TANAKH; Three stories of David & Goliath
TANAKH Stories of Goliath & David by R. Freesinger C 2006
The above Wikipedia stories of Goliath & David are very interesting, but there are three stories about David & Goliath in the holy scriptures that the Jews call the TANAKH & that Christians call The Old Testament. As text & references I have used the English language TANAKH of 1985, published by the Jewish Publication Society, as translated from traditional Hebrew texts. I believe the stories should be told in their TANAKH texts because they are Jewish-Philistine stories, not Christian; there is no Philistine historical-scripture. I have skipped some verse numbers, but not any verses.
Two of the stories, 2 Samuel (c.960 BCE) & 1 Chronicles (c. 400 BCE) are similar & assert that Goliath was ‘not’ a giant, but a normal size warrior, & that he was killed by Elhanan in 2 Samuel; & that Jonathan killed Goliath’s brother in 1 Chronicles; there is no mention of the famous story of David killing Goliath by slingshot, in either of these books.
It is in 1 Samuel [c.538 BCE] that the long exciting story of David & Goliath appears. I hope you will read the three interesting stories & decide for yourself if David actually killed Goliath, & if Goliath was a giant.
2 Samuel, 21:15 (c. 960 BCE). ‘Again war broke out between the Philistines & Israel, & David & the men with him went down & fought the Philistines; David grew weary & Ishbi-Benob tried to kill David - He was a descendant of the Raphah; his bronze spearhead weighed 300 shekels, and he wore new armor.
17: But Abishai, son of Zeruiah came to his aid; he attacked the Philistine & killed him. It was then that David’s men declared to him on oath, “You shall not go into battle with us any more, lest you extinguish the lamp of Israel!”
18. After this, fighting broke out again with the Philistines, at Gob; that was when Sibbecai the Hushatite killed Saph, a descendant of the Raphah.
19. Again there was fighting with the Philistines at Gob; and Elhanan son of Jaare-oregim the Bethlehemite, killed Goliath the Gittite, whose spear had a shaft like a weaver’s bar.
20. Once again there was fighting at Gath. There was a giant of a man who had 6 fingers on each hand, & 6 toes on each foot - 24 in all. He too was descended from Raphah. 21. When he taunted Israel, Jonathan, son of Shimei, David’s brother, killed him. 22. These four were descendants of the Raphah in Gath, & they fell by the hands of David & his men.” (Please note that Elhanan, not David, killed Goliath who was not a giant; & Jonathan killed a giant, not Goliath)
On to 1 Chronicles (c. 400 BCE) 20: 5. Again there was fighting with the Philistines, and Elhanan, son of Jair killed Lahmi, the brother of Goliath the Gittite, his spear had a shaft like a weaver’s rod.
6. Once again there was fighting at Gath, there was a giant of a man with 6 fingers on each hand & 6 toes on each foot- 24 in all. He also was descended from the Raphah.
7. When he taunted Israel, Jonathan son of Shimea, David’s brother, killed him. 8: these were descended from the Rapha in Gath, & they fell by the hands of David & his men. (Please note: Elhanan killed the brother of Goliath, & that Johanan killed a giant not named Goliath; David didn’t kill Goliath, & Goliath was not a giant.)
On to 1 Samuel 16:14-58
I Samuel (written after 538 BCE) relates the famous story of Masiah [King] David (r. 1000-961 BCE) his slingshot, & Goliath the Giant; the Goliath part was written during the Babylonian Exile (c.538 BCE) about 400 years after Masiah David’s death in 961 BCE; this 1 Samuel version uses the Hebrew vocabulary & syntax of 500 BCE, & then it was slipped into 1 Samuel ahead of the two earlier works, ie. 2 Samuel, & 1 Chronicles by devout rabbis in order to glorify Masiah David, the most powerful of the Kings during the time of their greatest empire.
