1 Samuel 17:32-36

17:32 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

17:2 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

17:8 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

17:10 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.”

[17:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “to meet.”

[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.