1 Samuel 17:4

17:4 Then a champion ¹  came out from the camp of the Philistines. His name was Goliath; he was from Gath. He was close to seven feet tall. ² 

1 Samuel 17:23

17:23 As he was speaking with them, the champion named Goliath, the Philistine from Gath, was coming up from the battle lines of the Philistines. He spoke the way he usually did, ³  and David heard it.

1 Samuel 17:2

17:2 Saul and the Israelite army ⁴  assembled and camped in the valley of Elah, where they arranged their battle lines to fight against ⁵  the Philistines.

1 Samuel 26:6

26:6 David said to Ahimelech the Hittite and Abishai son of Zeruiah, Joab’s brother, “Who will go down with me to Saul in the camp?” Abishai replied, “I will go down with you.”

[17:4]  ¹ tn Heb “the man of the space between the two [armies].” See v. 23.

[17:4]  ² tc Heb “his height was six cubits and a span” (cf. KJV, NASB, NRSV). A cubit was approximately eighteen inches, a span nine inches. So, according to the Hebrew tradition, Goliath was about nine feet, nine inches tall (cf. NIV, CEV, NLT “over nine feet”; NCV “nine feet, four inches”; TEV “nearly 3 metres”). However, some Greek witnesses, Josephus, and a manuscript of 1 Samuel from Qumran read “four cubits and a span” here, that is, about six feet, nine inches (cf. NAB “six and a half feet”). This seems more reasonable; it is likely that Goliath’s height was exaggerated as the story was retold. See P. K. McCarter, I Samuel (AB), 286, 291.

[17:23]  ³ tn Heb “according to these words.”

[17:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “the men of Israel” (so KJV, NASB); NAB, NIV, NRSV “the Israelites.”

[17:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “to meet.”