’s music was greater than the demon possessing Saul.
Other items on the designation and anointing of David we need not discuss further, nor the healing of Saul by David’s playing the harp, but something should be said about the fight with Goliath and the victory that ensued.
We have before us a giant indeed, and we learn from other parts of the Bible that there was a family of these giants. This man was not the only one of the family. You would have a hard time carrying his spear, and you would be unable to carry his armor. The two armies came face to face, with just a ravine between, one on each hill. The one that advances has the task of going down hill under fire, and coming up a hill under charge; therefore Goliath, the giant, according to custom, steps out and challenges anybody in Israel to test the fate of the two nations on a single combat, and in order to provoke a response, he, according to the usual custom, curses the gods of the people that he challenges. This happens for forty days in succession. Israel is humbled; the Philistines triumph. About that time, Jesse wants to send some rations to his three boys in the army, just like parents sometime send provisions to students in school, and David is appointed to carry them, and when he gets there, he hurriedly puts the provisions with the baggage of the army, and rushes to the front. He wants to see the fight, and he hears a shout and beholds that giant come out and repeat his insulting and blasphemous challenge, and he inquires why somebody had not responded. His older brother says, virtually, “You had better go back and be tied again to your mother’s apron string. What’s a little boy like you doing on a battlefield where men only ought to be?” David responds that nothing he has said was out of place, and leaves the brethren, who did not believe in him, as the brothers of our Lord did not believe in him, and goes and mixes around among the soldiers and urges that somebody in the name of Jehovah could smite that giant, and that he is willing to undertake it.
Saul, who had offered an immense reward to anyone who would accept the challenge and defeat the giant, including even his own daughter for a wife, hears of David’s offer and sends for him. He is surprised to see a boy a mere stripling and he says: “You? You can’t fight this giant.” David says, “Sire, I can. I am the shepherd of my father’s flock, and when a bear and a lion came out to prey on the flock, I fought them unarmed, and when they reared up against me, I took them by the mane and slew them.” Saul was a much bigger man than David. He said, “I am willing to let you go if you will put on my armor.” David put it on and took it off, saying that he could not fight in Saul’s armor. What a text for the preacher! ever try to fight as some other man fights. Don’t try to preach like Brother Truett. You can’t do it. Don’t imitate him.
So David marches down against Goliath with nothing but a sling. He picks up in that ravine five pebbles. It excites the scorn of the giant that a boy unarmed should be sent against him, and he says, “Come up here and let me give your flesh to the fowls of the air,” and again curses Jehovah. David never stops, but runs to meet him, puts a stone in the sling, whirling it around; it flies and smites the giant in the middle of the forehead, and buries itself in his brain.
The text says that the giant so struck fell on his face. Why did not he fall backwards? It is a notable fact, witnessed a thousand times on the battlefield, and in executing men by shooting, that when the firing squad fires and the bullets enter the man’s heart, he always falls on his face, never backwards. It is one of these natural things that continually creep into Samuel’s narrative that makes one know it is a true story. I have seen thousands of men fall in battle, and I never saw a man shot through the brain or heart that did not fall forward. David rises up, takes Goliath’s sword and cuts his head off, places the head at Jerusalem for the present, puts the armor in his tent, and here comes the question that you may answer: When does Goliath’s sword appear again in the history? What did he do with it, and where does it come to light again? With the fall of the giant the Philistines are panic-stricken and the Israelites encouraged, and the fight joins, and it is in the book of Chronicles that we learn a fact not stated in Samuel. That passage about Shammah does not belong there where the harmonist puts it, but the one about Eleazar may be rightly placed. The fight was waged in a plat of ground full of barley. Eleazar stands with him and does great exploits, and so they put the Philistines to rout, and Eleazar afterwards, when David becomes king, is one of his mighty men. The victory is very great, and David returns and Saul appropriates him. He is never more allowed to go back to his father’s house.
QUESTIONS
1. What is the general theme of the Harmony’s third part of the reign of Saul?
2. What part of 1 Samuel covers the theme?
3. How much does 1 Chronicles supplement?
4. What is the present section?
5. What new book is commended?
6. What is the importance of the history of David, and its relation to the Psalm, the Mosaic law, the larger messianic hope, the prophets, and the New Testament?
7. What is the richness of the literature on David, and the preacher’s duty concerning it?
8. What items of special interest in genealogical tables of both Testaments concerning David?
9. Where is his birthplace and home?
10. Was he the seventh or eighth son of Jesse, and what scriptures, when compared, answer the question?
11. Name other members of David’s family, some of them quite prominent in the subsequent history, who add to the troubles and tragedies of his later life.
12. State the conditions under which the story of his life opens.
13. What are the divisions of this section?
14. Give the story of Jehovah’s designation of David, and his anointing in such a way as to show they were both private.
15. What is the basis of the choice of king this time, and who were surprised at it, and why?
16. What is the author’s observations on this point?
17. What three things should a preacher never underestimate?
18. What are the elements of David’s preparation to be king, arising from his early life and office?
19. What says Shakespeare of the man devoid of music?
20. What is David’s highest qualification immediately following his anointing, and contrast it with Saul’s like qualification.
21. What is an old-time preacher’s distinction on this point between a saint and sinner?
22. What apropos proverb concerning the devil?
23. What is David’s personal appearance?
24. How do you dispose of the apparent contradiction between 1Sa 16:14-23 and 1Sa 17:12-58 as to the occasion of David’s first introduction to the court of Saul; and if you say the harp-playing was the first, then explain the ignorance of David and his family manifested by Saul and his court on the second introduction,
25. How do you explain David’s healing of Saul by music?
26. In what romance does Sir Walter Scott give the story of a highland chief’s madness being dispelled by a girl’s harp-playing?
27. What is the relative position of the opposing armies of Saul and the Philistines?
28. What is the nature of Goliath’s challenge, and why does he curse Jehovah?
29. What is Saul’s offer for reward for a champion who would defeat him?
30. What is the occasion of David’s presence on the battlefield?
31. Why his indignation that no Israelite responded to the challenge, and his oldest brother’s rebuke?
32. Show from his interview with Saul that faith and not immodesty prompted him to accept the challenge.
33. Why did he reject Saul’s armor, and rely upon his shepherd’s sling?
34. Why did Goliath, when smitten, fall on his face?
35. What is the effect of the fall of Goliath on the two armies?
36. What hero stood by David in the fight, before the main body army arrives?
37. Tell the history of David’s disposition of Goliath’s head, armor, and sword, and when again does the sword appear in the history?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
1Sa 17:1 Now the Philistines gathered together their armies to battle, and were gathered together at Shochoh, which [belongeth] to Judah, and pitched between Shochoh and Azekah, in Ephesdammim.
Ver. 1. Now the Philistines gathered together. ] They hearing of the breach between Saul and Samuel, whose piety and prayers had been dreadful and baneful to them, as also of Saul’s frantic fits, rendering him unfit to lead an army; but especially being stirred up by God to undertake this expedition for the accomplishment of his ends, they again invade the land of Israel:
“ Atque Philisthaeis redit in praecordia virtus. ”
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Now. Ch. 1Sa 17:1 reads on chronologically from 1Sa 16:13 (see note on 1Sa 16:14). An author’s right is claimed for placing the later episode here (1Sa 16:14, 1Sa 16:23), in order to connect and contrast the two spirits with Saul and David. The canonical order alternates David’s call and Saul’s. See notes on 1Sa 16:14; 1Sa 18:12.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Shall we turn in our Bibles to the seventeenth chapter of first Samuel? In the seventeenth chapter of first Samuel, we read where,
The Philistines had gathered their armies together [against the children of Israel, Of course] king Saul had gathered his armies together, [They were setting their battle lines. They were digging their foxholes and setting up their battle array on either side of the Elah Valley] ( 1Sa 17:1-2 ).
Now the Elah Valley is an area that is south and west of Jerusalem, maybe fifteen miles. A beautiful little valley but of course anything can be made ugly by war.
And so on the mountain on the one side was the camp of the Philistines, on the mountain on the other side was the camp of Israel ( 1Sa 17:3 ):
In those days they would take their time in getting started into a real battle. They’d come and they’d yell and they’d have their shouts, and they’d try to psyche each other out. The children of Israel had been pretty well psyched out by this fellow Goliath, who came out every day for forty days.
The champion from the Philistines, he was from the city of Gath, he was nine feet six inches tall. He had a brass helmet, a brass coat of mail; that weighed [five hundred or] five thousand shekels. [Was it?] And he had these plates of brass on his legs, he had a brass chest protector. His spear was like a weaver’s beam; [Huge spear and man, he’d come out there and stand and he was an awesome sight in the eyes of the children of Israel.] ( 1Sa 17:3-7 ).
