A CHAMPION OUT OF THE CAMP

(1 Sam. 17:5)
I. OF THE PHILISTINES (1 Sam. 17:1-11, 23)
1. GIANT
2. ARMED
3. TRAINED A man of war from his youth
II. OF ISRAEL (1 Sam. 17:12-30)
1. The son of that Ephrathite of Bethlehemjudah (1 Sam. 17:12 cf. Mic. 5:2)
eight sons (see commentary
2. The youngest (v. 13,14)
3. A shepherd (v. 15)
4. An errand (v.16-22)
IS THERE NOT A CAUSE (1 Sam. 17:23-39)
III. THE TRUE CHAMPION
(1 Sam. 17:40-58)
1 Samuel 17:45 Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword,
and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the LORD of
hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied.
46 This day will the LORD deliver thee into mine hand; and I will smite thee, and
take thine head from thee; and I will give the carcases of the host of the Philistines
this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the
earth may know that there is a God in Israel.
47 And all this assembly shall know that the LORD saveth not with sword and spear:
for the battle is the LORD'S, and he will give you into our hands.

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset, and David
Brown 1871
1Sa 17:1-3. THE ISRAELITES AND PHILISTINES BEING READY TO BATTLE.
1. the Philistines gathered together their armies--twenty-seven years after their overthrow at
Michmash. Having now recovered their spirits and strength, they sought an opportunity of wiping out the
infamy of that national disaster, as well as to regain their lost ascendency over Israel.
Shocoh--now Shuweikeh, a town in the western plains of Judah (Jos 15:35), nine Roman miles from
Eleutheropolis, toward Jerusalem [ROBINSON].
Azekah--a small place in the neighborhood.
Ephes-dammim--or, "Pas-dammim" (1Ch 11:13), "the portion" or "effusion of blood," situated
between the other two.
2. valley of Elah--that is, "the Terebinth," now Wady Er-Sumt [ROBINSON]. Another valley somewhat
to the north, now called Wady Beit Hanina, has been fixed on by the tradition of ages.
The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Valley of Elah 1Sa 17:19; 21:9
Goliath. 1Sa 17:23; 21:9-10; 2Sa 21:19; 1Ch 20:5
of Gath. 1Sa 27:4; Jos 11:22; 2Sa 21:16-22; 1Ch 20:4-8
whose height. De 3:11; 1Ch 11:23; Am 2:9
six cubits. According to Bp. Cumberland's calculation, the height of Goliath was about eleven feet ten
inches; but Parkhurst estimating the ordinary cubit at seventeen inches and a half, calculates that he was
nine feet six inches high. Few instances can be produced of men who can be compared with him. Pliny
says, "The tallest man that hath been seen in our days was one name Gabara, who, in the days of
Claudius, the late Emperor, was brought out of Arabia: he was nine feet nine inches." Josephus mentions a
Jew, named Eleazar, whom Vitellius sent to Rome, who was seven cubits, or ten feet two inches high.
Becanus saw a man near ten feet, and a woman that was full ten feet. And, to mention no more, a man of
the name of John Middleton, born at Hale, near Warrington, in Lancashire, in the reign of James the First,
was more than nine feet high. Dr. Plott, in his history of Staffordshire, says, that "his hand, from the
carpus to the end of the middle finger, was seventeen inches, his palms eight inches and a half broad, and
his whole height was nine feet three inches; wanting but six inches of the height of Goliath of Gath."
Family Bible Notes1 Samuel 17:4
Whose height was six cubits and a span; a cubit was about eighteen inches, and a span about nine
inches.
John Wesley's Notes on the Bible1 Samuel 17:4
Verse 4. Six cubits - At least, nine feet, nine inches high. And this is not strange; for besides the giants
mentioned in Scripture, Herodotus, Diodourus Siculus, and Pliny, make mention of persons seven cubits
high.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible1 Samul 17:4
There went out a champion - Our word champion comes from campus, the field; Campio est enim ille qui
pugnat in campo, hoc est, in castris, "Champion is he, properly, who fights in the field; i.e., in camps." A
man well skilled in arms, strong, brave, and patriotic.
But is this the meaning of the original ish habbenayim, a middle man, the man between two;
that is, as here, the man who undertakes to settle the disputes between two armies or nations. So our
ancient champions settled disputes between contending parties by what was termed camp fight, hence the
campio or champion. The versions know not well what to make of this man. The Vulgate calls him sir
spurius, "a bastard;" the Septuagint, , "a strong or powerful man;" the Targum,
gabra mibbeyneyhon, "a man from between them;" the Arabic, rujil jibar, "a great or gigantic man;" the

