Biography of Goliath

1 Samuel 17

1 Now the Philistines gathered together their armies to battle, and were gathered together at Shochoh, which belongeth to Judah, and pitched between Shochoh and Azekah, in Ephesdammim.

2 And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together, and pitched by the valley of Elah, and set the battle in array against the Philistines.

3 And the Philistines stood on a mountain on the one side, and Israel stood on a mountain on the other side: and there was a valley between them.

4 And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span.

5 And he had an helmet of brass upon his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail; and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of brass.

6 And he had greaves of brass upon his legs, and a target of brass between his shoulders.

7 And the staff of his spear was like a weaver's beam; and his spear's head weighed six hundred shekels of iron: and one bearing a shield went before him.

8 And he stood and cried unto the armies of Israel, and said unto them, Why are ye come out to set your battle in array? am not I a Philistine, and ye servants to Saul? choose you a man for you, and let him come down to me.

9 If he be able to fight with me, and to kill me, then will we be your servants: but if I prevail against him, and kill him, then shall ye be our servants, and serve us.

10 And the Philistine said, I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that we may fight together. 11 When Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistine, they were dismayed, and greatly afraid...

48 And it came to pass, when the Philistine arose, and came, and drew nigh to meet David, that David hastened, and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine.

49 And David put his hand in his bag, and took thence a stone, and slang it, and smote the Philistine in his forehead, that the stone sunk into his forehead; and he fell upon his face to the earth.

50 So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and smote the Philistine, and slew him; but there was no sword in the hand of David.

51 Therefore David ran, and stood upon the Philistine, and took his sword, and drew it out of the sheath thereof, and slew him, and cut off his head therewith. And when the Philistines saw their champion was dead, they fled.

2 Samuel 21

19 There was war with the Philistines again at Gob, and Elhanan the son of Jaare-oregim the Bethlehemite killed Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.

From Jewish Encyclopedia, Executive Committee of the Editorial Board. Emil G. Hirsch:

A Philistine giant of Gath (I Sam. xvii. 4). The name "Goliath" is probably connected with the Assyro-Babylonian "Guzali" = "running, ravaging spirits," "destroyers" (Jastrow, "Religion of Assyria and Babylon," p. 500; Muss-Arnolt, "Concise Dictionary," s.v. "The Throne-Carriers"; Delitzsch, "Assyrisches Handwörterb." s.v.).

—Biblical Data:

Goliath was the champion of the Philistines, who had encamped between Shochoh and Azekah against Saul and the men of Israel arrayed for battle in the valley of Elah. He is describedas being six cubits and a span in height, having upon his head a helmet of brass, and wearing a coat of mail weighing five thousand shekels of brass, with greaves of brass upon his legs and a target or gorget of brass between his shoulders. The staff of his spear is said to have been like a weaver's beam, the spear's head weighing six hundred shekels of iron.

Insolently challenging Israel to appoint one of their number to meet him in single combat, with the condition that the people whose champion should be killed should become the slaves of the other, Goliath strikes fear into the hearts of Saul and his men. David, sent by his father with some provisions to his brothers and to their captain in Israel's army, hears the giant's challenge, and inquires what reward there shall be for the man who dares meet the monster. Rebuked by his brother Eliah for his presumption in leaving the sheep, and taxed by him with idle curiosity, David persists in his inquiry. Saul hears of David, and sends for him. The latter relates his experiences with lions and bears, and declares that the uncircumcised Philistine shall at his hands meet a similar fate.

Is Slain by David.

On being armed with Saul's armor, David finds that it impedes his gait, whereupon he discards it, takes his staff, and chooses five smooth stones out of the brook for use in his sling. He meets the giant, who, upon catching sight of his diminutive adversary, resents his coming as an insult. David declares that he comes in the name of Yhwh of hosts, the God of Israel, and warns the monster of his imminent destruction. David, using great strategy in running forward and backward, watches until the giant exposes his face, when, rushing upon him, he slings one of the stones, which, well directed, strikes the giant between the eyes, and, sinking deep into his forehead, fells him to the ground. Drawing the giant's own sword, the shepherd boy severs the head from the trunk. The defeat and death of their champion are the signal for a hasty flight of the Philistines. In consequence of this feat, David is received into Saul's family, but Saul becomes jealous of the young conqueror's popularity (I Sam. xviii. 9). Goliath's sword is reported to have been kept, "wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod," in the sanctuary at Nob in which Ahimelek was priest. David, a fugitive from Saul, knowing its worth, takes it with him in his flight to the King of Gath (I Sam. xxi. 9 [A. V. 10]). According to another account (II Sam. xxi. 19), Goliath was killed by Elhanan from Bethlehem.

