CHAPTER 17
1 Soothly the Philistines gathered together their companies into battle, and came together in Shochoh of Judah, and they setted tents betwixt Shochoh and Azekah, in the coasts of Dammim or Ephesdammim.
2 And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together, and came into the valley of Terebinth, and they dressed battle array to fight against [the] Philistines.
3 And the Philistines stood above the hill on this part, and Israel stood on the hill on the tother part of the valley, that was betwixt them.
4 And a man in the midst, that is, a strong man, and hardy, that goeth before the host, and is ready to fight against one of the enemies in singular battle, that is, man-to-man, went out of the Philistines’ tents, Goliath by name, of Gath, of six cubits high and a span;
5 and a brazen basinet on his head; and he was clothed with a mailed habergeon; and the weight of his habergeon was five thousand shekels of brass;
6 and he had on his thighs brazen boots, and a brazen shield covered his shoulders.
7 Forsooth the shaft of his spear was as the beam of webs; and the iron of his spear weighed six hundred shekels of iron; and his squire went before him.
8 And he stood, and cried against the companies of armed men of Israel, and said to them, Why came ye ready to battle? Whether I am not a Philistine, and ye be the servants of Saul? Choose ye a man of you, and come he down to a singular battle, that is, man-to-man;
9 if he may fight with me, and slay me, we shall be your servants; forsooth if I have the mastery, and slay him, ye shall be bond, and serve us.
10 And the Philistine said, I have said shame today to the companies of Israel; give ye [to me] a man, and begin he singular battle with me.
11 Soothly Saul and all men of Israel heard such words of the Philistine, and they were astonied, and dreaded greatly.
12 Forsooth David was the son of a man of Ephrath, of whom it is said before, of Bethlehem of Judah, to whom the name was Jesse, and he had eight sons; and in the days of Saul, Jesse was an old man, and of great age among men.
13 And the three eldest sons of Jesse went after Saul into battle; and the names of his three sons, that went to battle, were Eliab, the first begotten, and the second, Abinadab, and the third, Shammah.
14 And David was the youngest. Then while the three eldest sons pursued [or following] Saul,
15 David went, and turned again from Saul, that he should keep the flock of his father in Bethlehem.
16 Forsooth the Philistine came forth in the morrowtide, and [at] eventide; and stood by forty days [or standing and reproving the children of Israel for forty days].
17 And Jesse said to David his son, Take thou to thy brethren meat made of meal, the measure of ephah, and these ten loaves, and run thou into the tents to thy brethren;
18 and thou shalt bare to the tribune these ten small cheeses; and thou shalt visit thy brethren, whether they do rightly, and learn thou, with which men they be ordained.
19 Forsooth Saul, and they, and all the sons of Israel in the valley of Terebinth fought against the Philistines.
20 And so David rose early, and he betook the flock to a keeper, and he went charged, as Jesse commanded to him; and he came to the place of Magal or the circle of the camp, and to the host, the which host went out to the fight, and it cried [out] in the fighting.
21 For Israel had ordained battle array; and even against them, the Philistines were ready also.
22 Then David left the vessels, that he had brought, under the hand of a keeper at the fardels, and he ran to the place of [the] battle, and he asked, if all things were done rightly with his brethren.
23 And when he spake yet to them, that bastard [man] appeared, Goliath by name, the Philistine of Gath, and he went up from the tents of the Philistines; and while he spake these same words, David heard.
24 And when all the men of Israel had seen the man, they fled from his sight, and dreaded him greatly.
25 And each man of Israel said to other, Whether thou hast seen this man that hath gone up? forsooth he went up to say shame or reproof to Israel; therefore the king shall make rich with great riches the man that slayeth that Philistine; and the king shall give his daughter to that man, and shall make the house of his father without having to pay tribute in Israel.
26 And David spake to the men that stood with him, and said, What shall be given to the man that slayeth this Philistine, and doeth away shame from Israel? for who is this Philistine uncircumcised, that despiseth the battle arrays of God living?
27 Forsooth the people told to him the same word, and said, These things shall be given to the man that slayeth him.
28 And when Eliab, his more brother or the elder brother of David, had heard this, while he spake with other men, he was wroth against David, and said, Why camest thou hither, and why hast thou left those few sheep in desert? I know thy pride, and the waywardness of thine heart; for thou camest down to see the battle.
