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The Elah Valley is an S-shaped valley just south of the Sorek Valley. It runs east and west parallel to it. Socoh stood to the east and Azekah to the west. Archaeologists have not yet located Ephes-dammim. Gath was 7 miles to the west and was the closest Philistine town.
Goliath was 9 feet 9 inches tall. He was probably a descendant of the Anakim who had moved to Philistia after Joshua drove them out of Hebron (Josh. 11:21-22). Five thousand shekels weight equal 125 pounds (v. 5). Goliath's spear head weighed 15 pounds (v. 7), about the weight of a standard shot put. This is an unusually long description of an individual for the Old Testament. The writer evidently wanted to impress Goliath's awesome power and apparent invulnerability on the readers so we would appreciate David's great courage and faith.
The Philistines proposed a battle in which two representative champions from Israel and Philistia would duel it out, a not uncommon method of limiting war in the ancient world (cf. 2 Sam. 2).184However the Israelites had no one who could compete with Goliath physically. That was the only dimension to the conflict that Saul and his generals saw. Since Saul was the tallest Israelite and the king, he was the natural choice for an opponent. However as earlier (14:1-2), Saul was staying in the background when he should have been leading the people.