—In Rabbinical Literature:

Goliath was of ignoble birth. His mother is said to have been Orpah (: II Sam. xxi. 16; Yalḳ. ii. 125), who, after making a pretense of accompanying Ruth, her mother-in-law, and walking with her forty paces, had left her and had led a very profligate life, so that Goliath, her son, was of uncertain paternity (Midr. Ruth i. 14, where the ketib (I Sam. xvii. 23) is read ; comp. Yalḳ. ii. 126, 601). She bore besides Goliath three other giants (Tan., Wayiggash, 8).

In defying Israel Goliath boasted of having slain the two sons of Eli, captured the holy Ark, brought it to the house of Dagon, where it stayed seven months, and of having led the van of the Philistines in every war, scattering the enemy before him like dust. Notwithstanding all these valorous deeds, he had not been found worthy to be the captain over a thousand. But what had Saul done? Why had he been made king? If he was a man and warrior, he should now come forward and meet him; but if he was a weakling, let Israel choose another champion (Targum to I Sam. xvii. 8). The name the giant bore indicated his supernatural insolence, Goliath recalling that he , stood with "uncovered [arrogant] countenance before even God" (Soṭah 42b). Goliath challenged the Israelites every morning and every evening, so as to disturb them at the hour set for reciting the Shema' (Yalḳ. ii. 126). He was permitted to repeat his defiances for forty days because of the forty paces which Orpah had accompanied Ruth (Tan., Wayiggash, 8). His accouterments weighed, according to R. Ḥanina, 60 tons; according to R. Abba bar Kahana, 120 tons (Soṭah 48b). The Biblical account is said to have described the immense proportions and strength of the giant only in order to convey the lesson that it is unlawful to sing the praises of an evil-doer (Yalḳ. l.c.).

The accouterments of Saul fitted David; but the latter, seeing Saul's displeasure, doffed them (Midrash Tan., Emor, ed. Buber, p. 43a; comp. a similar tradition among the Arabs in Ṭabari and Mas'udi). When David went forth to battle, however, God placed greaves upon his limbs (Yalḳ. l.c.). Why did Goliath fall on his face? In order that David should not be put to the trouble of going far when rushing upon him to behead him. According to R. Huna, Goliath had the picture of Dagon engraved upon his heart, which also came to shame through the giant's death (Cant. R. to iv. 4). Goliath is mentioned as the typical case where strength leads to downfall (Ex. R. xxxi.). He died like a dog (ib.). The sword of David (probably Goliath's) had miraculous powers (Midrash Golyat, Jellinek, "B. H." iv. 140-141). In order to guard the slayer of Goliath against becoming overbearing, God exposed him to the revenge of his slain adversary's brother and mother (see Giants; Sanh. 95a; Jellinek, "B. H." iv. 140 et seq.). The Targum to II Sam. xxi. 19 makes David, not Elhanan, the slayer of Goliath; Rashi identifies Elhanan with David.

—Critical View:

The two accounts of Goliath's death prove that many old traditions concerning valorous deeds performed in the wars against the Philistines were current among the people, the names of the heroes being variously given. Popular imagination attributed gigantic stature to the champions of the enemy; speaking not of one giant only, but of four (II Sam. xxi. 15 et seq.), and associating with David other men, "his servants," who after one of these encounters (with Ishbibenob; see Giants), in which David had run great dangers, swear to prevent him from again taking part in such expeditions.

The endeavor to harmonize the variant accounts is apparent in the version of I Chron. xx. 5, where Elhanan is credited with the slaying of Lahmi, the brother of Goliath. This Lahmi clearly owes hisexistence to the epithet by which Elhanan is distinguished in II Sam. xxi. 19, namely, the "Beth-lehemite" (). The confusion in the text is plain in the repetition of "oregim" after the name of Elhanan's father, Jaare (Jair), from the end of the verse "the staff of whose spear was like a weaver's beam."

Literary Treatment.

The brief sketch in II Sam. xxi. is the more trust-worthy. The men of David—freebooters—manifest no fear in their movements against the enemies. The story of David's duel exhibits great literary skill, and the purpose is plainly to exalt David. The giant and the mere lad—the one in heavy, formidable equipment, the other with the simple outfit of a shepherd; the insolence of the Philistine; the faith and fortitude of David; the cowardice of Israel; the distrust of David's own brothers; the helplessness of Saul; the blind animal passion of the champion; the shrewd, calm strategy of the shepherd—all these are contrasted effects worked out with consummate art. But they point to the fact that in this version reflection and tendency had the dominating part. From the point of view of literary effectiveness, few portions of Old Testament literature equal this.

