Then said David to the Philistine
In answer to the contempt he held him in, and to the threatening words he gave him:
thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield;
the word for "shield" is not the same with that so rendered, ( 1 Samuel 17:41 ) ; which his armourbearer carried before him, but with that translated a "target", which was between his shoulders, ( 1 Samuel 17:6 ) ; however, they were all weapons of war, either defensive or offensive:
but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the
armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied;
the Lord of all hosts, in heaven and in earth in general, and in particular the God of the armies of Israel; which he was at the head of, led on, protected and defended, having a kind and merciful regard unto them, and which this Philistine had defied, reproached, and blasphemed; and now David was come, by a commission from this great Jehovah, to vindicate his honour, and to avenge his people on him: he had asked for a man, and now the Lord of hosts, as the Jews F12 observe, comes forth as a man of war, for the battle was his, as in ( 1 Samuel 17:47 ) ; and David was his messenger, and came in his name, and was the man into whose hands he should be given.