1 Samuel 17:23

23 While he was speaking with them, suddenly the champion named Goliath, the Philistine from Gath, came forward from the Philistine battle line and shouted his usual words,[a] which David heard.

1 Samuel 17:23 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 17:23

And as he talked with them
About their health, and the errand he came upon, and the message of his father to them, and how it was with him, who sent them his best wishes:

behold, there came up the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by
name:
of whom see ( 1 Samuel 17:4 ) ; he came out of the valley, and drew near to the mountain the Israelites were descending:

out of the armies of the Philistines:
from the plains where they were encamped, as Kimchi, though they seem to have been encamped on a mountain as the Israelites were; or from the ranks of the Philistines; according to the marginal reading, he came out of one of the battalions that were set in array:

and spake according to the same words;
which he had spoken time after time forty days successively, namely, what is expressed ( 1 Samuel 17:8-10 ) ;

and David heard [them];
and observed them.

1 Samuel 17:23 In-Context

21 Israel and the Philistines lined up in battle formation facing each other.
22 David left his supplies in the care of the quartermaster and ran to the battle line. When he arrived, he asked his brothers how they were.
23 While he was speaking with them, suddenly the champion named Goliath, the Philistine from Gath, came forward from the Philistine battle line and shouted his usual words, which David heard.
24 When all the Israelite men saw Goliath, they retreated from him terrified.
25 Previously, an Israelite man had declared, "Do you see this man who keeps coming out? He comes to defy Israel. The king will make the man who kills him very rich and will give him his daughter. The king will also make the household of that man's father exempt from paying taxes in Israel."

Footnotes 1

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