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LXX 1 Samuel

Septuagint

About this book
Chapter 17

1 And the Philistines gather their armies to battle, and gather themselves to Socoh of Judah, and encamp between Socoh and Azekah in Ephermem. 2 And Saul and the men of Israel gather together, and they encamp in the valley, and set the battle in array against the Philistines. 3 And the Philistines stand on the mountain on one side, and Israel stands on the mountain on the other side, and the valley was between them. 4 And there went forth a mighty man out of the army of the Philistines, Goliath by name, out of Gath, his height was four cubits and a span.⁠ 5 And he had a helmet upon his head, and he wore a breastplate of chain armor; and the weight of his breastplate was five thousand shekels of brass and iron. 6 And greaves of brass were upon his legs, and a brass target was between his shoulders. 7 And the staff of his spear was like a weaver's beam, and the spear's head was formed of six hundred shekels of iron; and his armor-bearer went before him. 8 And he stood and cried to the army of Israel, and said to them, Why have you come forth to set yourselves in battle array against us? Am I not a Philistine, and you Hebrews of Saul? Choose for yourselves a man, and let him come down to me. 9 And if he shall be able to fight against me, and shall strike me, then we will be your servants: but if I should prevail and strike him, you shall be our servants, and serve us. 10 And the Philistine said, Look, I have defied the armies of Israel this very day: give me a man, and we will both of us fight in single combat. 11 And Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, and they were dismayed, and greatly terrified. 12  13  14  15  16  17  18  19  20  21  22  23  24  25  26  27  28  29  30  31  32 And David said to Saul, Let not, Please, the heart of my lord be dejected within him: your servant will go, and fight with this Philistine. 33 And Saul said to David, You will not in any way be able to go against this Philistine to fight with him, for you are a mere youth, and he a man of war from his youth. 34 And David said to Saul, Your servant was tending the flock for his father; and when a lion came and a she-bear, and took a sheep out of the flock, 35 then I went forth after him, and struck him, and drew the prey out of his mouth: and as he rose up against me, then I caught hold of his throat,⁠ and struck him, and killed him. 36 Your servant struck both the bear and the lion, and the uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them:⁠ shall I not go and strike him, and remove this day a reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised one, who has defied the army of the living God? 37 The Lord who delivered me out of the paw of the lion and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this uncircumcised Philistine. And Saul said to David, Go, and the Lord shall be with you. 38 And Saul clothed David with a military coat, and put a brass helmet on his head.⁠ 39 And he fastened his sword on David over his coat: and he grew weary walking with them once and again: and David said to Saul, I shall not be able to go with these, for I have not tested them: so they remove them from him. 40 And he took his staff in his hand, and he chose for himself five smooth stones out of the brook, and put them in the shepherd's scrip which he had for his store, and his sling was in his hand; and he approached the Philistine.⁠ 41  42 And Goliath saw David, and despised him; for he was a lad, and ruddy, with a fair face. 43 And the Philistine said to David, Am I as a dog, that you come against me with a staff and stones?⁠ and David said, No, but worse than a dog. And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. 44 And the Philistine said to David, Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air, and to the beasts of the earth. 45 And David said to the Philistine, You come to me with sword, and with spear, and with shield; but I come to you in the name of the Lord God of hosts of the army of Israel, which you have defied this day. 46 And the Lord shall deliver you this day into my hand; and I will kill you, and take away your head from you, and will give your limbs and the limbs of the army of the Philistines this day to the birds of the sky, and to the wild beasts of the earth; and all the earth shall know that there is a God in Israel. 47 And all this assembly shall know that the Lord does not deliver by sword or spear, for the battle is the Lord's, and the Lord will deliver you into our hands. 48 And the Philistine arose and went to meet David. 49 And David stretched out his hand to his scrip, and took from there a stone, and slung it, and struck the Philistine on his forehead, and the stone penetrated through the helmet into his forehead, and he fell upon his face to the ground. 50  51 And David ran, and stood upon him, and took his sword, and killed him, and cut off his head: and the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, and they fled. 52 And the men of Israel and Judah arose, and shouted and pursued them as far as the entrance to Gath, and as far as the gate of Ashkelon: and the Philistine men who were killed fell in the way of the gates, both to Gath, and to Ekron.⁠ 53 And the men of Israel returned from pursuing after the Philistines, and they destroyed their camp. 54 And David took the head of the Philistine, and brought it to Jerusalem; but he put his armor in his tent.

Texts in conversation

Compare 1 Samuel 17:41 and LXX 1 Samuel 17:41

Hebrew Bible · Septuagint

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Summary

The story of David and Goliath includes a detail not found in the Greek Septuagint translation, where Goliath approaches with a shield bearer. This may reflect an addition made to the Masoretic text to emphasize the contrast between the two figures.

Passages

1 Samuel 17:41

Hebrew Bible
40 He took his staff in his hand, picked out five smooth stones from the stream, placed them in the pouch of his shepherd’s bag, took his sling in hand, and approached the Philistine. 41 The Philistine, with his shield bearer walking in front of him, kept coming closer to David. 42 When the Philistine looked carefully at David, he despised him, for he was only a ruddy and handsome boy.
600–501 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Samuel

LXX 1 Samuel 17:41

Septuagint
40 And he took his staff in his hand, and he chose for himself five smooth stones out of the brook, and put them in the shepherd's scrip which he had for his store, and his sling was in his hand; and he approached the Philistine. 41 42 And Goliath saw David, and despised him; for he was a lad, and ruddy, with a fair face. 43 And the Philistine said to David, Am I as a dog, that you come against me with a staff and stones? and David said, No, but worse than a dog. And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.
100–1 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX 1 Samuel

References

"... Overall, the description of David going unarmoured into battle with only a staff, a sling and five stones is not significantly changed between the two versions. One difference occurs in verse 41 of the Masoretic text, which is absent in the LXX, ‘Then the Philistine came and approached David, with the shield bearer in front of him’. Auld and Ho suggest that the addition of the shield bearer in the Masoretic text forms an additional contrast between the well-equipped Goliath and the scantily equipped David. On the other hand, as Quinn-Miscall points out, the shield bearer may also be considered a weakness for Goliath because a shield is precisely the piece of armour Goliath could have employed to protect himself from David’s stone. However, as his armour bearer was carrying the shield, he remained unprotected. Both effects of this detail are relevant because together they illustrate the message of the chapter—whilst Goliath was outwardly impressive, he was ultimately ineffective ..."
Rachelle Gilmour, Representing the Past: A Literary Analysis of Narrative Historiography in the Book of Samuel, VTSup 143 (Leiden: Brill, 2011), 279–280.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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