Hebrew scholars, assembled the written & oral parts of the Tanak into an authentic written Tanak, during & after the Babylonian Exile, & it was presented to the Jews of Jerusalem by the prophet Ezra (called “the 2nd Moses”) on his return to Jerusalem in c. 458 BCE after Cyrus the Great granted them the right to return in 538. Ezra & Nehemiah started the rebuilding of Solomon’s Temple which had been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Babylonians circa 586. Cyrus conquered the Babylonian kingdom in 538 & was considered a wise, just, & merciful King. He permitted Jewish scribes & rabbis to return with their newly written Tanakh, & to start rebuilding the Temple of Solomon; a very joyous return. Ezra was so horrified to see that Jews had married non-Jews & converted Jews that he had all their marriages dissolved, thus leaving wives & children, fatherless.
Getting confused, please bear with me; ancient histories & myths are very confused & confusing in historicity & chronology, & in vocabulary & syntax.
In I Samuel 16; 14-23, ‘placed immediately before’ the aforementioned Goliath stories, David appears as a shepherd & lyre player, not as a warrior chief. He is called to King Saul’s palace to play soothing music to Saul who has fallen into clinical depression with fits of extreme violence & persecution mania. David’s music did sooth Saul frequently, & Saul liked him so much, that he asked David’s father Jesse of Bethlehem to permit him to remain in his service.
1 Samuel 16: 14-23. Now the Spirit of the Lord had departed from Saul, & an evil spirit from the Lord began to terrify him. Saul’s courtiers said to him, “An evil spirit of God is terrifying you. Let our lord give the order [and] the courtiers in attendance on you will look for someone who is skilled at playing the lyre; whenever the evil spirit of God comes over you, he will play it and you will feel better.”
17. So Saul said to his courtiers, “Find me someone who can play well & bring him to me.” 18: One of the servants spoke up, “I have observed a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite who is skilled in music; he is a stalwart fellow and a warrior, sensible in speech, and handsome in appearance, and the Lord is with him.”
19. Whereupon Saul sent messengers to Jesse to say, “Send me your son David who is with the flock.” Jesse took an ass [laden with bread], a skin of wine, and a kid, and sent them to Saul by his son David. Saul took a strong liking to him and made him one of his arms-bearers. Saul sent word to Jesse, “Let David remain in my service, for I am pleased with him.” 23. Whenever the [evil] spirit of God came upon Saul, David would take the lyre & play it; Saul would find relief & feel better, and the evil spirit would leave him. (ed. Later, after David became a popular warrior-leader, Saul’s persecution mania would turn him against David, & Saul would try to kill him.)
Next follows the famous story of David & Goliath (after 538 BC); Please read it below; it’s an exciting, well written story, & probably many Jews & Christians have never read the original TANAKH story.
1 Samuel, chapter 17: verses 1-58. The Philistines assembled their forces for battle; they massed at Socoh of Judah, and encamped at Ephes-Dammim, between Socoh and Azekah. Saul and the men of Israel massed & encamped in the valley of Elah. They drew up their line of battle against the Philistines, with the Philistines stationed on one hill and Israel stationed on the other hill; the ravine was between them. 4. A champion of the Philistine forces stepped forward; his name was Goliath of Gath, and he was 6 cubits and a span tall [ed. 9 ft]. He had a bronze helmet on his head, and wore a breastplate of scale armor, a bronze breastplate weighing five thousand shekels. He had bronze greaves on his legs, and a bronze javelin [slung] from his shoulders.
7. The shaft of his spear was like a weavers bar, and the iron head of his spear weighed 600 shekels; and the shield bearer marched in front of him.
8: He stopped and called out to the ranks of Israel and he said to them, “Why should you come out to engage in battle? I am a Philistine [champion], and you are Saul’s servants. Choose one of your men & let him come down against me. If he bests me in combat and kills me, we will become your slaves; but if I best him and kill him, you shall be our slaves & serve us.” 10. And the Philistine ended, “I herewith defy the ranks of Israel. Get me a man and let’s fight it out!”