Syriac is the same; and Josephus terms him , "an immensely great man." The
Vulgate has given him the notation of spurius or bastard, because it considered the original as expressing
a son of two, i.e., a man whose parents are unknown. Among all these I consider our word champion, as
explained above, the best and most appropriate to the original terms.
Whose height was six cubits and a span - The word cubit signifies the length from cubitus, the elbow, to
the top of the middle finger, which is generally rated at one foot six inches. The span is the distance from
the top of the middle finger to the end of the thumb, when extended as far as they can stretch on a plain;
this is ordinarily nine inches. Were we sure that these were the measures, and their extent, which are
intended in the original words, we could easily ascertain the height of this Philistine; it would then be nine
feet nine inches, which is a tremendous height for a man.
But the versions are not all agreed in his height. The Septuagint read ,
four cubits and a span; and Josephus reads the same. It is necessary however to observe that the
Septuagint, in the Codex Alexandrinus, read with the Hebrew text. But what was the length of the ancient
cubit? This has been variously computed; eighteen inches, twenty inches and a half, and twenty-one
inches. If we take the first measurement, he was nine feet nine; if the second, and read palm instead of
span, with the Vulgate and others, he was ten feet seven inches and a half; if we take the last, which is the
estimate of Graevius, with the span, he was eleven feet three inches; or if we go to the exactest
measurement, as laid down in Bishop Cumberland's tables, where he computes the cubit at 21.888 inches,
the span at 10.944 inches, and the palm at 3.684 inches, then the six cubits and the span will make exactly
11 feet 10.272 inches. If we take the palm instead of the span, then the height will be 11 feet 3.012 inches.
But I still think that the nine feet nine inches is the most reasonable.
BRASS - yellow alloy: a hard yellow shiny metal that is an alloy of zinc and copper, frequently with the
addition of other metallic elements to impart specific properties Microsoft Encarta 2007. 19932006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Family Bible Notes1 Samuel 17:5
Coat of mail; in the original, a coat of mail of scales; that is, made of thin plates of metal overlapping
each other like the scales of a fish.
Five thousand shekels; nearly two hundred pounds.
Matthew Poole's Commentary on the Holy Bible1 Samuel 17:5
Ver. 5. The common shekel contained only a fourth part of an ounce; and so 5000 shekels made 1250
ounces, which make exactly 78 pounds; which weight is not unsuitable to a man of such vast greatness
and strength, as his height speaks him to be.
John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible1 Samuel 17:6
And he had greaves of brass upon his legs, Which were a sort of boots, or leg harnesses, which
covered the thighs and legs down to the heels; such as Iolaus 1 and the Grecians usually wore, as described
by Homer; which are supposed to be double the weight of the helmet, reckoned at fifteen pounds, so that
these must weigh thirty pounds of avoirdupois weight:
and a target of brass between his shoulders; the Targum is,"a spear or shield of brass, which came out
of the helmet, and a weight of brass upon his shoulders.''Jarchi says the same, and that it was in the form
of a spear to defend the neck from the sword; it seems to be a corslet of brass, worn between the helmet
and the coat of mail for the defence of the neck, supposed to weigh thirty pounds 2.

John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible1 Samuel 17:7

And the staff of his spear was like a weaver's beam, The wooden part of it, held in the hand; this for
thickness was like the beam in the weaver's loom, about which the warp, or else the web, is rolled; and it
is conjectured that, in proportion to the stature of Goliath, his spear must be twenty six feet long, since
Hector's in Homer1 was eleven cubits, or sixteen feet and a half:
and his spear's head weighed six hundred shekels of iron; the iron part of the spear, the point of it,
which has its name in Hebrew from a flame of fire, because when brandished it looks shining and
flaming; and being the weight of six hundred shekels, amounted to eighteen pounds and three quarters of
avoirdupois weight, and the whole spear is supposed to weigh thirty seven pounds and a half; and the
whole of this man's armour is thought to weigh two hundred and seventy two pounds, thirteen ounces 2;
which was a prodigious weight for a man to carry, and go into battle with; and one may well wonder how
he could be able with such a weight about him to move and lay about in an engagement; though this is
nothing in comparison of the weight some men have carried. Pliny3 tells us that he saw one Athanatus
come into the theatre clothed with a leaden breastplate of five hundred pounds weight, and shod with
buskins of the same weight:
and one bearing a shield went before him; which when engaged in battle he held in his own hand, and
his sword in the other; the former was reckoned at thirty pounds, and the latter at four pounds, one ounce;
though one would think he had no occasion for a shield, being so well covered with armour all over; so
that the carrying of it before him might be only a matter of form and state. His spear is the only piece of
armour that was of iron, all the rest were of brass; and Hesiod 4, writing of the brazen age, says, their arms
and their houses were all of brass, for then there was no iron; and so Lucretius 5 affirms that the use of
brass was before iron; but both are mentioned together; see Gill on Ge 4:22, hence Mars is called
6.
John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible1 Samuel 17:12
Now David was the son of that Ephrathite of Bethlehemjudah, whose name was Jesse, Before made
mention of, 1Ch 16:1.
and he had eight sons; seven only are mentioned, 1Ch 2:13 one of them being, as is thought by some, a
grandson, perhaps Jonadab the son of Shammah; or was a son by another woman, or died without
children, as Jarchi, and therefore not mentioned:
and the man went among men for an old man in the days of Saul; the phrase, "among men", either
signifies that he was ranked among old men, infirm and unfit for war, and so excused, and his sons went
in his room, so Kimchi; or he was reckoned among men of the first rank, men of esteem, credit, and
reputation, so Jarchi and R. Isaiah, with which agrees the Targum; or whenever he went abroad, he was
attended by many men, had a large retinue, which sense Abarbinel mentions, and is that of Ben Gersom,
and agrees with the Talmud 1; but the Syriac and Arabic versions read "stricken in years", which seems
most agreeable.
EPHAH - Hebrew unit of dry measure: an ancient Hebrew unit of dry measure, roughly equivalent to a
bushel or 33 liters Microsoft Encarta 2007. 1993-2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights
reserved.