1 Samuel 17:4

17:4 Then a champion 1  came out from the camp of the Philistines. His name was Goliath; he was from Gath. He was close to seven feet tall. 2 

1 Samuel 17:54

17:54 David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem, 3  and he put Goliath’s 4  weapons in his tent.

1 Samuel 22:10

22:10 He inquired of the Lord for him and gave him provisions. He also gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine.”

1 Samuel 17:23

17:23 As he was speaking with them, the champion named Goliath, the Philistine from Gath, was coming up from the battle lines of the Philistines. He spoke the way he usually did, 5  and David heard it.

1 Samuel 17:51

17:51 David ran and stood over the Philistine. He grabbed Goliath’s 6  sword, drew it from its sheath, 7  killed him, and cut off his head with it. When the Philistines saw their champion was dead, they ran away.

1 tn Heb “the man of the space between the two [armies].” See v. 23.

2 tc Heb “his height was six cubits and a span” (cf. KJV, NASB, NRSV). A cubit was approximately eighteen inches, a span nine inches. So, according to the Hebrew tradition, Goliath was about nine feet, nine inches tall (cf. NIV, CEV, NLT “over nine feet”; NCV “nine feet, four inches”; TEV “nearly 3 metres”). However, some Greek witnesses, Josephus, and a manuscript of 1 Samuel from Qumran read “four cubits and a span” here, that is, about six feet, nine inches (cf. NAB “six and a half feet”). This seems more reasonable; it is likely that Goliath’s height was exaggerated as the story was retold. See P. K. McCarter, I Samuel (AB), 286, 291.

3 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

4 tn Heb “his”; the referent (Goliath) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

5 tn Heb “according to these words.”

6 tn Heb “his”; the referent (Goliath) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

7 tc Most LXX mss lack the words “drew it from its sheath.”