11. When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and terror-stricken.
12. David was the son of a certain Ephrathite of Bethlehem in Judah whose name was Jesse. He had eight sons, & in the days of Saul he was already old, advanced in years. 13. The three oldest sons of Jesse had left & gone with Saul to the war. The names of his three sons who had gone to war were Eliab the first born, the next Abinadab, and the third Shammah; and David was the youngest. The three oldest had followed Saul, and David would go back & forth from attending on Saul to shepherd his father’s flock at Bethlehem.
16. The Philistine stepped forward morning & evening and took his stand for forty days.
17: Jesse said to his son David, “Take an ephah of this parched corn & these ten loaves of bread for your brothers &, carry them quickly to your brothers in camp. Take along these ten cheeses to the captain of their thousand. Find out how your brothers are and bring some token from them.” 19. Saul and the brothers and all the men of Israel were in the valley of Elah, in the war against the Philistines.
20: Early next morning, David left someone in charge of the flock, took [the provisions], and set out as his father Jesse had instructed him. He reached the barricade as the army was going out to the battle lines shouting the war cry. Israel and the Philistines drew up their battle lines opposite each other. David left his baggage with the man in charge of the baggage and ran toward the battle line and went to greet his brothers. While he was talking to them, the champion, whose name was Goliath, the Philistine of Gath, stepped forward from the Philistine ranks and spoke the same words as before; and David heard him. When the men of Israel saw the man, they fled in terror.
25. And the men of Israel were saying [among themselves], “Do you see that man coming out? He comes out to defy Israel! The man who kills him will be rewarded by the king with great riches; he will give him his daughter in marriage and grant exemption [ed. from taxes] to his father’s house in Israel.”
26. David asked the men standing near him, “What will be done for the man who kills that Philistine & removes the disgrace from Israel? Who is that uncircumcised Philistine that he dares defy the ranks of the living God?” The troops told him in the same words what would be done for the man who killed him. 28. When Eliab, David’s eldest brother heard him speaking to the men, Eliab became angry with David and said, “”Why did you come here, and with whom did you leave those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your impudence and impertinence: you came down to watch the fighting.”
29: But David replied, “What have I done now? I was only asking!” And he turned away from him toward someone else; he asked the same question, and the troops gave him the same answer as before. The things David said were heard and were reported to Saul, who had him brought over.
32: David said to Saul, “Let no-one’s courage fail him. Your servant will go and fight that Philistine.”
33. But Saul said to David, “You cannot go to that Philistine & fight him; you are only a boy, & he has been a warrior from his youth.”
34. David replied to Saul, “Your servant has been tending his father’s sheep, and if a lion or a bear came and carried off an animal from the flock, I would go after it and rescue it from its mouth. And if it attacked me, I would seize it by the beard, and strike it down and kill it. Your servant has killed both lion & bear; And that uncircumcised Philistine shall end up like one of them, for he has defied the ranks of the living God. The Lord, “David went on, “who saved me from lion & bear will also save me from that Philistine.” “Then go,” Saul said to David, “and may the Lord be with you.”
38. Saul dressed David in his own garment; he placed a bronze helmet on his head, and fastened a breastplate on him. 39. David girded his sword over his garment. Then he tried to walk, but he was not used to it. And David said to Saul, “I cannot walk in these, for I am not used to them.” So David took them off. He took his stick, picked a few smooth stones from the wadi, put them in the pocket of his shepherd’s bag and, sling in hand, he went toward the Philistine.
41. Meanwhile the Philistine, with his shield bearer in front of him, kept coming closer to David. He looked David over & saw that David was only a boy, ruddy & handsome, & he despised him. He said to David, “Am I a dog that you come at me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed at David by his gods. “Come here,” he said, “& I’ll give your flesh to the birds of the air & the beasts of the field!”
45: David replied to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword & spear, & javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord of Hosts, the God of the ranks of Israel, whom you have defied. This very day the Lord will deliver you into my hands. I will kill you & cut off your head; and I will give the carcasses of the Philistine camp to the birds of the sky & the beasts of the earth. All the world shall know that there is a God in Israel. And this whole assembly shall know that the Lord can give victory without sword or spear. For the battle is the Lord’s, & He will deliver all of you into our hands.”
