1 Samuel 17
A nine-foot Philistine shouts his challenge for forty days. A shepherd boy picks five smooth stones from the brook.
Summary
Chapter 17 is one of the most detailed and deliberately paced battle narratives in the Hebrew Bible. The Philistines and Israelites are encamped on opposite sides of the valley of Elah. The Philistine champion Goliath of Gath comes forward twice each day for forty days to propose a duel that would decide the war: choose a man; the loser's people become the winner's slaves. The narrator dwells on Goliath's equipment at unusual length — a bronze helmet, a coat of mail weighing five thousand shekels, greaves of bronze, a bronze javelin slung between his shoulders, a spear with an iron head weighing six hundred shekels. The description is meant to be crushing. Saul and all Israel are dismayed and greatly afraid.
David's arrival in the camp is accidental from David's perspective — his father Jesse has sent him with food for his brothers. When he hears the challenge and learns that the king has promised wealth, his daughter, and tax exemption to whoever defeats the Philistine, he begins asking about it and is eventually brought before Saul. The exchange with Saul is the chapter's first great dialogue: David's argument from the lion and the bear, Saul's doubt, David's answer — the Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine. The battle itself is told with deliberate economy. David picks five smooth stones from the brook, approaches Goliath, makes his declaration, and in three verses: the stone flies, Goliath falls face down, David cuts off his head with Goliath's own sword. The Philistines run. Israel pursues them. The boy with the sling has killed the giant of the narrative, and everything that follows in the book will be shaped by what he did in this chapter.
- 1 Samuel 1Chapter 1 opens at the sanctuary at Shiloh, where Elkanah of Ephraim brings his household each year to worship.
- 1 Samuel 2Chapter 2 opens with the Song of Hannah, one of the most influential poems in the Hebrew Bible — my heart exults in the Lord, the mighty brought low, the hungry fed, the barren bearing seven.
- 1 Samuel 3Chapter 3 is one of the most carefully paced call narratives in the Hebrew Bible.
- 1 Samuel 4Chapter 4 is the disaster that the previous chapters have been building toward.
- 1 Samuel 5Chapter 5 is the ark narrative in Philistine territory, told with something close to sardonic comedy.
- 1 Samuel 6Chapter 6 is the ark's return to Israel, engineered by Philistine priests who want to know whether their afflictions are the Lord's doing or mere coincidence.
- 1 Samuel 7Chapter 7 is the closing movement of the Samuel-as-judge arc.
- 1 Samuel 8Chapter 8 is the pivot of the entire book.
- 1 Samuel 9Chapter 9 introduces Saul, and the introduction is built on irony.
- 1 Samuel 10Chapter 10 is Saul's anointing and public selection.
- 1 Samuel 11Chapter 11 is Saul's first military action and the only chapter of his reign where he functions without any reservation or failure.
- 1 Samuel 12Chapter 12 is Samuel's formal farewell as Israel's judge, a speech that occupies the whole chapter.
- 1 Samuel 13Chapter 13 begins the decline.
- 1 Samuel 14Chapter 14 is a chapter of action and its costs.
- 1 Samuel 15Chapter 15 is the final disqualification.
- 1 Samuel 16Chapter 16 is the introduction of David and one of the most carefully constructed scenes of divine election in the Hebrew Bible.
- 1 Samuel 17Chapter 17 is the book's most famous chapter.
- 1 Samuel 18Chapter 18 is where the book's two great relationships crystallize.
- 1 Samuel 19Chapter 19 is the escalation from hostility to overt murderous intent.
- 1 Samuel 20Chapter 20 is the central scene of the David-Jonathan friendship and one of the great parting scenes in ancient literature.
- 1 Samuel 21Chapter 21 is a chapter of disguise and desperation.
- 1 Samuel 22Chapter 22 is one of the darkest chapters in the book.
- 1 Samuel 23Chapter 23 is a chapter of pursuit and one extraordinary meeting.
- 1 Samuel 24Chapter 24 is the first of two episodes in which David has Saul's life in his hands and refuses to take it.
- 1 Samuel 25Chapter 25 opens with Samuel's death — mourned by all Israel — and then turns to a story of David's near loss of self-control and the woman who stops it.
- 1 Samuel 26Chapter 26 is the second episode in which David refuses to kill Saul and, like chapter 24, it is structured to make the refusal as emphatic as possible.
- 1 Samuel 27Chapter 27 is the chapter of David's double game among the Philistines.
- 1 Samuel 28Chapter 28 is one of the strangest and most debated passages in the Hebrew Bible.
- 1 Samuel 29Chapter 29 is the resolution of a problem the narrative has been building toward: David, marching with Achish and the Philistine forces to fight against Israel.
- 1 Samuel 30Chapter 30 is the crisis of David's time among the Philistines.
- 1 Samuel 31Chapter 31 is the last chapter of 1 Samuel and the end of Saul's story.