And daily he would challenge them. He would say, “Look facing off here in battle. We can settle it easily. Send out a man to fight me, for I’m a Philistine, you’re the Israelites, and if you’ve got a man in your army that’s able to fight me, if he can defeat me, we’ll be your servants. If I can beat him, then you’ll be our servants.” He was daily challenging them for forty days.
Meanwhile back in Bethlehem Jesse called his young son David in and said, [David, I want you to go out to the battlefield and check with your brothers and see how things are going.] Take these loaves of bread for them and this bushel of parched corn, and take these cheeses for their captains, and just find out how things are going, [and bring us news again of the condition of your brothers. And so David headed off on a chariot towards the battlefield in Elah Valley from Bethlehem, about twenty miles distance. And as he came near and he could see the camp of the Israelites, and the Philistines,] he got off the chariot, and ran to meet his brothers. [And of course he started sharing with them the parent’s concern, How’s everything going, and are you warm enough at night, is everything okay? As he was talking to them, this fellow Goliath came out and made his daily challenge.] So the fellows when they saw this man, they fled from him, and they were very afraid. And the men of Israel said to David, Have you seen this fellow that comes out every day? to defy Israel: the king said if any man can kill him, the king will make him very rich, he’ll allow his family to become tax free in Israel, and he’ll give his daughter for a wife. [And David said, The king will do what? They said, “Well, he’s gonna give the guy a lot of riches, and his daughter to wife, and his family will be tax free.”] ( 1Sa 17:17-25 ).
And so David’s brother Eliab saw David’s interest in this thing, and he said to David, “Who’s watching over your sheep back there in the wilderness kid? You better get on home in a hurry. I know your heart, you’re just-dad probably didn’t send you down here. You’re just down to see what a war looks like and you go home in a hurry.” His big brother is trying to sort of protect him.
And David said, Hey wait a minute what have I done? There’s a cause here? ( 1Sa 17:29 )
This fellow is defying the armies of the living God, and if none of you fellows want to go out and fight him, I’ll go out and fight him. So a fellow ran and told Saul the fact that they had a volunteer who had volunteered to go out and fight: David. And so they brought David in to fight Goliath. They brought David in unto Saul and Saul said, “Oh, you can’t fight him son. That man is a man of war.”
you’re just a youth and he’s been a man of war from his youth ( 1Sa 17:33 ).
You can’t go out and fight him.
David said, [Wait a minute, don’t reject me so fast. He said,] One day when I was watching my father’s sheep, a lion and a bear came out and grabbed a sheep and began to drag them off. And I grabbed the sheep out of the lion’s mouth: so he turned on me, and I took him by the beard, and I killed him. And I also killed the bear: and the God who delivered the lion and the bear into my hands will deliver also this uncircumcised Philistine. So Saul said, Well give you a try. Here take this helmet and this armour plate, [and so forth] and so they put this armour on David and the helmet, [And he’s probably just a little kid and the helmet probably came down over his ears, and you know the armour plate’s so heavy] He said, If you don’t mind, I haven’t tested this stuff. I don’t think I better use this. I’ll just go out as I am. And so David headed toward the giant ( 1Sa 17:34-40 ).
Now one interesting thing about the Elah Valley, there is a dry streambed in the bottom. Of course it’s got water in it when it rained, but it’s one of those typical Southern California type of rivers that only gets water when it rains.
But interestingly enough when God created the earth, I have in my office actually, some-and I should’ve brought some out tonight, but when God created the earth, knowing what was going to transpire in this particular valley, when God made this valley and this particular little stream bed, God just placed thousands of smooth round stones in this particular streambed. I’ve never seen any streambed with so many smooth, round stones. Beautiful stones for a sling. I’ve got a bunch of them in my office. I like to pick them up out of that stream, maybe because they’re so perfect for a sling.
So David stopped by and he picked up five smooth round stones, [And there’s just bundles of smooth round stones in this stream bed.] and he headed up the hill towards the giant. Put them in his little shepherd’s sack, and headed up the hill. But when Goliath saw David coming he was outraged. He said, Am I a dog that you’d send a child out to fight me? And he began to curse David by his gods. He said, [All right kid you’re asking for it,] I’ll chop you up and feed you to the birds. And David said to the Giant, You come against me with a sword, and a spear, and a shield: but I come against you in the name of Jehovah of hosts, the God that you have defied. And he’s gonna deliver you into my hand; and I’m gonna chop up your whole army and feed it to the birds. [David was assured victory not only over the giant, but over the whole host of the Philistines.] And so David took one of the stones out of his little pouch, put it in his sling, and let it fly towards the giant, and he sunk the stone right into the forehead of the giant; and the giant fell down. And David went running up, [because he didn’t even have a sword. All he had was a sling, he didn’t even have a sword.] He pulled the sword out of the sheath of the giant, his own sword, and David used it and hacked off his head. [Then he grabbed it by the hair and held it up. Probably began to swing it around yelling.] And all the Philistines when they saw this, [their champion destroyed by a child, panic gripped them and] they began to flee ( 1Sa 17:41-51 ).
And of course the men of Israel, when they saw this, their hearts were encouraged, and they all came out of their tents and began charging after the Philistines. And there was a great slaughter of the Philistines that day. So the Lord delivered the Philistine there in the hands of David.
Now when Saul saw David go out against this fellow, he said to his captain Abner, Who is this young fellow? [Who is his dad?] And Abner said, [I don’t know,] as thy soul live I can’t tell you. And so the king says, Inquire and find out whose son he is. And so as David returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, Abner took him, and brought him before Saul with the head of the Philistine still in his hand ( 1Sa 17:55-57 ).
It was a trophy that David had, and he wasn’t gonna let the thing go. He was gonna carry it around for a few days. Must have been a big head too, you know, the guy’s nine foot, six inches tall.
And he said, Whose son are you David? and David said, I am the son of thy servant Jesse the Bethlehemite ( 1Sa 17:58 ). “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
The story contained in this chapter is one of the most familiar of the Old Testament narratives. It places Saul and David in sharp contrast as each stands out in clear relief.
In the presence of the enemy of his people, notwithstanding his position and his army, Saul is seen to be utterly incompetent. On the other hand, David, without human resources, but conscious of the true greatness of his. people, and sure of the strength of his God, went forth to battle with the Philistine champion.
The secret of his strength is revealed in his address to Goliath, ‘Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a javelin; but I come to thee in the name of Jehovah of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, which thou hast defied.”
Whereas under ordinary circumstances it is the duty of the servants of Cod to make all preparation possible for action, and to employ every resource available in the prosecution of the divine purpose, a man in an hour of crisis may attempt impossible things and be assured of victory in the name of God.
In the divine economy, Saul was no longer king, and David was. He demonstrated his fitness for the kingly position and power by his victory, which revealed his clear understanding of the true secrets of his people’s strength and of the power of God.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
Israel Defied by the Philistine Champion
1Sa 17:1-16
When their king lost the special consciousness of Gods presence and power, the whole kingdom became demoralized, and the Hebrews had the humiliation of hearing in silence a defiant challenge to the armies of the living God. It looked as if the answer would have to go by default-that Jehovah was a God that could not save. The impotence of the Israelites made Goliath still more defiant. At first he came down from the ranks of his own camp on the southern side of the valley and walked vaingloriously through the level plain between the two hosts; but after forty days had passed, he became bolder and came up the slopes where Israel stood. At his approach they fled in terror. Measuring nine feet, nine inches, covered with mail, and carrying a spear, the head of which weighed eighteen pounds, the giant must have seemed very formidable to the men of Israel. And are there not giants equally determined and terrible that threaten us, in national and individual experience, and find us unable to cope with them? We need Davids God and Davids faith!
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
1 Samuel 17
Notice:-
I. David was on God’s side. This was a religious war. Goliath fought for Dagon and cursed David by his gods. David fought for Jehovah. Let every child know for certain that he is, like David, a warrior and champion.
II. David fought in God’s strength. God’s Spirit gave him his holy courage, suggested his weapons, and guided the stone from the sling to Goliath’s temples. Was not David the man after God’s own heart because he so frankly owned God in everything? David and Goliath represent two systems and two kingdoms. The war between the Israelites and Philistines is still raging. On which side are you?
III. David the conqueror. If on God’s side, you shall win in the end, because God shall win, and all His shall win with Him. The world’s creed often is that might is right; ours is that right is might, for God is with the right, and makes it at length almighty as Himself.