Underlying this tradition concerning Goliath and other giants is the undoubted fact that many huge weapons of bronze (brass) and iron were found by the invading shepherd tribes of Israel. Many of these were stored away at old shrines, perhaps because they were votive gifts of former generations (I Sam. xvii. 54). The sword incident in the version of I Sam. xvii. reflects, according to Cheyne, the religious temper of late Psalms (Ps. xx. 7 [A. V. 8], xliv. 5 [6]). The battle-cry in Gideon's army (Judges vii. 20) may be remembered as significant in this connection. The later religious construction of the David-Goliath incident (see Ecclus. [Sirach] xlvii. 2-11) is indeed woven into the account in I Sam. xvii., just as the valorous deed of David furnished the basis for the late superscriptions of psalms within and without the Hebrew canon (Ps. cxliv. [cxliii.]) and of one in the Greek psalter, ἔζωϑεν τοῦ ἀριϑμοῦ: "when David fought against Γολιαδ" (Goliad[th]).

The text of the Septuagint differs materially from the Hebrew: verses 12-31, 41, 48b, and 50 are missing. These omitted, a coherent and consistent narrative is presented, recounting how David, a mere recruit, becomes suddenly a renowned warrior. Some critics have assumed that these omissions were made intentionally (so Wellhausen, "Die Composition des Hexateuchs," etc., 3d ed., p. 249; Kuenen, "Historisch-Kritische Einleitung in die Bücher des Alten Testaments," i., part 2, p. 61; Budde, "Richter und Samuel," p. 210). Others (W. R. Smith and Cornill) believe that the Hebrew verses not found in the Septuagint represent a second David-Goliath tradition.

From Wikipedia:

Goliath (Hebrew: גָּלְיָת, Standard Golyat Tiberian Golyāṯ), known also as Goliath of Gath (one of five city states of the Philistines), is the Philistine warrior, famous for his battle with the young David, the future king of Israel, described in the Hebrew Bible/Christian Old Testament (and, more briefly, in the Quran).

Summary: 1 Samuel 17

David hoists the severed head of Goliath.The account of the battle between David and Goliath is given in 1 Samuel, chapter 17:[1]

Saul and the Israelites are facing the Philistines at Socoh in Judah. Twice a day for forty days Goliath, the champion of the Philistines, comes out between the lines and challenges the Israelites to send out a champion of their own to decide the outcome of the battle in single combat, but Saul and all the Israelites are afraid. David is present, bringing food for his elder brothers. When told that Saul has promised to reward any man who will defeat the Philistine champion, David declares he is not afraid. Saul reluctantly agrees and offers his armour, which David declines in favour of his sling and five stones he takes from a brook.

David and Goliath confront each other, Goliath with his armour and shield-bearer, David with his staff and sling. "And the Philistine cursed David by his gods." But David replies: "This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down, and cut off your head; and I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that Yahweh saves not with sword and spear; for the battle is Yahweh's, and he will give you into our hand."

David then strikes Goliath in the head with a stone from his sling; the Philistine falls on his face to the ground. David seizes Goliath's sword and kills him, then cutting off his head. The shocked Philistines flee and are pursued by the Israelites "as far as Gath and the gates of Ekron". David puts the armour of Goliath in his own tent, and takes the head to Jerusalem. Saul sends Abner to inquire whose son this is who has routed the Philistines and killed their champion. Abner brings David before Saul, who asks him whose son he is. "And David answered, 'I am the son of your servant Jesse the Bethlehemite'."

Textual considerations

Goliath's height

There are significant differences between the Masoretic (Hebrew), Septuagint (Greek), and Dead Sea Scrolls versions of 1 Samuel 17. One of the most interesting of these relates to Goliath's height: 4QSam(a), the Dead Sea Scrolls text of Samuel, gives the height of Goliath as "four cubits and a span," (approximately 200 cm or about six feet seven inches), and this is what the 4th century AD Septuagint manuscripts and the 1st century AD historian Josephus also record. Later Septuagint manuscripts and the oldest Masoretic texts (Aleppo Codex, 10th century AD) read "six cubits and a span," which would make him about 290 cm or nine feet six inches tall.

