1 Samuel 17:12-30

Contemporary English Version

David Decides To Challenge Goliath

¹² David's father Jesse was an old man, who belonged to the Ephrath clan and lived in Bethlehem in Judah. Jesse had eight sons: ^13-14 the oldest was Eliab, the next was Abinadab, and Shammah was the third. The three of them had gone off to fight in Saul's army.

David was Jesse's youngest son. ^15 (A) He took care of his father's sheep, and he went back and forth between Bethlehem and Saul's camp.

¹⁶ Goliath came out and gave his challenge every morning and every evening for 40 days.

¹⁷ One day, Jesse told David, “Hurry and take this sack of roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread to your brothers at the army camp. ¹⁸ And here are ten large chunks of cheese to take to their commanding officer. Find out how your brothers are doing and bring back something that shows that they're all right. ¹⁹ They're with Saul's army, fighting the Philistines in Elah Valley.”

²⁰ David obeyed his father. He got up early the next morning and left someone else in charge of the sheep; then he loaded the supplies and started off. He reached the army camp just as the soldiers were taking their places and shouting the battle cry. ²¹ The army of Israel and the Philistine army stood there facing each other.

²² David left his things with the man in charge of supplies and ran up to the battle line to ask his brothers if they were well. ²³ While David was talking with them, Goliath came out from the line of Philistines and started boasting as usual. David heard him.

²⁴ When the Israelite soldiers saw Goliath, they were scared and ran off. ²⁵ They said to each other, “Look how he keeps coming out to insult us. The king is offering a big reward to the man who kills Goliath. That man will even get to marry the king's daughter, and no one in his family will ever have to pay taxes again.”

²⁶ David asked some soldiers standing nearby, “What will a man get for killing this Philistine and stopping him from insulting our people? Who does that worthless Philistine think he is? He's making fun of the army of the living God!”

²⁷ The soldiers told David what the king would give the man who killed Goliath.

²⁸ David's oldest brother Eliab heard him talking with the soldiers. Eliab was angry with him and said, “What are you doing here, anyway? Who's taking care of your little flock of sheep out in the desert? You spoiled brat! You came here just to watch the fighting, didn't you?”

²⁹ “Now what have I done?” David answered. “Can't I even ask a question?” ³⁰ Then he turned and asked another soldier the same thing he had asked the others, and he got the same answer.