J. Wells, Bible Children, p. 145.
David’s fight with Goliath was: (1) a good fight, and (2) a fight of faith. It was a good fight because David was fighting for a good cause: for the cause and people of God. Goliath was a bad man, and he was the soldier of a bad cause. He had mocked God’s people and God. And David went down to fight with him, because he both heard and saw that he was an enemy of God. And it was a fight of faith, because in going down to the fight David did not trust in sword, or spear, or shield, nor in his youth, or his strength, or any seen thing, but in God, whom he could not see. In the strength of God’s presence he went to meet Goliath. Our fight now is with badness itself. That is the great giant Christ sends us to fight with; that is the one chief enemy He Himself fights against.
A. Macleod, Talking to the Children, p. 191.
References: 1Sa 17:16.-Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. x., p. 329. 1Sa 17:29.-Parker, vol. vii., p. 72; Bishop Claughton, Church Sermons by Eminent Clergymen, vol. i., p. 249. 1Sa 17:36, 1Sa 17:37.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxi., No. 1253, and vol. xxx., No. 1810. 1Sam 17-R. Lorimer, Bible Studies in Life and Truth, p. 211; W. M. Taylor, David King of Israel, p. 26; Sunday Magazine, 1886, p. 258.
1Sa 17:37
Saul by his sins forfeited the kingdom to a neighbour of his, who was better than he in the very particulars wherein Saul had so sadly failed. We find in David: (1) A single-hearted trust in the God of Israel; a generous forgetfulness of himself. (2) A combination of courage and modesty in God’s service; a zeal to do, if possible, some great thing for Him, without any disposition to value himself on it when it was done.
I. It is well to remember that David had been chosen out by special message from God and anointed to be king, and knew himself to be so. He knew himself to be marked out from the beginning for the highest place, yet never on any occasion did he show the least disposition to press into it.
II. In David’s argument, as given in the text, we find a plain, straightforward, manly way of taking things. He had recourse, not to the promise of the kingdom, but to God’s past preservation of him, and to his certainty that he was undertaking God’s own cause.
III. David, by his simplicity and singleness of heart, became a type of our Lord and Redeemer. And being so, he was a type and pattern of His Church and of every individual member of the same. From his conduct on this occasion we may learn these lessons: (1) No man’s heart need fail him because of any spiritual danger which the world calls irresistible. (2) We should leave nothing undone that might glorify God. (3) We should not be anxious to invent ways of our own, but rather use the ways that God has appointed, and when these fail leave Him to do the rest. (4) As God’s mercies continue increasing, so should our remembrance of them increase.
Plain Sermons by Contributors to “Tracts for the Times” vol. iv., p. 133 (see also J. Keble, Sermons for the Christian Year: Sundays after Trinity, Part I., p. 150).
Consider:-
I. How David reasoned from past mercies, and grounded upon them the expectation of future aid from above. He had been delivered from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, and this deliverance he recalled to mind in a moment of new danger, as feeling it to be prophetic of his victory over the giant, and thus had he commenced, even in his young days, that habit of appealing to his own experience of which we find frequent traces in his writings, and which cannot be too earnestly commended to all who wish to enjoy godly peace.
II. David’s readiness to make use of means, notwithstanding his full confidence in the succour and protection of God. He tried the armour which Saul proposed, though he felt assured that the Lord would deliver him. If ever man might have ventured to neglect means, since the result was ordained, David might have been warranted in refusing the armour without trying it on. But this is just what David did not do; he proceeded on the principle that no expectation of a miracle should make us slack in the employment of means, but that so long as means are within reach we are bound to employ them, though it may not be through their use that God will finally work.
H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 2426.
1Sa 17:45
I. In the battle of life good men have to fight a powerful foe. (1) In the battle of life we have to contend with numerous adversaries. (2) In the battle of life we are often hindered by those who ought to help us. (3) In the battle of life we are animated by various feelings. (4) In the battle of life past victories strengthen us for future conflicts.
II. In the battle of life good men need Divine assistance. David’s dependence on God was right for four reasons. (1) It ensured the right help for the combat. (2) It awakened a right spirit for the combat. (3) It led to a right selection of weapons for the combat. (4) It secured a right issue in the combat.
Parker, City Temple, vol. i., p. 78.
References: 1Sa 17:45.-J. W. Burgon, Ninety-one Short Sermons, Nos. 04 and 65. 1Sa 17:40-54.-J. Vaughan, Sermons to Children, 5th series, p. 13. 1Sa 17:45.-J. W. Atkinson, Penny Pulpit, No. 935; C. Kingsley, National Sermons, p. 242. 1Sa 17:45, 1Sa 17:46.-F. W. Krummacher, David the King of Israel, p. 35. 1Sa 17:47.-A. G. Brown, Penny Pulpit, No. 1054; Spurgeon, My Sermon Notes, p. 57; T. Coster, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xix., p. 189. 1Sa 17:48.-J. M. Neale, Sermons in Sackville College, vol. i., p. 192.
1Sa 17:50
The history of David’s combat with Goliath sets before us our own calling and our conflict with the world, the flesh, and the devil.
Consider:-
I. David was the son of a Bethlehemite, one among the families of Israel with nothing apparently to recommend him to God, the youngest of his brethren, and despised by them. He seemed born to live and die among his sheep. Yet God took him from the sheepfolds to make him His servant and friend. This is fulfilled in the case of all Christians. They are by nature poor and mean and nothing worth, but God chooses them and brings them unto himself.
II. David was a shepherd when God chose him, for He chooses not the great men of the world. The most solitary, the most unlearned, God visits, God blesses, God brings to glory, if he be but rich in faith. All Christians are kings in God’s sight, they are kings in His unseen kingdom, in His spiritual world, in the communion of saints.
III. Next, observe, God chose David by the prophet Samuel. He did not think it enough to call him silently, but He called him by a voice. And so in like manner God sends His ministers to those whom He hath from eternity chosen. Samuel chose only one; but now God gives His ministers leave to apply Christ’s saving death to all whom they can find.
IV. When Samuel had anointed David, the Spirit of God came upon him from that day forward. God’s Spirit vouchsafes to dwell within the Christian, and to make his heart and body His temple.
V. Though David received the gift of God’s Holy Spirit, yet nothing came of it all at once. So it is with Baptism. Nothing shows, for some time, that the Spirit of God has come into the child baptised; but the Lord who seeth the heart, sees in the child the presence of the Spirit.
VI. Lastly, let us enquire who is our Goliath. The answer is plain: the devil is our Goliath; we have to fight Satan, and the warfare against him lasts all through life. We come against him in Christ’s all powerful, all conquering name.
Plain Sermons by Contributors to “Tracts for the Times,” vol. v., p. 198 (sec also J. H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, vol. viii., p. 48.
References: 1Sa 17:50.-J. Van Oosterzee, Year of Salvation, vol. ii., p. 430; E. Blencowe, Plain Sermons, 1st series, p. 306.
1Sa 17:58
This question, short and simple as it is, is suggestive of some practical thoughts on the subjection of personal responsibility and faithfulness to the traditions of one’s pedigree, or it may be, in the way of warning against lineal weaknesses and sins.
I. My first word is to those of you who have sprung from a lowly parentage. If there is anything more utterly contemptible than for one who has risen in the world to be ashamed of his humble origin, it is the conduct of him who ridicules his low-born brother. The hands of Jesse, the Bethlehemite farmer, were somewhat horny, and his wife a plain, unpretending body, but their son was proud to take them on a visit to Mizpeh of Moab, and introduce them to the king.
II. My next word is to those who have been born in the line of a Christian parentage. The purest blood this world has ever known is that of a Christian ancestry. It is not enough for those who come of a saintly stock to shun the sins of the prodigal, they ought to be conspicuous for their Christian character.
III. I am not afraid to put the question even to those who have had no such advantage. Many a clean bird has come out of a foul nest. Divine grace is stronger even than blood. History can supply many an instance to the praise of Him who oft-times finds the brightest diamonds in the darkest mines, and the richest pearls in the deepest seas.
IV. A purely spiritual meaning may be given to the text. There are but two paternities, and one or other of these we all must own. Would that we could all reply to the question “Whose son art thou? “-“Behold, now are we the sons of God.”
J. Thain Davidson, The City Youth, p. 127.
References: 1Sa 17:58.-R. D. B. Rawnsley, Sermons in Country Churches, p. 96. 1Sa 18:1.-T. Coster, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xix., p. 200. 1Sa 18:1, 1Sa 18:2.-F. W. Krummacher, David the King of Israel, p. 51. 1Sa 18:1-30.-W. M. Taylor, David King of Israel, p. 39. 1Sa 18:3.-J. Van Oosterzee, Year of Salvation, vol. ii., p. 436; Spurgeon, My Sermon Notes, p. 60. 1Sam 18-W. Hanna, Sunday Magazine, 1865, p. 530.
