The Anointing of David and the Duel with Goliath
Samuel anoints the youngest son of Jesse, a shepherd from Bethlehem. Soon that young man steps out with a sling against the giant from Gath—and the whole country learns his name.
After the break with Saul, God sent Samuel to Bethlehem, to Jesse: among his sons I have seen a king for Myself. Jesse brought out seven. First came Eliab, tall and impressive, and Samuel thought: this is he. The answer became a formula: "Man looks at the eyes, but the Lord looks at the heart." None of the seven was chosen. "Are these all your sons?"—"The youngest is tending the sheep." They brought in a ruddy boy with beautiful eyes, and Samuel poured oil on him from a horn, in front of his brothers.
Soon a champion from Gath stepped between the camps in the valley of Elah—Goliath, six cubits and a span tall, with a spear shaft "like a weaver's beam." For forty days he taunted Israel. No one answered.
David came with bread for his brothers, heard the taunts, and asked: who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the ranks of the living God? Given Saul's armour, he could not walk in it. He took a sling and five smooth stones and went out: you come with sword and spear, I come in the name of the Lord of Hosts.
One stone struck the forehead. The women sang, "Saul has slain his thousands, David his tens of thousands"—and Saul's jealousy began.
How we know
On the chronology
Academic history dates this event differently. In the age of the kings the divergence is not the one familiar from the Persian period, where Seder Olam runs about a hundred and sixty-five years short. Here academic chronology reckons some reigns as overlapping — father and son on the throne together — so its span from the division of the kingdom to the destruction of the Temple comes out nearly three decades shorter. The gap therefore grows: a hundred and thirty-five years at the division, a hundred and fifty-four at Sennacherib, a hundred and sixty-four at the destruction. The anchors of the academic count are external documents: the battle of Qarqar (853), Jehu's tribute on the Black Obelisk (841), the fall of Samaria (722), Sennacherib's campaign (701), Megiddo and Nebuchadnezzar's campaigns in the Babylonian Chronicles (609, 605, 597). Both dates appear on the timeline when the divergence layer is on.
Sources
Tanakh
- Shmuel I 16–17 — the anointing at Beit Lechem and the duel in the Valley of Elah
- Shmuel I 18:6–9 — “Shaul has slain his thousands and David his ten thousands” and the beginning of the jealousy
Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Sotah 42b — Goliath as a descendant of Orpah; the meaning of the duel between two lines
- Horayot 11b–12a — horn against flask: how David’s anointing differed from Shaul’s
- Ruth Rabbah 2:20 — “the sons of the one who kissed against the sons of the one who clung”
Basis: stated in the Tanakh.
People and places
Judah · Ruth · Boaz · Samuel the Prophet · King Saul · King David · Samuel · Ruth · Mashiach · Michal daughter of Saul · Abigail · Jonathan son of Saul · Goliath the Gittite · Ahimelech the Priest · Doeg the Edomite