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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - 1 Samuel 17:1 - 17:11
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Goliath's Defiance of Israel
v. 1. Now, the Philistines, the federation of the five city states, gathered together their armies to battle, and were gathered together at Shochoh, which belongeth to Judah, some ten miles southwest of Jerusalem, and pitched between Shochoh and Azekah, in Ephesdammim, in a range of hills which gave their camp a good strategic position.
v. 2. And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together and pitched by the Valley of Elah, in the Terebinth Valley, northeast of the Philistine position, and set the battle in array against the Philistines.
v. 3. And the Philistines stood on a mountain on the one side, literally, "towards the mountain," on the higher slopes, and Israel stood on a mountain on the other side; and there was a valley between them, the deeper bed of the brook.
v. 4. And there went out a champion out of the camp of the philistines, one of the few descendants of the giant race left by Joshua, Jos_11:22, named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span (about nine feet and nine inches).
v. 5. And he had an helmet of brass upon his head, and he was armed, clothed, with a coat of mail, a scale-corselet made of overlapping metal plates; and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of brass (a copper shekel being a little less than half an ounce, the total weight probably some 150 pounds).
v. 6. And he had greaves of brass upon his legs, where his coat of mail did not extend, and a target of brass, a copper lance, or javelin, between his shoulders.
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 (about seventeen pounds); and one bearing a shield went before him, for the great shield was needed only when the soldier was on the defensive.
v. 8. And he stood and cried unto the armies of Israel, the divisions and companies as they were set up in battle array, 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, to the valley beneath the hillside where the Israelites were standing in battle-line.
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. So Goliath's proposal was to have the entire matter decided by single combat, since he felt sure that the outcome would be in favor of the Philistines.
v. 10. And the Philistine said, I defy the armies of Israel this day, by issuing his challenge in this manner; give me a man that we may fight together. The contempt lay in the expression "slaves of Saul" and was expressed with all the greater boldness, since there was no answer on the part of Israel.
v. 11. When Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistine, they were dismayed, cast down, terrified, and greatly afraid. "Israel is afraid because its king Isaiah 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. "