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
2. David and Goliath
CHAPTER 17
1. Goliath of Gath, the Philistine (1Sa 17:1-11)
2. Davids errand and inquiry (1Sa 17:12-30)
3. Davids offer to fight Goliath (1Sa 17:31-40)
4. Davids victory (1Sa 17:41-54)
5. Sauls inquiry (1Sa 17:55-58)
Modern critics are practically unanimous in regarding the story of this chapter as unhistorical. One of the leading arguments they advance is the statement found in 2Sa 21:19 that the slayer of Goliath was Elhanan the son of Jair-oregim, a Bethlehemite. But if we consult still another passage we find that Elhanan slew the brother of Goliath. And Elhanan the son of Jair smote Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite (1Ch 20:5). It is therefore no discrepancy at all. A closer examination into this matter we cannot undertake here. If the account in 1 Sam. 17 were unhistorical the jealousy of Saul against David would be inexplicable.
David, the Lords anointed, in his great deed, is constituted the deliverer of Israel. The deed of the young shepherd is one of the greatest recorded in the Bible. It was simple trust in the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, which won the overthrow of the boasting Philistine. In typical application the story of David and Goliath is especially rich; we can pass on but a little of it. A prayerful and diligent search will reveal much more. Goliath, the giant, is the type of Satan, the prince of this world, who has the power of death. He also typifies that which is connected with the enemy of God, which is under the leadership of Satan. This is suggested by the number six. Six is in Bible numerics the number of man in opposition to God. His height was six cubits. He had also six pieces of armour (verses 5-7). The number six is also prominent in another giant, who was slain by Jonathan, the son of Shimeah. He had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot (2Sa 21:20). Nebuchadnezzars image of gold also has the number six connected with it (Dan 3:1). In Revelation we find the number of the beast, that coming man of sin, and his number is 666; it represents the utmost defiance of God, the fullest manifestation of sin. The bold and defiant language Goliath used, the terror he inspired among the people of God, find easy application to Satan and his power.
And David is the type of our Lord Jesus Christ. His father sent David on a mission to his brethren. It reminds us of Joseph who was sent to seek for his lost brethren. Both are types of Him whom the Father sent into the world. (Jesse means Jehovah is living.) He came to the camp in lowliness and then was misunderstood and wrongly accused by his own brethren. And thus our Lord was treated by His own. We must not overlook the prominence given to the reward which he is to receive who slays Goliath. The King will enrich him with great riches, and will give him his daughter, and make his fathers house free in Israel. Well may we see here a type of the reward of Him who became poor for our sake. And David took the stones from the brook, out of the water, the type of death. Then after he struck the giant with the stone, he took Goliaths sword and slew him and cut off his head. Even so our Lord Jesus Christ by death destroyed him that had the power of death, that is, the devil (Heb 2:14). And now Israel and Judah, the types of the true people of God, can arise and shout for joy and gain a complete victory over the conquered foe (verse 52). And this took place at Ephesdammim (the boundary of blood) and the valley of Elah (the mighty one). It speaks of the blood and the power, death and resurrection. What evidences we have in these historical events and their typical application of the inspiration of the Bible! And David had said to Goliath that the victory Jehovah would give him should bring about that all the earth may know there is a God in Israel. All the earth will yet see and know His salvation.
The alleged difficulty of verses 55-58 we have already explained at the close of the previous chapter.
Note objections made by critics to verse 54. They say it is curious anachronism, since Davids future capital was still in the hands of the Jebusites. However, Jerusalem, west of Moriah, had been taken by Judah. The Jebusites only held Jebus, or Zion, south of Moriah. See Jdg 1:7-8. Higher criticism abounds in misstatements of the Scriptures.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
gathered: 1Sa 7:7, 1Sa 13:5, 1Sa 14:46, 1Sa 14:52, Jdg 3:3
Shochoh: Jos 15:35, Socoh, 2Ch 11:7, Shoco, 2Ch 28:18, Shocho
Azekah: Jos 10:10, Jos 10:11, Jos 15:35, Jer 34:7
Ephesdammim: or, the coast of Dammim, 1Ch 11:13, Pas-dammim
Reciprocal: Gen 49:27 – a wolf 1Sa 28:1 – that the 1Ch 4:18 – Socho 2Ch 13:3 – set Eze 25:15 – to destroy Heb 11:32 – David
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1Sa 17:1. The Philistines gathered together their armies Probably they had heard that Samuel had forsaken Saul, and that Saul himself was unfit for business. The enemies of the church are watchful to take all advantages, and they never have greater advantages than when her protectors have provoked Gods Spirit and prophets to leave them.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1Sa 17:4. There went out a champion, Goliath of Gath; a military character well known to the Hebrews. More than thirty years before he had scattered the army of Israel, slain the sons of Eli, and captured the ark, so that even heroes trembled at his name. His height was six cubits and a span; that is, nine feet six inches. Gen 6:4. Num 13:28.
1Sa 17:5. A coat of mail; made of plates of foliated brass, with joints to admit of muscular motion in the arms and the body. Budeus in Paris, and more recently bishop Cumberland in England, have given an estimate of the whole of his armour as exceeding three hundred pounds weight.
1Sa 17:7. His spear was like a weavers beam in thickness, and twelve feet or more in length. Homer, Iliad 6., says that Hectors spear was eleven feet in length. When he met Achilles in front of the Greek and Trojan armies, the soldiers suspended the battle to see the single combat. Hector threw his spear, which glided off Achilles coat of mail; then Achilles putting his spear between Hectors legs, threw him on his back, and pierced the side of his throat, which was the signal of victory to the Greeks.
1Sa 17:16. The Philistinepresented himself, at the time of morning and evening parade, for forty days. He defied the army, and execrated the God of Israel. This was conformable to the ancient usages. Balak sent for Balaam to curse Jacob, and defy Israel. When the Romans attacked the Druids in the Isle of Anglesey, women were seen with torches, cursing and defying them. It was frequently the case for armies to encamp against each other for a long time, particularly in the wars between the Nabobs of India.
1Sa 17:26. David spake to the men that stood byWhat shall be done for the man that killeth this Philistine? Prompted by the Spirit of God, he had come with bread for his brothers in his simplicity, not knowing the insults offered daily to JEHOVAH. He who had anointed David for the throne, opened his way by illustrious means for elevation.
1Sa 17:32. David said to Saulthy servant will go and fight with this Philistine. Had it not been for the heroism of slaying a lion one day, and a bear on another, Saul would not have confided the honour of the field to a youth, but twenty three years of age. Killing a lion placed Hercules in the list of heroes. The king perceived that David had a soul equal to the fight, and prayed the Lord to be with him: 1Sa 17:37.
1Sa 17:35. I caught by the beard, which includes his nostrils. The LXX read throat, which associates best with the idea of suffocation.
1Sa 17:40. He took his staff, the rod of his sling used as a staff, and chose five smooth stones out of the brook which ran between the two armies. David perceived that Goliath, like the massy Memnon, was heavily armed for close fight, and resolved to attack him by missiles, which would render his strength and his armour of no avail. Bethlehem was adjacent to the children of Benjamin, many of whom could sling a stone to a hairs breadth and not miss. David had perfected himself in the use of the sling, a weapon which gentiles also had carried to perfection.
1Sa 17:43. The Philistine cursed David, ba-Elohaiv, by his gods. It is difficult to say whether he understood this Hebrew word. Menochius gives us here a Roman form of execration. Dii te, Deaeque perdant, may the gods and goddesses destroy thee. Davids God requited these curses on Goliaths head, by covering his eyes with a vapour, as it would seem, so that he repelled not the stone.
1Sa 17:49. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell upon his face to the earth: he fell to rise no more. The prostration of this monster reminds us of Virgils description of the fall of Entellus.
Entellus vires in ventum effudit, et ultr Ipse gravis graviterque ad terram pondere vasto Concidit: ut quondam cava concidit, aut Erymantho, Aut Id in magn, radicibus eruta pious, N. lib. 5. 50:446.
Entellus wastes his forces on the wind; And thus deluded of the stroke designd, Headlong and heavy fell; his ample breast, And weighty limbs, his ancient mother pressd. So falls a hollow pine, that long had stood On Idas height, or Erymanthus wood, Torn from the roots, DRYDEN.
REFLECTIONS.
The Philistines, after the late war, having learned the particulars of their shameful flight from the sword of Jonathan, now seem anxious to recover their tarnished honour, and to excel the Hebrews in single combat, as well as in pitched battles. Thus private passions often occasion war; but God permits it for the punishment of wicked nations. The hero they had trained and armed in a coat of mail for this purpose, was Goliath of the ancient race of giants. His armour being highly polished, shed a terrific lustre on the trembling Hebrews. So the infidel age, by principle and by practice, bids defiance to the judgments of heaven, and ridicules the sanctifying fears of holy men.
