Goliath’s Challenge

1The Philistines gathered their hoast to battayle, and came together to Socho which is in Iuda, and pytched betweene Socho and Azekah, in the coaste of Dammim. 2And Saul & the men of Israel came together, and pytched in the valley of Elah, and put them selues in battaile aray, to meete the Philistines. 3And the Philistines stoode on a mountaine on the one syde, and Israel stoode on a mountaine on the other syde, and there was a valley betweene them. 4And there came a man betweene the both, out of the tentes of the Philistines, named Goliath, of Gath: sixe cubites and a handbreadth long: 5And had an helmet of brasse vpon his head, and a coate of male about him. And the weight of his coate of mayle, was fiue thousand sicles of brasse. 6And he had bootes of brasse vpon his legges, and a shielde of brasse vpon his shoulders. 7And the shaft of his speare was lyke a weauers beame, and his speare head wayed sixe hundred sicles of iron: And one bearing a shielde went before him. 8And he stoode and cryed against the hoast of Israel, and sayde vnto them: Why are ye come to set your battaile in array? am not I a Philistine, and you seruauntes to Saul? choose you a man for you, and let him come downe to me. 9And if he be able to fyght with me, & to kill me, then will we be your seruauntes: But if I can ouercome hym & beate him, then shal ye be our seruautes and serue vs. 10And the Philistine sayde: I defie the hoast of Israel this day, geue me a man, that we may fight together. 11When Saul and all Israel heard those wordes of ye Philistine, they were discouraged, and greatly afraide.

David Accepts the Challenge

12Dauid was the sonne of an Ephrathite of Bethlehem Iuda, named Isai, which had eyght sonnes, & this man was taken for an olde man in the dayes of Saul. 13And the three eldest sonnes of Isai went, and folowed Saul to the battell: And the names of his three sonnes that went to battaile, were: Eliab the eldest, and the next Abinadab, and the thyrd Samma: 14And Dauid was the leaste. And the three eldest, went after Saul. 15Dauid also went, and departed from Saul, to feede his fathers sheepe at Bethlehem. 16And the Philistine came foorth in the morning and euening, and continued fourtie dayes.

17And Isai sayd vnto Dauid his sonne: Take for thy brethren an Epha of this partched corne, & these ten loaues, and runne to the hoast to thy brethren. 18And cary these ten freshe cheeses vnto the captayne, and loke howe thy brethren fare, and set out their pledge. 19And Saul and they and all the men of Israel were in the valley of Elah, fyghtyng with the Philistines.

20And Dauid rose vp early in ye morning, and left the sheepe with a keper, & toke, and went as Isai had commaunded him, and came within the compasse of the hoast: And the hoast went out in array, and shouted in the battaile. 21For Israel and the Philistines had put them selues in array armie against armie. 22And Dauid left the thinges which he bare, vnder the handes of the keper of the vessels, and ran into the hoast, and came, and saluted his brethren. 23And as he talked with them, behold, there stoode a man in the middes (Goliath the Philistine by name, of Gath) out of the armie of the Philistines, & spake such wordes: and Dauid heard it.

24And all the people of Israel, when they sawe the man, ranne away from him, and were sore afrayde. 25And euery man of Israel said: Sawe ye not this man that commeth vp? euen to reuile Israel is he come: And to him that killeth him, will the king geue great ritches, and will geue him his daughter thereto, yea and make his fathers house free in Israel.

26And Dauid spake to ye men that stoode by, and sayd: What shall be done to the man that killeth this Philistine, and taketh awaye the shame from Israel? And what is this vncircumcised Philistine, that he shoulde reuile the hoast of the liuing God? 27And the people aunswered him (after this maner) saying: So shall it be done to the man that killeth him.

28And Eliab his eldest brother heard when he spake vnto the men, and Eliab was angrye with Dauid, & sayde: Why camest thou downe hyther? and with whom hast thou left those fewe sheepe in the wildernes: I know thy pride and the malice of thyne heart, that thou art come downe to see the battel. 29And Dauid sayde: And what haue I nowe done? is there not a cause? 30And he departed from him into the presence of another, and spake of the same maner: and the people aunswered him againe, as before.