David's age

Early biblical manuscripts such as the 4th century AD Codex Vaticanus do not contain the verses describing David coming each day with food for his brothers, nor 1 Samuel 17:55-58 in which Saul seems unaware of David's identity, referring to him as "this youth" and asking Abner to find out the name of his father. The narrative therefore reads that Goliath is challenging the Israelites to combat, the Israelites are afraid, and David, already with Saul, accepts the challenge. The shorter Septuagint version removes a number of ambiguities which have puzzled commentators: it removes 1 Samuel 17:55-58 in which Saul seems not to know David, despite having taken him as one of his shield-bearers and harpist; it removes 1 Samuel 17:50, the presence of which makes it seem as if David kills Goliath twice, once with his sling and then again with a sword; and it gives David a clear reason, as Saul's personal shield-bearer, for accepting Goliath's challenge. Scholars drawing on studies of oral transmission and folklore have concluded that the non-Septuagint material "is a folktale grafted onto the initial text of ... 1 Samuel."[7]

Elhanan and Goliath

2 Samuel 21:19 tells how Goliath was killed by "Elhanan the son of Jaare-oregim, the Bethlehemite." The 4th century 1 Chronicles 20[9] explains the second Goliath by saying that Elhanan "slew Lahmi the brother of Goliath," apparently constructing the name Lahmi from the last portion of the word "Bethlehemite" ("beit-ha'lahmi"). The King James Bible translators adopted this into their translation of 2 Samuel 21:18-19, although the Hebrew text makes no mention of the word "brother". 2 Samuel 21 appears to be an extremely corrupt passage: "Jaare-oregim," the name of Elhanan's father, means a nonsensical "forest of weaver's beams", and seems to have been copied from Goliath's weaponry (Goliath has a spear "with a shaft like a weaver's beam"). Dr. Baruch Halpern believes that David's opponent probably had no name originally, being referred to simply as "the Philistine" (the name Goliath is applied to him only twice in 1 Samuel 17): "Most likely, storytellers displaced the deed from the otherwise obscure Elhanan onto the more famous character, David."

Goliath and the Philistines

Potsherd inscribed with the two names "alwt" and "wlt", etymologically related to the name GoliathTell es-Safi, the biblical Gath and traditional home of Goliath, has been the subject of extensive excavations by Israel's Bar-Ilan University. The archaeologists have established that this was one of the largest of the Philistine cities until destroyed in the 9th century BC, an event from which it never recovered. An important find relating to Goliath is the discovery of a potsherd, reliably dated to the 10th to mid 9th centuries BC, inscribed with the two names "alwt" and "wlt". While the names are not directly connected with the biblical Goliath, they are etymologically related and demonstrate that the name fits with the context of late-10th/early-9th century BC Philistine culture. The name "Goliath" itself is non-Semitic and has been linked with the Lydian name "Alyattes", which also fits the Philistine context of the biblical Goliath story. Aren Maeir, director of the excavation, comments: "Here we have very nice evidence [that] the name Goliath appearing in the Bible in the context of the story of David and Goliath … is not some later literary creation."

Goliath and the Greeks

In 2004 Azzan Yadin suggested that the armour described in 1 Samuel 17 is typical of Greek armour of the 6th century BC rather than of Philistine armour of the 10th century, and that narrative formulae such as the settlement of battle by single combat between champions is characteristic of the Homeric epics (the Iliad) but not of the ancient Near East. Yadin also suggested that the designation of Goliath as a איש הביניים, “man of the in-between” (a longstanding difficulty in translating 1 Samuel 17) appears to be a borrowing from Greek "man of the metaikhmion (μεταίχμιον)."[14]

Martin Litchfield West has pointed out that a story very similar to that of David and Goliath appears in the Iliad, where the young Nestor fights and conquers the giant Ereuthalion.[15] Each giant wields a distinctive weapon - an iron club in Ereuthalion's case, a massive bronze spear in Goliath's; each giant, clad in armour, comes out of the enemy's massed array to challenge all the warriors in the opposing army; in each case the seasoned warriors are afraid, and the challenge is taken up by a stripling, the youngest in his family (Nestor is the twelfth son of Neleus, David the eighth son of Jesse). In each case an older and more experienced father figure (Nestor's own father, David's patron Saul) tells the boy that he is too young and inexperienced, but in each case the gods (or in David's case, God) comes to the young hero's aid and the giant is left sprawling on the ground. Nestor, fighting on foot, then takes the chariot of his enemy, while David, on foot, takes the sword of Goliath. The enemy army then flees, the victors pursue and slaughter them and return with their booty, and the boy-hero is acclaimed by the people.[16]

Later traditions

Jewish

The authors of the Babylonian Talmud gave Goliath a pedigree suited to his character as the adversary of David: Sotah 42b tells that he was a son of Orpah, the sister-in-law of Ruth, David's own grandmother. The Ruth Rabbah, a haggadic and homiletic interpretation of the Book of Ruth, makes the blood-relationship even closer, considering Orpah and Ruth to have been full sisters. Orpah was said to have made a pretense of accompanying Ruth but after forty paces left her. Thereafter she led a dissolute life, and what happened later is described in the Jerusalem Talmud[17]: Goliath was born by polyspermy, and had about one hundred fathers.