48: When the Philistine began to advance toward him again, David quickly ran up to the battle line to face the Philistine. 49. David put his hand into the bag; he took out a stone and slung it. It struck the Philistine on the forehead; the stone sank into his forehead, & he fell facedown on the ground.
50. Thus David bested the Philistine with sling and stone; he struck him down & killed him. David had no sword. 51. So David ran up & stood over the Philistine, grasped his sword & pulled it from its sheath; and with it he dispatched him and cut off his head. When the Philistines saw that their hero was dead, they ran.
52. The men of Israel & Judah rose up with a war cry and they pursued the Philistines all the way to Gai [ed. Gath] & up to the gates of Ekron; the Philistines fell mortally wounded along the road to Shaarim up to Gath and Ekron. Then the Israelites returned from chasing the Philistines, and looted their camp.
54. David took the head of the Philistine & brought it to Jerusalem, & he put his weapons in his own tent.
55. As Saul watched David going out to meet the Philistine, he asked his army commander, Abner, “Whose son is that boy, Abner?” And Abner replied, “By your life, Your Majesty, I do not know.”
56. “Then find out whose son that young fellow is.”
57. So when David returned after killing the Philistine, Abner took him & brought him to Saul, with the head of the Philistine still in his hand.
58. Saul said to him, “Whose son are you, my boy?” And David answered, “The son of your servant Jesse of Bethlehem.”
’Tis an exciting, well written story, it makes me want to believe it. If it weren’t for the two earlier stories I might; but there are so many internal contradictions & non-possibilities in the adventure that I can‘t, at 82, I don’t have enough energy or desire to argue them, I leave that up to you. Think as ye wilt! Just a few, the 2 earliest stories say that Goliath was not a giant, & that David did not kill him; that Elhanan killed Goliath, & Jonathan killed the brother of Goliath.
Stanza 55: says that Saul did not know David, nor his father Jesse, although in 1 Samuel 16: 14-23 David was Saul’s lyre player who brought him out of manic-depression, & that Saul asked Jesse to leave David with him; also that Saul made David one of his armor bearers. It is slipped in just before the David & Goliath stories, in order to glorify David. Isaac Azimov asks would courageous, proud, feisty Jewish warriors risk being enslaved thru personal combat between a shepherd boy against a well armored giant. Oi vey! And Goliath is depicted as an armored warrior with a bronze helmet which at that time covered the forehead.
Most important, scholars of Germanic Historical Criticism (believers in the Tanakh & Bible) have pointed out that the David & Goliath language of 1Samuel is later than 538 BC; the same Hebrew that Ezra used to write his Tanakh, [c.458 BCE]; & the supposed battle of David & Goliath was during Saul’s reign (1020-1000) about 500 years before. We know how much our English language has changed during 500 years. We cannot read Shakespeare, the King James Bible of 611, Beowulf, the Canterbury Tales, etc. without explanatory notes.
David became the most dynamic, fascinating, & perplexing person of the Tanakh or Old Testament. He was Masiah David, from which we get the word Messiah Yeshu (or Jesus). Masiah meant ‘the anointed one’, one who is anointed with holy oils to signify his rule. When Paul took Yeshu’s religion to the Greeks he transliterated Aramaic Yeshu into Greek Iesous, no h sound in ancient Greek; & added a final s as nearly all Greek names did; the Romans wrote the name Jesus, same pronunciation. Christos was a way of cleansing ones skin with oil, as women do today, thus Yeshu became Jesus Christ.
My references are the Tanak stories themselves, as translated into English from Hebrew in 1985. Also, I have used the New International Version of the Christian Bible, 1968, The Encyclopedia Britannica, The Cambridge Companion to the Bible, Isaac Azimov’s Guide to the Bible, Hastings Encyclopedia of Religion & Ethics, & several tattered, encyclopedias of religion saved by the San Francisco State University library.