29 And David said, What have I done? Whether it is not but a word?
30 And David went thence a little from him to another man; and David said the same word, and the people answered to him the word as they did before.
31 And the words were heard, that David spake, and they were told before Saul. And when David was brought to Saul,
32 David spake to him thus, The heart of any man fall not down in him, for I thy servant shall go, and fight against the Philistine.
33 And Saul said to David, Thou mayest not against-stand this Philistine, neither fight against him, for thou art a child; forsooth this man is a warrior from his young waxing age.
34 And David said to Saul, Thy servant kept his father’s flock, and when a lion came, also or either a bear, and took away a ram from the midst of the flock;
35 I pursued, and killed them, and I ravished it from their mouth; and they rose against me, and I took their nether jowl, and I strangled, and killed them.
36 For I thy servant killed both the lion and the bear; therefore and this Philistine uncircumcised shall be as one of them. Now I shall go, and I shall do away the shame or the reproof of the people; for who is this Philistine uncircumcised, that was hardy to curse the host of God living?
37 And again David said, The Lord that delivered me from the mouth of the lion, and from the hand, that is, power, of the bear, he shall deliver me from the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said to David, Go thou, and the Lord be with thee.
38 And Saul clothed David with his clothes, and he set a brazen basinet on his head, and clothed him with an habergeon.
39 Therefore David was girded with his sword on his cloth, and began to assay if he might go armed; for he had not [the] custom. And David said to Saul, I may not go thus, for I have not the uses of it. And David put away those [things],
40 and he took his staff, that he had ever[more] in his hands. And he chose to him five full clear round stones, that is, hard, plain, and round, of the strand [or stream]; and he put those [or them] into his shepherd’s scrip, that he had with him; and he took a sling in his hand, and he went forth against the Philistine.
41 Soothly the Philistine went, going and nighing against David; and his squire went before him.
42 And when the Philistine had beheld David, and saw him, he despised David; forsooth David was a young waxing man, ruddy, and fair in sight.
43 And the Philistine said to David, Whether I am a dog, for thou comest to me with a staff? And the Philistine cursed David in his gods;
44 and he said to David, Come thou to me, and I shall give thy flesh to the fowls of the air, and to [the] beasts of the earth.
45 And David said to Goliath, Thou comest to me with a sword, and spear, and shield; but I come to thee in name of the Lord of hosts, God of the companies of Israel, to whom thou hast said reproof today.
46 And the Lord shall give thee into mine hand, and I shall slay thee, and I shall take thine head from thee; and today I shall give the dead bodies of the tents of Philistines to the fowls of heavens, and to the beasts of the earth; that all the earth know, that the Lord God is in Israel,
47 and that all this church know, that the Lord saveth not in sword neither in spear; for the battle is his, and he shall betake you into our hands.
48 Therefore when the Philistine had risen, and came, and nighed against David, David hasted, and ran to battle against the Philistine.
49 And David put his hand in his scrip, and he took out a stone, and he casted it with his sling, and led [it] about, and smote the Philistine in the forehead; and the stone was fastened in his forehead, and he felled down into his face on the earth.
50 And David had the mastery against the Philistine in a sling and a stone, and he killed the Philistine smitten. And when David had no sword in his hand,
51 he ran, and stood on the Philistine, and took his sword; and David drew out the sword of his sheath, and killed him, and cut off his head. And the Philistines saw, that the strongest of them was dead, and they fled.
52 And the sons of Israel and of Judah rose up together, and cried [out], and pursued the Philistines, till the time they came into the valley, and unto the gates of Ekron. And the wounded men of the Philistines fell down in the way of Shaaraim, and unto Gath, and unto Ekron.
53 And the sons of Israel turned again, after that they had pursued the Philistines, and they assailed their tents.
54 Forsooth David took the head of the Philistine, and brought it into Jerusalem; soothly he putted his arms or armours in the tabernacle of the Lord.
55 Forsooth in that time in which Saul saw David going out against the Philistine, he said to Abner, [the] prince of his chivalry, Abner, of what generation is this young man? And Abner said, King, thy soul liveth, I know not.
56 And the king said, Ask thou, whose son this boy is.
57 And when David had come again, when the Philistine was slain, Abner took David, and brought him in, having in the hand the head of the Philistine, before Saul.
58 And Saul said to him, Of what generation art thou, young man? And David said, I am the son of thy servant, Jesse of Bethlehem.