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The Blue Letter Bible

1 Samuel 17 :: New International Version (NIV)

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David and Goliath

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 17:1

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 17:1 - Now the Philistines gathered their forces for war and assembled at Sokoh in Judah. They pitched camp at Ephes Dammim, between Sokoh and Azekah.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 17:2

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 17:2 - Saul and the Israelites assembled and camped in the Valley of Elah and drew up their battle line to meet the Philistines.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 17:3

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 17:3 - The Philistines occupied one hill and the Israelites another, with the valley between them.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 17:4

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 17:4 - A champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp. His height was six cubits and a span.[fn]

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 17:5

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 17:5 - He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armor of bronze weighing five thousand shekels[fn];

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 17:6

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 17:6 - on his legs he wore bronze greaves, and a bronze javelin was slung on his back.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 17:7

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 17:7 - His spear shaft was like a weaver’s rod, and its iron point weighed six hundred shekels.[fn] His shield bearer went ahead of him.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 17:8

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 17:8 - Goliath stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, “Why do you come out and line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose a man and have him come down to me.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 17:9

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 17:9 - If he is able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects; but if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us.”

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 17:10

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 17:10 - Then the Philistine said, “This day I defy the armies of Israel! Give me a man and let us fight each other.”

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 17:11

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 17:11 - On hearing the Philistine’s words, Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 17:12

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 17:12 - Now David was the son of an Ephrathite named Jesse, who was from Bethlehem in Judah. Jesse had eight sons, and in Saul’s time he was very old.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 17:13

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 17:13 - Jesse’s three oldest sons had followed Saul to the war: The firstborn was Eliab; the second, Abinadab; and the third, Shammah.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 17:14

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 17:14 - David was the youngest. The three oldest followed Saul,

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 17:15

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 17:15 - but David went back and forth from Saul to tend his father’s sheep at Bethlehem.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 17:16

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 17:16 - For forty days the Philistine came forward every morning and evening and took his stand.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 17:17

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 17:17 - Now Jesse said to his son David, “Take this ephah[fn] of roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread for your brothers and hurry to their camp.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 17:18

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 17:18 - Take along these ten cheeses to the commander of their unit. See how your brothers are and bring back some assurance[fn] from them.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 17:19

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 17:19 - They are with Saul and all the men of Israel in the Valley of Elah, fighting against the Philistines.”

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 17:20

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 17:20 - Early in the morning David left the flock in the care of a shepherd, loaded up and set out, as Jesse had directed. He reached the camp as the army was going out to its battle positions, shouting the war cry.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 17:21

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 17:21 - Israel and the Philistines were drawing up their lines facing each other.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 17:22

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 17:22 - David left his things with the keeper of supplies, ran to the battle lines and asked his brothers how they were.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 17:23

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 17:23 - As he was talking with them, Goliath, the Philistine champion from Gath, stepped out from his lines and shouted his usual defiance, and David heard it.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 17:24

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 17:24 - Whenever the Israelites saw the man, they all fled from him in great fear.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 17:25

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 17:25 - Now the Israelites had been saying, “Do you see how this man keeps coming out? He comes out to defy Israel. The king will give great wealth to the man who kills him. He will also give him his daughter in marriage and will exempt his family from taxes in Israel.”

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 17:26

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 17:26 - David asked the men standing near him, “What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?”

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 17:27

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 17:27 - They repeated to him what they had been saying and told him, “This is what will be done for the man who kills him.”

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 17:28

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 17:28 - When Eliab, David’s oldest brother, heard him speaking with the men, he burned with anger at him and asked, “Why have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the wilderness? I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is; you came down only to watch the battle.”

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 17:29

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 17:29 - “Now what have I done?” said David. “Can’t I even speak?”

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 17:30

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 17:30 - He then turned away to someone else and brought up the same matter, and the men answered him as before.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 17:31

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 17:31 - What David said was overheard and reported to Saul, and Saul sent for him.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 17:32

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 17:32 - David said to Saul, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.”

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 17:33

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 17:33 - Saul replied, “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a young man, and he has been a warrior from his youth.”

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 17:34

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 17:34 - But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock,

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 17:35

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 17:35 - I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 17:36

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 17:36 - Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 17:37

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 17:37 - The LORD who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.” Saul said to David, “Go, and the LORD be with you.”

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 17:38

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 17:38 - Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 17:39

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 17:39 - David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them. “I cannot go in these,” he said to Saul, “because I am not used to them.” So he took them off.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 17:40

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 17:40 - Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd’s bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 17:41

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 17:41 - Meanwhile, the Philistine, with his shield bearer in front of him, kept coming closer to David.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 17:42

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 17:42 - He looked David over and saw that he was little more than a boy, glowing with health and handsome, and he despised him.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 17:43

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 17:43 - He said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 17:44

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 17:44 - “Come here,” he said, “and I’ll give your flesh to the birds and the wild animals!”

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 17:45

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 17:45 - David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 17:46

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 17:46 - This day the LORD will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 17:47

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 17:47 - All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.”

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 17:48

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 17:48 - As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 17:49

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 17:49 - Reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell facedown on the ground.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 17:50

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 17:50 - So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone; without a sword in his hand he struck down the Philistine and killed him.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 17:51

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 17:51 - David ran and stood over him. He took hold of the Philistine’s sword and drew it from the sheath. After he killed him, he cut off his head with the sword. When the Philistines saw that their hero was dead, they turned and ran.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 17:52

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 17:52 - Then the men of Israel and Judah surged forward with a shout and pursued the Philistines to the entrance of Gath[fn] and to the gates of Ekron. Their dead were strewn along the Shaaraim road to Gath and Ekron.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 17:53

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 17:53 - When the Israelites returned from chasing the Philistines, they plundered their camp.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 17:54

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 17:54 - David took the Philistine’s head and brought it to Jerusalem; he put the Philistine’s weapons in his own tent.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 17:55

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 17:55 - As Saul watched David going out to meet the Philistine, he said to Abner, commander of the army, “Abner, whose son is that young man?” Abner replied, “As surely as you live, Your Majesty, I don’t know.”

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 17:56

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 17:56 - The king said, “Find out whose son this young man is.”

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 17:57

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 17:57 - As soon as David returned from killing the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul, with David still holding the Philistine’s head.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 17:58

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 17:58 - “Whose son are you, young man?” Saul asked him. David said, “I am the son of your servant Jesse of Bethlehem.”
See the NIV Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).
NIV Footnotes
That is, about 9 feet 9 inches or about 3 meters
That is, about 125 pounds or about 58 kilograms
That is, about 15 pounds or about 6.9 kilograms
That is, probably about 36 pounds or about 16 kilograms
Or some token; or some pledge of spoils
Some Septuagint manuscripts; Hebrew of a valley
NIV

THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV®
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.®
Used by Permission of Biblica, Inc.® All rights reserved worldwide.


See detailed copyright information.

For more information on this translation, see the NIV Preface.

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1 Samuel Chapter 17 — Additional Translations:

King James Version New King James Version New Living Translation English Standard Version Christian Standard Bible New American Standard Bible 2020 New American Standard Bible 1995 Legacy Standard Bible Amplified Bible New English Translation Revised Standard Version American Standard Version Young's Literal Translation Darby Translation Webster's Bible Hebrew Names Version Latin Vulgate Westminster Leningrad Codex Septuagint Smith Van Dyck Arabic Bible Open New Arabic Version Brenton's English Septuagint Reina Valera 1909 Reina-Valera 1960 Bible in Basic English Chinese Traditional Union Espanol Moderno Korean Holy Bible Louis Segond German Luther Russian Synodal Translation Sagradas Escrituras