The Talmud stresses Goliath's ungodliness: his taunts before the Israelites included the boast that it was he who had captured the Ark of the Covenant and brought it to the temple of Dagon; and his challenges to combat were made at morning and evening in order to disturb the Israelites in their prayers. His armour weighed 60 tons, according to rabbi Hanina; 120, according to rabbi Abba bar Kahana; and his sword, which became the sword of David, had marvellous powers. On his death it was found that his heart carried the image of Dagon, who thereby also came to a shameful downfall.[18]

In Pseudo-Philo, believed to have been composed between 135 BC and 70 AD, David picks up seven stones and writes on them the names of his fathers, his own name, and the name of God, one name per stone; then, speaking to Goliath, he says: "Hear this word before you die: were not the two woman from whom you and I were born, sisters? and your mother was Orpah and my mother Ruth..." After David strikes Goliath with the stone he runs to Goliath before he dies and Goliath says, "Hurry and kill me and rejoice," and David replies, "Before you die, open your eyes and see your slayer;" Goliath sees an angel and tells David that it is not he who has killed him but the angel. Pseudo-Philo then goes on to say that the angel of the Lord changes David's appearance so that no one recognizes him, and thus Saul asks who he is.[19]

Christianity

The early Christian church found a rich lode of metaphors in the stories of David: David's marriage of Bathsheba was seen as a model of the church's wooing of the community of believers away from the discredited Jewish faith, his speech to followers during the flight from Absalom was a prefiguring of Jesus's farewell speech to his disciples, and the battle with Goliath symbolised the church's eternal but victorious battle with Satan.[20]

Goliath in films

The Italians used Goliath as an action superhero in a series of Biblical adventure films (peplums) in the early 1960s. He was possessed of amazing strength, and the films were similar in theme to their Hercules and Maciste movies. After the classic Hercules (1957) became a blockbuster sensation in the film industry, a 1959 Steve Reeves film, Terror of the Barbarians, was retitled Goliath and the Barbarians in 1960 in the USA. The film was so successful at the box office it inspired Italian filmmakers to do a series of four films featuring a hero named Goliath. (The 1960 Italian film David and Goliath, starring Orson Welles, was not part of this series, as it was a straightforward adaptation of the original Biblical story).

The titles in the Italian "Goliath" peplum series were as follows:

Goliath Against the Giants (1960) starring Brad Harris as Goliath the Giant. Goliath and the Rebel Slave (aka The Tyrant of Lydia vs. The Son of Hercules, 1963) starring Gordon Scott as Goliath (Note: this film was sold directly to American TV in a syndication package known as Sons of Hercules, in this case referring to Goliath as a Son of Hercules, simply for marketing reasons). Goliath and the Masked Rider (aka Hercules and the Masked Rider, 1964) starring Alan Steel as Goliath. (This film was marketed on USA television as a Hercules movie) Goliath at the Conquest of Baghdad (aka Goliath at the Conquest of Damascus, 1964) starring Peter Lupus as Goliath. The name Goliath was also used in the film titles of a few other Italian movies that were retitled for distribution in the USA in an attempt to cash in on the Goliath craze, but these films were not originally Goliath movies in Italy. Both Goliath and the Vampires (1961) and Goliath and the Sins of Babylon (1963) featured the famed superhero Maciste in the original Italian versions, but American distributors didn't feel the name Maciste would have any meaning to American audiences. Goliath and the Dragon (1960) was originally an Italian Hercules movie called The Revenge of Hercules, and it is a mystery to this day why U.S. distributors didn't market the film under that title, since Hercules films always tended to do much better at the box office than Goliath movies.

The 1986 film Hoosiers involves a final scene which a small-town high school basketball team takes on a big-city team for the Indiana state championship. In the final moments before the small-town team from "Hickory" takes the court, the passage describing how, "David took a stone from the bag and slung it... knocking the Philistine to the ground" is read to inspire the team.

Italian veteran actor Giorgio Francesco Palombi portrayed this nine feet giant in TNT's 1997 live-action telefilm.

In 2004, Lightstone Studios released a direct-to-dvd movie musical titled "One Smooth Stone," which was later changed to "David and Goliath." It is part of the Liken the Scriptures (Now just "Liken") series of movie musicals on DVD based on scripture stories.