At this juncture of time, when Saul had lost his courage, and when all his host were assailed with fear, David arrived at the camp. He heard the monster on the fortieth day, and the fortieth time blaspheme the name of his God; and his soul rose high in proportion as others feared. He heard the vast rewards of the king till his courage reached the royal ear. When Eliab, impelled by passion, severely accused him of pride, he proceeded with his enquiries; and when Saul discouraged him on the consideration of his youth, he mentioned the lion and the bear, deeds he could not have named with modesty, but in his present situation. Saul at last, hardly persuaded, armed him like Goliath; but this armour David laid aside, as ill according with his faith. So our blessed Lord, not believed on by his brethren, forsaken of his disciples, encountered death in single combat; and by the redemption of man, and his resurrection from the dead, he has laid the boasting of hell prostrate in the dust.
Behold now this stripling, despised on all sides, and apparently unarmed, approach the insulting foe. But he approaches in the name and strength of the Lord, and gives him a deadly wound in the height of all his pride, and in the last day of his contempt of God. Herod also, insulting heaven, fell by the angel, in the highest splendour of glory; so the Lord often overthrows his foes when they have attained the summit of wickedness and pride.
In Goliaths fall we see the end of infidel and blaspheming men, who despise the name, and deride the judgments of the Lord. What a humiliation to Philistia which trusted in an arm of flesh: what a joy to Israel, to see the monster fall before a stripling, whose coat of mail was faith in God, and whose weapons were simply a stone and a sling. Well might the alien fly, and Israel pursue. It is God who giveth the victory, and encreaseth strength to them that have no might.
In Davids triumphant return to Saul, we see that he paid due homage to his king, and ascribed salvation to the Lord. He regarded this victory as the peculiar gift of heaven. Feeling his soul animated by a divine impetus, he had hurled back the boasting sneer of the heathen; and in the power of faith, laid him prostrate by the first effort of his arm. Thus the proud boaster had not power to raise his shield and repel a stone; the defier of the living God fell by the smallest touch of divine indignation. Israels tears were now turned to joy; all their confessions of fear and discouragement were at once changed to shouts; and Philistia could never more bring a champion into the field. In all this we cannot but be reminded of what Christ has done for us. Yea, the Holy Spirit seems to have alluded to our redemption by Davids victory. I wept much, says St. John, when no man was found worthy to open the book. But the angel said weep not, for behold the lion of the tribe of Judah hath prevailed to take the book, and to unloose the seals thereof. David, descended from Judah, having rent a lion, and slain Goliath, did the more strikingly prefigure our Saviour, who by a single stroke, not in Sauls armour, hath vanquished death, and triumphed over all the powers of darkness on the cross. Rise, christian Israel; turn the battle to the gates of the enemy. Isa 9:4. Rise and spoil the alien. Rise and give glory to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1Sa 17:1 to 1Sa 18:5. David and Goliath (E, with additione by R).In this section two narratives seem to have been interwoven. For the sake of convenience, we may denote one set of passages by (A), and the other by (B), thus:
(A) 1Sa 17:1-11, 1Sa 17:32-54.
(B) 1Sa 17:12-31, 1Sa 17:55 to 1Sa 18:5.
The (B) passages, together with 1Sa 17:41 and 1Sa 17:50, are omitted by very many MSS. of the LXX, including the very important Vatican Codex. (A) by itself would form a complete narrative, and would not present any very glaring inconsistencies with the previous chapters (cf., however, below). (B), even with the addition of 1Sa 17:41 and 1Sa 17:50, could hardly be read as a complete narrative.
Two explanations have been given of these facts:
(i) Apart from minor textual changes, the whole section, 1Sa 17:1 to 1Sa 18:5, belongs together and was taken from the same document. The (B) passages were omitted by LXX on account of the contradiction between them and 1Sa 16:10
1Sa 17:23. In 1Sa 16:10 ff., David is a member of the court, in favour with Saul, and known to Saul and his courtiers; in (B) David is introduced as if he had not been mentioned before (1Sa 17:12-15), and neither Saul nor Abner knows anything about him.
The objection to this view is that such omissions imply a critical insight which we cannot suppose in the translatorstheir treatment of the text elsewhere does not suggest that they possessed such insight. Moreover, LXX makes similar omissions in the next section, where it seems clear that they are following a Hebrew original and not improving the story to suit their own critical judgment.
We should, therefore, prefer:
(ii) That (B) was added to the Hebrew text from some document other than that from which (A) was taken, and may be classed as R.
It remains to consider the origin of (A) and (B) respectively.
The simplest and most obvious view, is that (A) is from the ancient narrative, and continues 1Sa 16:23. The difficulty is that David is spoken of as a youth, and apparently as unaccustomed to armour (1Sa 17:33; 1Sa 17:38; 1Sa 17:40; 1Sa 17:42), whereas in 1Sa 16:18; 1Sa 16:21, he is an experienced warrior, and an armourbearer. It may be possible to reconcile these verses, especially if we omit a mighty man of valour and a man of war in 1Sa 16:18, but most authorities refer (A) and 1Sa 16:10-23 to different sources, (A) being from a secondary source (E) (cf. p. 273). In 2Sa 21:19, it said that Elhanan slew Goliath.
(B), as we have said, is not a complete story. It is probably taken from another independent source, the rest of which is lost; it would probably be of late date.
These facts are important as showing that either the Hebrew text was substantially modified after LXX was made, or that as late as that time different Heb. MSS. presented substantial differences.
1Sa 17:41 and 1Sa 17:50 should perhaps be included in (B), or they may be independent editorial insertions, as is 1Sa 17:54.
1Sa 17:1-11. There was again war with the Philistines; the opposing armies were encamped opposite each other, probably rather more than half-way from Bethlehem to Gath, when Goliath made his challenge.
1Sa 17:4. six cubits and a span: about 9 ft. 6 in.
1Sa 17:5. five thousand shekels: probably about 220 lb.
1Sa 17:12-15. David is introduced in a brief notice.
1Sa 17:17-31. Jesse sends David to the army: he hears Goliaths challenge, and learns that if any man kills him, the king will reward the victor by giving him his daughter with a large dowry, and will exempt his kinsfolk from taxes and tithes and forced labour. Eliab, Davids eldest brother, rebukes his presumption in meddling in these high mattersapparently Davids manner suggested that he might accept the challenge. Davids answer is not clear; perhaps it should run, What have I now done? Is it not a matter of importance? David continued his excited talk to all and sundry, and at last they took him to the king (so important LXX MSS., instead of and he sent for him).
1Sa 17:32-39. David induces Saul to allow him to fight Goliath, and Saul clothes him with his own armour (so better than apparel. The last clause of 1Sa 17:38, and he clad, etc., may be omitted with LXX). But David found that Sauls arms and armour embarrassed him, and put them off.
1Sa 17:40-51. So he went to meet Goliath, armed only with a sling and stones. After an interchange of taunts, David brought down Goliath with a shot from his sling, and then cut off his head with his own (Goliaths) sword. The Philistines fled.
1Sa 17:52-54. The Israelites pursue as far as Gath (not Gai) and Ekron, and then return and spoil their camp. 1Sa 17:54 is apparently a very late addition. Jerusalem was still in the hands of the Jebusites, and as David had only just arrived from Bethlehem, he would have no tent.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
The time comes when both Saul and David are to be publicly proven as regards their fitness to rule over Israel. The Philistines, though previously defeated through Jonathan’s faith, return to challenge Israel, but with a different approach. The armies of Israel occupy a height on one side of a valley and the Philistines similarly stationed on the other side. If one army wanted to attack, they would have to cross the valley and climb up the other side, which would put them at great disadvantage.
The Philistines had a man who was their champion, a giant from Gath named Goliath, whose height was over nine feet. His armour is mentioned, first his helmet of brass. This tells us that typically he has made his head (his mind) impervious to being influenced by the word of God; for “the god of this world has blinded the minds of them that believe not” (2Co 4:4). His whole body was similarly protected by armour of great weight, so that a sword in the hand of a weaker man would mean nothing. The size of his offensive weapon (his spear) is emphasized, both its shaft and its head. He could easily overreach any ordinary adversary and kill him before the other got within striking distance. He illustrates the stature and power of the well-trained controversialists of this world, the boasted strength of man in the flesh. He is well prepared too by the help of a man bearing a shield to go before him.
Goliath’s challenge fills the hearts of the men of Israel (including Saul) with fear and dismay. He defies the armies of Israel, asking for one man to come and fight with him, and the whole issue of victory for either side would depend on which man killed the other. Even Saul, though head and shoulders above the rest of the people, was no match for the giant, and having rejected the Word of the Lord, he could expect no help from Him.
