“Goliath stood and shouted….‘I am the Philistine champion….Choose one man to come down here and fight me!’” 1 Samuel 17:8
- Philistine champion warrior
- Killed by shepherd boy David
GOLIATH GOT NO TAKERS. He offered to settle the war between Jews and Philistines with a single battle between him and Israel’s best warrior—mortal combat.
But he was big. He was packing. And he may very well have been ugly.
Goliath specs:
- nine feet, nine inches tall (nearly three meters)—though older copies of the story found among the famous Dead Sea Scrolls put him at six feet, nine inches tall (over two meters)
- protected by bronze coat of mail weighing 125 pounds (57 kg)
- bronze helmet and leg armor
- bronze javelin
- spear as thick as a weaver’s beam
- iron spearhead as heavy as a 15-pound (6.8 kg) bowling ball
- sword, perhaps iron (Philistines guarded the secret of making iron)
- armor bearer holding his shield
No Jew wanted anywhere near this guy.
Until shepherd boy David came along—an expert in short-range artillery also known as the slingshot.
David dropped Goliath with a single stone that “hit him on the forehead and sank into it” (1 Samuel 17:49). David grabbed Goliath’s sword and decapitated him.
Horrified, the Philistine army turned and ran. The Jewish army, suddenly courageous, charged after them.
Excerpt from the newly released Stephen M. Miller’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary.
For info about Steve’s 100-book giveaway—which is going on this week only—see his latest newsletter.
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