31And they that heard the wordes which Dauid spake, rehearsed them before Saul, which caused him to be fet. 32And Dauid sayde to Saul: Let no mans heart fayle him because of him: Thy seruaunt will go, and fight with yonder Philistine. 33And Saul sayde to Dauid againe: Thou art not able to go against yonder Philistine, to fight with him: For thou art but a childe, but he is a man of warre euen from his youth. 34Dauid aunswered vnto Saul: Thy seruaunt kept his fathers sheepe, & ther came a lion and likewise a beare, and toke a sheepe, out of the flocke: 35And I went out after him, and smote him, and toke it out of his mouth: And whe he arose against me, I caught him by the bearde, and smote him, and slue him. 36And so thy seruaunte slue both the lion, and the beare: And trulie this vncircumcised Philistine shalbe as one of them, seing he hath rayled on the hoast of the liuyng God. 37And Dauid spake moreouer: The Lord that deliuered me out of the hand of the lion, and out of the hande of the beare, he shal deliuer me also out of the hand of this Philistine. And Saul sayd vnto Dauid: Go, and the Lorde shall be with thee.

David Slays Goliath

38And Saul put his rayment vpon Dauid, and put an helmet of brasse vpon his head, and put a coate of mayle vpon him. 39And gyrded Dauid with his owne sword vpon his rayment, and he assayed to go, and because he neuer proued it, Dauid saide vnto Saul: I cannot go with these, for I haue not vsed my selfe thereto. And Dauid put them of him, 40And toke his staffe in his hand, and chose him fiue smoth stones out of a brooke, and put them in a shepheardes bagge which he had, that is in a scrippe, and his sling was in his hande, and he went to the Philistine.

41And the Philistine came and drewe neare against Dauid, and the man that bare the shielde went before him. 42And when the Philistine loked about & sawe Dauid, he disdayned him: for he was but young, ruddie & of a comly face. 43And the Philistine sayd vnto Dauid: Am I a dogge, that thou commest to me with staues? And the Philistine cursed Dauid in ye name of his goddes. 44And the Philistine sayde to Dauid: Come to me, and I wyll geue thy fleshe vnto the foules of the ayre, and to the beastes of the fielde. 45Then sayde Dauid to the Philistine: Thou commest to me with a sword, a speare, & a shielde: But I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hoastes, the God of the hoast of Israel, whom thou hast rayled vpon. 46This day shal the Lorde close thee into my hand, and I shall smite thee, & take thyne head from thee, & will geue the carkases of the hoast of the Philistines this daye vnto the foules of the ayre, & to the beastes of the earth, that all they which be in the worlde, maye knowe that there is a God in Israel: 47And all this congregation shal know that the Lorde saueth not with sword, & speare (For the battaile is ye Lordes) and he shall geue you into our handes.

48And when the Philistine arose to come and drawe nye to Dauid, Dauid hasted, and ran to fight against the Philistine, 49And Dauid put his hand in his bagge, and toke out a stone, and slang it, and smote the Philistine in his forehead, that the stone suncke into his forehead, and he fell groueling to the earth.

50And so Dauid ouercame the Philistine with a sling and a stone, and smote the Philistine, & slue him, euen when Dauid had no sword in his hand. 51But Dauid ran and stoode vpon the Philistine, and toke his sword, and drue it out of his sheathe, & slue him, and cut of his head therewith. And when the Philistines sawe that their champion was dead, they fled. 52And the men of Israel and of Iuda arose, and showted, and folowed after the Philistines, vntill they came to the valley, and vnto the gates of Acaron: And the Philistines fell downe wounded by the way to Saaraim, euen vnto Gath, and Acaron. 53And the children of Israel returned from chasing after the Philistines, and spoyled their tentes. 54And Dauid toke the head of the Philistine, and brought it to Hierusalem, but he put his armour in his tent.

55When Saul sawe Dauid go foorth against the Philistine, he sayd vnto Abner the captaine of his hoast: Abner, whose sonne is this young man? Abner aunswered: As thy soule liueth (O king) I cannot tell. 56And the king sayde: Enquire thou whose sonne the youngling is. 57And whe Dauid was returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, Abner toke him, & brought him before Saul, with the head of the Philistine in his hand. 58And Saul sayde to him: whose sonne art thou, thou young man? Dauid aunswered: I am the sonne of thy seruaunt Isai the Bethlehemite.