In verse 12 David is introduced again, with the reminder of whose son he was and his being the last of eight sons. The number 8 symbolizes a new beginning, just as the new covenant has set aside the old now that Christ has come. The three eldest sons of Jesse were in Saul’s army, while David had returned home from Saul’s service to shepherd his father’s sheep. How long he was at home we are not told, but the giant continued to deliver his challenge to Israel every morning for forty days (v.16), before David returned to visit his brothers in army.
Verse 17 tells us that Jesse sent David with some provisions and a message to his brethren, just as God the Father sent His Son to Israel, His brethren in the flesh. At the time there was fighting continuing between Israel and the Philistines (v.19), though no one had accepted Goliath’s challenge. David arrived as the army was in process of preparing to engage the enemy. He left all that he brought with him in the hands of an army steward, and ran immediately into the army to greet his brothers (v.22).
As they were talking together Goliath appeared, voicing his daily challenge against any man of Israel who would fight with him. This only made the men of Israel recoil in fear. Their words in verse 25 express this fear, but are an answer to David’s question recorded in verse 26. David shows no fear of the giant in his questioning, for he asks, “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?” His formidable size makes no difference to David: when he defies God’s armies, it is God whom he is defying. David is told that one who would fight and kill Goliath would be greatly enriched by the king, given the king’s daughter as wife, and have his father’s house made free in Israel. Perhaps this third reward was the reason for Saul’s later inquiring as to whose son David was (v.58).
Goliath’s defying of Israel surely reminds us of Satan’s challenging God’s authority among His people. It may be by means of ungodly men that Satan does this, as all history witnesses. David is a type of Christ, and also illustrates the work of Christ IN HIS PEOPLE during the present dispensation of grace when Christ is not reigning though having been anointed. David asked questions and also spoke plainly in his confession of “the living God” (v.26). This shows both humble wisdom and firm, decided faith.
David’s questioning and his speaking for “the living God” awakened the animosity of his elder brother Eliab, who was evidently envious of David’s having previously been anointed by Samuel. Eliab was not prepared to do anything by faith in regard to Goliath’s challenge, and was not happy to think that his younger brother was suggesting taking positive action. He speaks insultingly to David, “Why have you come down? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your insolence and the wickedness of your heart: for you have come down in order to see the battle” (v.28 — NASB).
David however uses a soft answer. He had come because his father had sent him: was there anything offensive in what he had done or said? So also the Lord Jesus did not respond angrily to Israel, his brethren according to the flesh, when they treated Him with unjust contempt. Yet He did not give up doing that for which God had sent him. We must not be intimidated by relatives or friends, no more than by enemies.
When Saul heard how David had been speaking among the people (v.31), he at least did not treat him with contempt: after forty days of Goliath’s challenges he was ready to grasp any hope of having the giant defeated. He called for David, and David immediately told him that Israel may take courage: he would go and fight the Philistine. Saul objects that this was impossible for a youth like David, when Goliath was a practiced man of war. David had all the odds against him.
David’s confidence was not shaken by this (v.34): he informed Saul of two occasions when he was keeping his father’s sheep, one of a lion stealing a lamb, the other of a bear doing the same. In each case David pursued the animal, attacked it and took the lamb from its mouth. Then facing it head on he caught it by the beard and killed it. It is important for us to observe that David did not do this to show off his own strength: in fact there were likely no witnesses. It was his concern for the lamb that moved him, and God gave him strength on this account. If one has a shepherd’s heart of love for the people of God, together with concern for the honor of God among His people, then he may fully count on God to enable him to defeat the power of ungodly enemies.
David therefore speaks with calm certainty (vs.36-37). The Philistine would suffer the same fate as the lion and the bear because he had defied the armies of the living God, not because David was more capable than he. The living God would certainly intervene in this case and deliver David. His confidence persuades Saul to give him permission to go, though Saul recognizes too that the Lord must be with him if he is to triumph.
Still, Saul thought it necessary that David should be protected by armour (v.38). this seemed only sensible, for Goliath was well armed. In fact Saul was willing to contribute his own armour for such a cause. It is no wonder, when it was put on David, that he was only encumbered by it. He was not accustomed to any such thing, let alone using the armour of a man so much bigger than he. God does not require human arrangements for the doing of His work.
David dispensed with the armour and took with him only a staff, a sling and five smooth stones in a shepherd’s bag (v.40). The stones came from the brook, where they had been smoothed by the flow of water over a long period of time. The water is a well known type of the Word of God (Eph 5:26), and when it is running (or living) water, the energizing power of the Spirit of God is involved in it (Joh 7:38-39). Believers are said to be “living stones” (1Pe 2:5), the stone being God’s workmanship in contrast to bricks (Gen 11:3) which are man-made. These stones are smoothed by the action of the water, the Spirit of God applying the Word of God to the hearts of believers. When this is true, the believer becomes vitally identified with the Word he believers. This is proven by Mar 4:14 : “The sower sows the Word,” and Mat 13:38 : “The good seed are the children of the kingdom.” Similarly the stone speaks of a believer, but as formed by the Word and Spirit of God, therefore each stone may be likened to a particular scripture that has become real to the heart of one who uses it.
David is far more well armed than would appear to people on the surface, just as one who has learned the Word of God is far better armed than one who is well versed in all the arguments of unbelief. When Goliath sees David approaching him without armour or sword, he speaks to him with haughty contempt (vs.41-44). Was he a dog that one should come to him with sticks? Cursing David by his own idolatrous gods, he tells him disdainfully that he will give his flesh to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field. Wicked men or women can be extremely arrogant when they think they have no real opposition.
David’s answer (vs.45-47) does not show anything of the same spirit, however, for he does not come with sword and spear as does Goliath, but in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel whom Goliath had defied. He speaks respectfully but firmly with the calm conviction that the Lord would deliver Goliath into David’s hands to be killed and decapitated, and that the dead bodies of the Philistine
Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible
2. The reason for God’s selection of David ch. 17
The exciting story of David and Goliath illustrates what it was that God saw in David’s heart that led Him to choose David for the position of king. It also shows how and why others in Israel began to notice David. David fought the Lord’s battles, as Samuel did (ch. 7). He also did so as Saul, God’s previously anointed king, had done (chs. 10-11, 14-15).
Saul’s defeat of the Ammonites (1Sa 11:1-11) followed Saul’s anointing (1Sa 10:1). Similarly David’s defeat of the Philistines (ch. 17) follows the record of his anointing (1Sa 16:13). Both victories demonstrate God’s blessing on His newly anointed leaders. [Note: For a brief discussion of the problem of the shorter Septuagint version of chapters 17 and 18, see The NET Bible note on 1 Samuel 17:1.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
The Philistine challenge 17:1-11
The Elah (Oak) Valley is an S-shaped valley just south of the Sorek Valley, where Samson earlier lived. It runs east and west parallel to it. Socoh stood to the east and Azekah to the west. Some authorities believe Ephes-dammim stood west of Socoh and south of Azekah, but its location is debated. Gath was 7 miles to the west and was the closest Philistine town.
"That Saul now came to meet the Philistines, even at the west end of the Elah Valley-and so before the enemy could penetrate Israelite country very far-shows that he had not given up in his rule just because he had been rejected. As far as he was concerned, apparently, he was still king and he was going to carry on as though nothing had changed." [Note: Wood, Israel’s United . . ., p. 151.]
Goliath was apparently 9 feet 9 inches tall. Another view is that he was 6 feet 9 inches tall. [Note: See the note on 1Sa 17:4 in the NET Bible, and J. Daniel Hays, "Reconsidering the Height of Goliath," Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 48:4 (December 2005):701-14; Clyde E. Billington, "Goliath and the Exodus Giants: How Tall Were They?" Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 50:3 (September 2007):489-508; and Hays, "The Height of Goliath: A Response to Clyde Billington," Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 50:3 (September 2007):509-16.] He was probably a descendant of the Anakim who had moved to Philistia after Joshua drove them out of Hebron (Jos 11:21-22). Five thousand shekels’ weight equals 125 pounds (1Sa 17:5). Goliath’s spearhead weighed 15 pounds (1Sa 17:7), about the weight of a standard shot-put. This is an unusually long description of an individual for the Old Testament. The writer evidently wanted to impress Goliath’s awesome power and apparent invulnerability on the readers so we would appreciate David’s great courage and faith.
The Philistines proposed a battle in which two representative champions from Israel and Philistia would duel it out, a not uncommon method of limiting war in the ancient world (cf. 2 Samuel 2). [Note: Harry A. Hoffner Jr., "A Hittite Analogue to the David and Goliath Contest of Champions?" Catholic Biblical Quarterly 30 (1968):220. See also George I. Mavrodes, "David, Goliath, and Limited War," Reformed Journal 33:8 (1983):6-8.] However, the Israelites had no one who could compete with Goliath physically. That was the only dimension to the conflict that Saul and his generals saw. Since Saul was the tallest Israelite and the king, he was the natural choice for an opponent. However, as earlier (1Sa 14:1-2), Saul was staying in the background when he should have been leading the people.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
CHAPTER XXIV.
