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
18:1 When David 3 had finished talking with Saul, Jonathan and David became bound together in close friendship. 4 Jonathan loved David as much as he did his own life. 5
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 tn Heb “he”; the referent (David) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
4 tn Heb “the soul of Jonathan was bound with the soul of David.”
5 tn Heb “like his [own] soul.”
sn On the nature of Jonathan’s love for David, see J. A. Thompson, “The Significance of the Verb Love in the David-Jonathan Narratives in 1 Samuel,” VT 24 (1974): 334-38.