1 Samuel 17:32-36
Context17:32 David said to Saul, “Don’t let anyone be discouraged. 1 Your servant will go and fight this Philistine!” 17:33 But Saul replied to David, “You aren’t able to go against this Philistine and fight him! You’re just a boy! He has been a warrior from his youth!”
17:34 David replied to Saul, “Your servant has been a shepherd for his father’s flock. Whenever a lion or bear would come and carry off a sheep from the flock, 17:35 I would go out after it, strike it down, and rescue the sheep from its mouth. If it rose up against me, I would grab it by its jaw, strike it, and kill it. 17:36 Your servant has struck down both the lion and the bear. This uncircumcised Philistine will be just like one of them. 2 For he has defied the armies of the living God!”
1 Samuel 17:2
Context17:2 Saul and the Israelite army 3 assembled and camped in the valley of Elah, where they arranged their battle lines to fight against 4 the Philistines.
1 Samuel 17:8
Context17:8 Goliath 5 stood and called to Israel’s troops, 6 “Why do you come out to prepare for battle? Am I not the Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose 7 for yourselves a man so he may come down 8 to me!
1 Samuel 17:10
Context17:10 Then the Philistine said, “I defy Israel’s troops this day! Give me a man so we can fight 9 each other!”
[17:32] 1 tn Heb “Let not the heart of a man fall upon him.” The LXX reads “my lord,” instead of “a man.”
[17:36] 2 tc The LXX includes here the following words not found in the MT: “Should I not go and smite him, and remove today reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised one?”
[17:2] 3 tn Heb “the men of Israel” (so KJV, NASB); NAB, NIV, NRSV “the Israelites.”
[17:8] 5 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Goliath) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[17:8] 6 tn The Hebrew text adds “and said to them.”
[17:8] 7 tc The translation follows the ancient versions in reading “choose,” (from the root בחר, bkhr), rather than the MT. The verb in MT (ברה, brh) elsewhere means “to eat food”; the sense of “to choose,” required here by the context, is not attested for this root. The MT apparently reflects an early scribal error.
[17:8] 8 tn Following the imperative, the prefixed verbal form (either an imperfect or jussive) with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose/result here.
[17:10] 9 tn Following the imperative, the cohortative verbal form indicates purpose/result here.