David and Goliath

God was displeased with what had been done. He spoke to Samuel and said that he regretted having made Saul king, and the priest reported to the king what he had heard. Soon afterward, instructed by God, Samuel anointed David with the royal oil. David was then still only a little boy, living in his father’s care and working as a shepherd, and he often played the harp. For this reason he was later taken by Saul and counted among the king’s servants. [a]

At this time the Philistines and the Hebrews were fighting a fierce war, and the two armies were drawn up facing each other. A certain Philistine named Goliath, a man of amazing size and strength, walked along the ranks of his countrymen, hurling the fiercest insults at the enemy and challenging anyone to meet him in single combat. The king then promised a great reward, and his daughter in marriage, to anyone who would bring back that boaster’s spoils. But out of so great a crowd no one dared to try. Then David, though still a boy, offered himself for the contest. He refused the armor, which weighed down one so young, and went into battle with nothing but a staff and five stones he had picked up. With the first shot, slinging one of the stones, he brought the Philistine down. Then he cut off his beaten enemy’s head, carried off his spoils, and afterward laid up his sword in the temple. Meanwhile all the Philistines turned and fled, leaving the victory to the Hebrews.

But the great favor shown to David as they came home from the battle stirred up the king’s envy. Still, he feared that if he put to death a man so loved by everyone, it might turn people’s hatred against himself and end in disaster. So he decided to expose him to danger under a show of honoring him. First he made him a captain, so that he would be put in charge of the business of war. Next, although he had promised him his daughter, he broke his word and gave her to another man. Before long a younger daughter of the king, named Michal, fell passionately in love with David. So Saul set David this condition for marrying her: if he brought in a hundred foreskins of the enemy, the king’s daughter would be given to him in marriage. For Saul hoped that the young man, taking on such great dangers, would probably be killed. But it turned out very differently from what he imagined. On the terms set before him, David quickly brought in a hundred foreskins of the Philistines, and so he won the king’s daughter in marriage.