<TITLE>1. Verses 1-26</TITLE>1. Now the Philistines gathered together their armies to battle, and were gathered together at Shochoh, which [belongeth] to Judah, and pitched between Shochoh and Azekah, in Ephes-dammim.
2. And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together, and pitched by the valley of Elah, and set the battle in array against the Philistines.
3. And the Philistines stood on a mountain on the one side, and Israel stood on a mountain on the other side: and [there was] a valley between them.
4.  And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, of Gath, whose height [was] six cubits and a span.
5. And [he had] an helmet of brass upon his head, and he [was] armed with a coat of mail; and the weight of the coat [was] five thousand shekels of brass.
6. And [he had] greaves of brass upon his legs, and a target of brass between his shoulders.
7. And the staff of his spear [was] like a weaver's beam; and his spear's head [weighed] six hundred shekels of iron: and one bearing a shield went before him.
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.
9. If he be able to fight with me, and to kill me, then will we be your servants: but if I prevail against him, and kill him, then shall ye be our servants, and serve us.
10. And the Philistine said, I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that we may fight together.
11. When Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistine, they were dismayed, and greatly afraid.
12.  Now David [was] the son of that Ephrathite of Beth-lehem-judah, whose name [was] Jesse; and he had eight sons: and the man went among men [for] an old man in the days of Saul.
13. And the three eldest sons of Jesse went [and] followed Saul to the battle: and the names of his three sons that went to the battle [were] Eliab the firstborn, and next unto him Abinadab, and the third Shammah.
14. And David [was] the youngest: and the three eldest followed Saul.
15. But David went and returned from Saul to feed his father's sheep at Beth-lehem.
16. And the Philistine drew near morning and evening, and presented himself forty days.
17. And Jesse said unto David his son, Take now for thy brethren an ephah of this parched [corn], and these ten loaves, and run to the camp to thy brethren;
18. And carry these ten cheeses unto the captain of [their] thousand, and look how thy brethren fare, and take their pledge.
19. Now Saul, and they, and all the men of Israel, [were] in the valley of Elah, fighting with the Philistines.
20.  And David rose up early in the morning, and left the sheep with a keeper, and took, and went, as Jesse had commanded him; and he came to the trench, as the host was going forth to the fight, and shouted for the battle.
21. For Israel and the Philistines had put the battle in array, army against army.
22. And David left his carriage in the hand of the keeper of the carriage, and ran into the army, and came and saluted his brethren.
23. And as he talked with them, behold, there came up the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, out of the armies of the Philistines, and spake according to the same words: and David heard [them].
24. And all the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him, and were sore afraid.
25. And the men of Israel said, Have ye seen this man that is come up? surely to defy Israel is he come up: and it shall be, [that] the man who killeth him, the king will enrich him with great riches, and will give him his daughter, and make his father's house free in Israel.
26. And David spake to the men that stood by him, saying, What shall be done to the man that killeth this Philistine, and taketh away the reproach from Israel? for who [is] this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?


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