1 Samuel 17:8

_AND HE STOOD AND CRIED UNTO THE ARMIES OF ISRAEL, AND SAID UNTO THEM, WHY ARE YE COME OUT TO SET YOUR BATTLE IN ARRAY? AM NOT I A PHILISTINE, AND YE SERVANTS TO SAUL? CHOOSE YOU A MAN FOR YOU, AND LET HIM COME DOWN TO ME._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

1-11 Men so entirely depend upon God in all things, that when he withdraws his help, the most valiant and resolute cannot find their hearts or hands, as daily experience shows....

Verse 1 Samuel 17:8. _I A PHILISTINE_] The _Targum_ adds much to this speech. This is the substance: "I am Goliath the Philistine of Gath, who killed the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas the priests; and led into captivity the ark of the covenant of Jehovah, and placed it in the temple of Dagon my god; and it remained in the cities of the Philistines seven months. Also, in all our battles I have gone at the head of the army, and we conquered and cut down men, and laid them as low as the dust of the earth; and to this day the Philistines have not granted me the honour of being chief of a thousand men. And ye, men of Israel, what noble exploit has Saul, the son of Kish, of Gibeah, done, that ye should have made him king over you? If he be a hero, let him come down himself and fight with me; but if he be a weak or cowardly man, then choose you out a man that he may come down to m...

ADVANCE OF DAVID IN REPUTATION BY THE SLAUGHTER OF GOLIATH (1 Samuel 17:1.). EXPOSITION GOLIATH'S DEFIANCE OF ISRAEL (1 Samuel 17:1). 1 SAMUEL 17:1 THE PHILISTINES GATHERED TOGETHER THEIR ARMIES. As the object of the historian is not to give us an account of the Philistine wars, but only to record the manner of David's ripening for the kingly office, nothing is said as to the space of time which had elapsed between Sau

AND HE STOOD AND CRIED UNTO THE ARMIES OF ISRAEL,.... He stood in the valley between the two armies, and cried with a loud voice that he might be heard; and as he was of such a monstrous stature, no doubt his voice was very strong and sonorous; and as the battalions of Israel designed by armies were posted on the mountain or hill, his voice would ascend, and be the more easily heard: AND SAID UNTO THEM, WHY ARE YE COME OUT TO SET YOUR BATTLE IN ARRAY? either as wondering at their boldness, to set themselves in battle array against the Philistines; or rather suggesting that it was needless, since the dispute between them might be issued by a single combat: AM NOT I A PHILISTINE, AND YOU SERVANTS TO SAUL? a common Philistine, according to Jarchi; not a captain of a hundred, or of a thousand; and yet would fight anyone of them, their general officers, or be they who they would; or rather,...

2. DAVID AND GOLIATH CHAPTER 17 _ 1. Goliath of Gath, the Philistine (1 Samuel 17:1)_ 2. David's errand and inquiry (1 Samuel 17:12) 3. David's offer to fight Goliath (1 Samuel 17:31) 4. David's victory (1 Samuel 17:41) 5. Saul's inquiry (1 Samuel 17:55) Modern critics are practically unanimous in regarding the story of this chapter as unhistorical. One of the leading arguments they advance is the statement found in...

1 SAMUEL 17:1 TO 1 SAMUEL 18:5. DAVID AND GOLIATH (E, with additione by R). In this section two narratives seem to have been interwoven. For the sake of convenience, we may denote one set of passages by (A), and the other by (B), thus: (A) 1 Samuel 17:1; 1 Samuel 17:32. (B) 1 Samuel 17:12; 1 Samuel 17:55 to 1 Samuel 18:5. The (B) passages, together w

MAN. Hebrew. _'ish_. App-14....

Goliath's Challenge 4. _a champion_ Lit. " THE (well-known) man of the interspaces," or "interval between two camps" (Gr. μεταίχμιον : see Eur. _Phoen_. 1361, in the account of the combat between Eteocles and Polynices), in which single combats took place: so E. V. rightly "champion." _Goliath of Gath_ A survivor probably of the ancient race of _Anakim_, a remnant of which found refuge in Gaza, Gath, and Ashdod, when they were exterminated by Joshua from the mountains of Judah (Joshua 11:21-22). _six cubits and a span_ The cubit, or distance from the elbow to the extremity of the middle finger, is variously estimated at from eighteen to twenty-one inches: the span, or distance between the extremities of the thumb and little finger in the outstretched hand, is reckoned as half a cubit: so that Goliath's height was between nine feet nin

AND HE STOOD AND CRIED UNTO THE ARMIES OF ISRAEL— Antiquity furnishes us with many examples of single combats like this proposed by Goliath. Thus Paris and Menelaus in Homer, and the Horatii and Curiatii in Livy, are said to fight at the head of the army, upon condition that the party of the vanquished should receive laws from the conqueror. And would to God that on many occasions princes would singly determine those quarrels, which, without interesting the public good, give room for such horrible effusions of innocent blood! But it does not seem very likely to have been with a view to spare human blood, that Goliath proposed this duel with such an Israelite as should be chosen. It was entirely bravado and insolence in the Philistine: who, because he was monstrous, thought himself invincible. See Buddaeus Jurisprud. Hist. Specim. sect. 21....