Discovery Box1 Samuel 17:4 
Context17:4 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
Context17:54 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
Context22:10 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
Context17:23 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
Context17:51 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