DAVID’S CONFLICT WITH GOLIATH
1Sa 17:1-58.
THESE irrepressible Philistines were never long recovering from their disasters. The victory of Jonathan had been impaired by the exhaustion of the soldiers, caused by Saul’s fast preventing them from pursuing the enemy as far, and destroying their force as thoroughly, as they might have done. A new attack was organized against Israel, headed by a champion, Goliath of Gath, whose height must have approached the extraordinary stature of ten feet. Against this army Saul arrayed his force, and the two armies fronted each other on opposite sides of the valley of Elah. This valley has generally been identified with that which now bears the name of Wady-es-Sumt – a valley running down from the plateau of Judah to the Philistine plain, not more than perhaps eight or ten miles from Bethlehem. The Philistine champion appears to have been a man of physical strength corresponding to the massiveness of his body. The weight of his coat of mail is estimated at more than one hundred and fifty pounds, and the head of his spear eighteen pounds. Remembering the extraordinary feats of Samson, the Philistines might well fancy that it was new their turn to boast of a Hercules. Day after day Goliath presented himself before the army of Israel, calling proudly for a foeman worthy of his steel, and demanding that in default of any one able to fight with him and kill him, the Israelites should abandon all dream of independence, and become vassals of the Philistines. And morning and evening, for nearly six weeks, had this proud challenge been given, but never once accepted. Even Jonathan, who had faith enough and courage enough and skill enough for so much, seems to have felt himself helpless in this great dilemma. The explanation that has sometimes been given of his abstention, that it was not etiquette for a king’s son to engage in fight with a commoner, can hardly hold water; Jonathan showed no such squeamishness at Michmash; and besides, in cases of desperation etiquette has to be thrown to the winds. Of the host of Israel, we read simply that they were dismayed. Nor does Saul seem to have renewed the attempt to get counsel of God after his experience on the day of Jonathan’s victory. The Israelites could only look on in grim humiliation, sullenly guarding the pass by the valley into their territories, but returning a silent refusal to the demand of the Philistines either to furnish a champion or to become their servants.
The coming of David upon the scene corresponded in its accidental character to the coming of Saul into contact with Samuel, to be designated for the throne. Everything seemed to be casual, yet those things which seemed most casual were really links in a providential chain leading to the gravest issues. It seemed to be by chance that David had three brothers serving in Saul’s army; it seemed also to be by chance that their father sent his youthful shepherd son to inquire after their welfare; it was not by design that as he saluted his brethren Goliath came up and David heard his words of defiance; still less was it on purpose to wait for David that Saul had sent no one out as yet to encounter the Philistine; and nothing could have appeared more ridiculous than that the challenge should wait to be answered by the stripling shepherd, who, with his sling and shepherd’s bag thrown over his shoulder, had so little of the appearance of a man of war. It seemed very accidental, too, that the only part of the giant’s person that was not thoroughly defended by his armour, his eyes and a morsel of his forehead above them, was the only part of him on which a small stone from a sling could have inflicted a fatal injury. But obviously all these were parts of the providential plan by which David was at once to confer on his country a signal boon, and to raise his name to the pinnacle of fame. And, as usual, all the parts of this pre-arranged plan fell out without constraint or interference; a new proof that Divine pre-ordination does not impair the liberty of man.
One cannot but wonder whether, in offering his prayers that morning, David had any presentiment of the trial that awaited him, anything to impel him to unwonted fervour in asking God that day to establish the works of his hands upon him. There is no reason to think that he had. His prayers that morning were in all likelihood his usual prayers. And if he was sincere in the expression of his own sense of weakness, and in his supplication that God would strengthen him for all the day’s duties, it was enough. Oh! how little we know what may be before us, on some morning that dawns on us just as other days, but which is to form a great crisis in our life. How little the boy that is to tell his first lie that day thinks of the serpent that is lying in wait for him I How little the girl that is to fall in with her betrayer thinks of the snare preparing for her body and her soul! How little the party that are to be upset in the pleasure boat and consigned to a watery grave think how the day is to end! Should we not pray more really, more earnestly if we did realize these possibilities? True, indeed, the future is hid from us, and we do not usually experience the impulse to earnestness which it would impart. But is it not a good habit, as you kneel each morning, to think, “For aught I know, this may be the most important day of my life. The opportunity may be given me of doing a great service in the cause of truth and righteousness; or the temptation may assail me to deny my Lord and ruin my soul. O God, be not far from me this day; prepare me for all that Thou preparest for me!”
The distance from Bethlehem being but a few hours walk, David starting in the morning would arrive early in the day at the quarters of the army. When he heard the challenge of the Philistine he was astonished to find that no one had taken it up. There was a mystery about this, about the cowardice of his countrymen, perhaps about the attitude of Jonathan, that he could not solve. Accordingly, with all that earnestness and curiosity with which one peers into all the circumstances surrounding a mystery, he asked, what encouragement there was to volunteer, what reward was any one to receive who should kill this Philistine? Not that he personally was caring about the reward, but he wished to solve the mystery. It is evident that the consideration that moved David himself was that the Philistine had defied the armies of the living God. It was the same arrogant claim to be above the God of Israel, which had puffed up their minds when they took possession of the ark and placed it in the temple of their god. “You thought so that day,” David might mutter, ”but what did you think next morning, when the mutilated image of your god lay prostrate on the floor? Please God, your sensations to-morrow, yea, this very fore-noon, shall be such as they were then.” The spirit of faith started into full and high activity, and the same kind of inspiration that had impelled Jonathan to climb into the garrison at Michmash now impelled David to vindicate the blasphemed name of Jehovah. Was it the flash of this inspiration in his eye, was it the tone of it in his voice, was it the consciousness that something desperate was to follow in the way of personal faith and daring, that roused the temper of Eliab, and drew from him a withering rebuke of the presumption of the stripling that dared to meddle with such matters? Eliab certainly did not spare him. Elder brothers are seldom remiss in rebuking the presumption of younger. “Why camest thou down hither? And with whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know thy pride and the naughtiness of thy heart; for thou art come down that thou mightest see the battle.” Irritating though such language was, it was borne with admirable meekness. “What have I now done? Is there not a cause?” “He that ruleth his spirit is greater than he that taketh a city.” Eliab showed himself defeated by his own temper, a most mortifying defeat; David held his temper firmly in command. Which was the greater, which the better man? And the short question he put to Eliab was singularly apt, ”Is there not a cause?” When all you men of war are standing helpless and perplexed in the face of this great national insult, is there not a cause why I should inquire into the matter, if, by God’s help, I can do any- thing for my God and my people?
Undaunted by his brother’s volley, he turned to someone else, and obtained a similar answer to his questions. Inspiration is a rapid process, and the course for him to pursue was now fully determined upon. His indignant tone and confident reliance on the God of Israel, so unlike the tone of everyone else excited the attention of the bystanders; they rehearsed his words to Saul, and Saul sent for him. And when he came to Saul, there was not the slightest trace of fear or faintheartedness about him. ”Let no man’s heart fail because of him; thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine.” Brave words, but, as Saul thinks, very foolish. ”You go and fight with the Philistine? you a mere shepherd boy, who never knew the brunt of battle, and he a man of war from his youth?” Yes Saul, that is just the way for you to speak, with your earthly way of viewing things; you, who measure strength only by a carnal standard, who know nothing of the faith that removes mountains, who forget the meaning of the name ISRA-EL, and never spent an hour as Jacob spent his night at Peniel! Listen to the reply of faith. ”And David said unto Saul Thy servant kept his father’s sheep, and there came a lion and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock; and I went out after him and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth; and when he arose against me I caught him by his beard, and smote him and slew him Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God. David said moreover, The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear. He will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine.”
Could there have been a nobler exercise of faith, a finer instance of a human spirit taking hold of the Invisible; fortifying itself against material perils by realizing the help of an unseen God; resting on His sure word as on solid rock; flinging itself fearlessly on a very sea of dangers; confident of protection and victory from Him? The only help to faith was the remembrance of the encounter with the lion and the bear, and the assurance that the same gracious help would be vouchsafed now. But no heart that was not full of faith would have thought of that, either as an evidence that God worked by him then, or as a sure pledge that God would work by him now. How many m adventurer or sportsman, that in some encounter with wild animals has escaped death by the very skin of his teeth, thinks only of his luck, or the happiness of the thought that led him to do so and so in what seemed the very article of death? A deliverance of this kind is no security against a like deliverance afterwards; it can give nothing more than a hope of escape. The faith of David recognized God’s merciful hand in the first deliverance, and that gave an assurance of it in the other. What! would that God that had helped him to rescue a lamb fail him while trying to rescue a nation? Would that God that had sustained him when all that was involved was a trifling loss to his father fail him in a combat that involved the salvation of Israel and the honour of Israel’s God? Would He who had subdued for him the lion and the bear when they were but obeying the instincts of their nature, humiliate him in conflict with one who was defying the armies of the living God? The remembrance of this deliverance confirmed his faith and urged him to the conflict, and the victory which faith thus gained was complete. It swept the decks clear of every vestige of terror; it went right to the danger, without a particle of misgiving.
There are two ways in which faith may assert its supremacy. One, afterwards very familiar to David, is, when it has first to struggle hard with distrust and fear; when it has to come to close quarters with the suggestions of the carnal mind, grapple with these in mortal conflict, strangle them, and rise up victorious over them. For most men, most believing men, it is only thus that faith rises to her throne. The other way is, to spring to her throne in a moment; to assert her authority, free and independent, utterly regardless of all that would hamper her, as free from doubt and misgiving as a little child in his father’s arms, conscious that whatever is needed that father will provide. It was this simple, child-like, but most triumphant exercise of faith that David showed in undertaking this conflict. Happy they who are privileged with such an attainment! Only let us beware of despairing if we cannot attain to this prompt, instinctive faith. Let us fall back with patience on that other process where we have to fight in the first instance with our fears and misgivings, driving them from us as David had often to do afterwards: ”Why art thou cast down, O my soul, and why art thou disquieted in me? Hope in God, for I will yet praise Him who is the health of my countenance and my God.”
And now David prepared himself for the contest Saul, ever carnal, and trusting only in carnal devices, is fain to clothe him in his armour, and David makes trial of his coat of mail; but he is embarrassed by a heavy covering to which he is not accustomed, and which only impedes the freedom of his arm. It is plain enough that it is not in Saul’s panoply that he can meet the Philistine. He must fall back on simpler means. Choosing five smooth stones out of the brook, with his shepherd’s staff in one hand and his sling in the other, he drew near to the Philistine. When Goliath saw him no words were bitter enough for his scorn. He had sought a warrior to fight with; he gets a boy to annihilate. It is a paltry business. “Come to me, and I will give thy flesh to the fowls of the air and to the beasts of the fields.” ”Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might.” Was ever such proof given of the sin and folly of boasting as in the case of Goliath? And yet, as we should say, how natural it was for Goliath! But pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. In the spiritual conflict it is the surest presage of defeat. It was the Goliath spirit that puffed up St. Peter when he said to his Master, ”Lord, I will go with Thee to prison and to death.” It is the same spirit against which St. Paul gives his remarkable warning, “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” Can it be said that it is a spirit that Churches are always free from? Are they never tempted to boast of the talents of their leading men, the success of their movements, and their growing power and influence in the community? And does not God in His providence constantly show the sin and folly of such boasting? ”Because thou sayest, I am rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing, and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.”
In beautiful contrast with the scornful self-confidence of Goliath was the simplicity of spirit and the meek, humble reliance on God, apparent in David’s answer: “Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield; but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. This day will the Lord deliver thee into my hand; and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee; and I will give the carcasses of the Philistines this day to the fowls of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. And all this assembly shall know that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s, and He will give you into our hand.”
What a reality God was to David! He advanced “as seeing Him who is invisible.” Guided by the wisdom of God, he chose his method of attack, with all the simplicity and certainty of genius. Conscious that God was with him, he fearlessly met the enemy. A man of less faith might have been too nervous to take the proper aim. Undisturbed by any fear of missing, David hurls the stone from his sling, hits the giant on the unprotected part of his forehead, and in a moment has him reeling on the ground. Advancing to his prostrate foe, he seizes his sword, cuts off his head, and affords to both friends and foes unmistakable evidence that his opponent is dead. Rushing from their tents, the, Philistines fly towards their own country, hotly pursued by the Israelites. It was in these pursuits of flying foes that the greatest slaughter occurred in those Eastern countries, and the whole road was strewn with the dead bodies of the foe to the very gates of Ekron and Gaza. In this pursuit, however, David did not mingle. With the head of the Philistine in his hands, he came to Saul. It is said that afterwards he took the head of Goliath to Jerusalem, which was then occupied, at least in part, by the Benjamites (Jdg 1:21), though the Stronghold of Zion was in the hands of the Jebusites (2Sa 5:7). We do not know why Jerusalem was chosen for depositing this ghastly trophy. All that it is necessary to say in relation to this is, that seeing it was only the stronghold of Zion that is said to have been held by the Jebusites, there is no ground for the objection which some critics have taken to the narrative that it cannot be correct, since Jerusalem was not yet in the hands of the Israelites.
It cannot be doubted that David continued to hold the same conviction as before the battle, that it was not he that conquered, but God. We cannot doubt that after the battle he showed the same meek and humble spirit as before. Whatever surprise his victory might be to the tens of thousands who witnessed it, it was no surprise to him. He knew beforehand that he could trust God, and the result showed that he was right. But that very spirit of implicit trust in God by which he was so thoroughly influenced kept him from taking any of the glory to himself. God had chosen him to be His instrument, but he had no credit from the victory for himself. His feeling that day was the very same as his feeling at the close of his military life, when the Lord had delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies: – “The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer; the God of my rock, in Him will I trust; He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my high tower and my refuge, my saviour; Thou savest me from violence.”
While David was preparing to fight with the Philistine, Saul asked Abner whose son he was. Strange to say, neither Abner nor anyone else could tell. Nor could the question be answered till David came back from his victory, and told the king that he was the son of Jesse the Bethlehemite. We have already remarked that it was strange that Saul should not have recognized him, inasmuch as he had formerly given attendance on the king to drive away his evil spirit by means of his harp. In explanation it has been urged by some that David’s visit or visits to Saul at that time may have been very brief, and as years may have elapsed since his last visit, his appearance may have so changed as to prevent recognition. On the part of others, another explanation has been offered. Saul may have recognized David at first, but he did not know his family. Now that there was a probability of his becoming the king’s son-in-law, it was natural that Saul should be anxious to know his connections. The question put to Abner was, Whose son is this youth? The commission given to him was to enquire “whose son the stripling is.” And the information given by David was, “I am the son of thy servant Jesse the Bethlehemite.” It may be added that there is some difficulty about the text of this chapter. It seems as if somehow two independent accounts of David had been mixed together. And in one important version of the Septuagint several passages that occur in the received text are omitted, certainly with the result of removing some difficulties as the passage stands.
It is not possible to read this chapter without some thought of the typical character of David, and indeed the typical aspect of the conflict in which he was now engaged. We find an emblematic picture of the conquest of Messiah and His Church. The self-confident boasting of the giant, strong in the resources of carnal might, and incapable of appreciating the unseen and invincible power of a righteous man in a righteous cause, is precisely the spirit in which opposition to Christ has been usually given, “Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.” The contempt shown for the lowly appearance of David, the undisguised scorn at the notion that through such a stripling any deliverance could come to his people, has its counterpart in the feeling towards Christ and His Gospel to which the Apostle alludes: “We preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness.” The calm self-possession of David, the choice of simple but suitable means, and the thorough reliance on Jehovah which enabled him to conquer, were all exemplified, in far higher measure, in the moral victories of Jesus, and they are still the weapons which enable His people to overcome. The sword of Goliath turned against himself, the weapon by which he was to annihilate his foe, employed by that very foe to sever his head from his body, was an emblem of Satan’s weapons turned by Christ against Satan, “through death he destroyed him that had the power of death, and delivered them who all their lifetime were subject to bondage.” The representative character of David, fighting, not for himself alone but the whole nation, was analogous to the representative character of Christ. And the shout that burst from the ranks of Israel and Judah when they saw the champion of the Philistines fall, and the enemy betake themselves in consternation to flight, foreshadowed the joy of redeemed men when the reality of Christ’s salvation flashes on their hearts, and they see the enemies that have been harassing them repulsed and scattered – a joy to be immeasurably magnified when all enemies are finally conquered, and the loud voice is heard in heaven, “Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God and the power of His Christ; for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, that accused them before our God day and night.”
Lastly, while we are instructed by the study of this conflict, let us be animated by it too. Let us learn never to quail at carnal might arrayed against the cause of God. Let us never fear to attack sin, however apparently invincible it may be. Be it sin within or sin without, sin in our hearts or sin in the world, let us go boldly at it, strong in the might of God. That God who delivered David from the paw of the wild beast, and from the power of the giant, will make us more than conquerors – will enable us to spoil “principalities and powers and triumph openly over them.”