1 Samuel 17:50-51
He took his sword, and drew it out of the sheath
The sling brings him down and his own weapon finishes it. The account states twice that there was no sword in David’s hand.
Objects of the Bible
The sword of Goliath
Taken from the man it was made for, kept behind a priest’s ephod, and handed back to a fugitive years later.
The stone does not kill him. The account is careful: 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. The weapon that finishes the fight is the champion’s own, drawn by a boy standing on him. The armour goes to David’s tent and the head goes to Jerusalem, which is a detail the text does not explain.
Scroll down to the storyThe movements, in the order the text gives them.
The story of The sword of Goliath
- 01
- 02
1 Samuel 17:54
He put his armour in his tent
The head goes to Jerusalem and the armour goes home with him. The text records the disposal without commenting on either.
- 03
1 Samuel 21:8-9
Is there not here under thine hand spear or sword
He arrives with nothing and asks, and the priest names the one weapon in the building by its history rather than its condition.
- 04
1 Samuel 21:9
There is none like that, give it me
He takes back the sword he once took. The line is short and it is the last thing said in the scene before he runs to Gath.
Why it matters
The sword reappears in one of the strangest scenes in David’s life. He arrives at Nob alone, hungry and unarmed, having left in such haste that he has brought neither sword nor weapon with him, and he asks the priest whether there is any here under thine hand. The answer is that the sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom thou slewest in the valley of Elah, is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. David says there is none like that, give it me. The trophy comes back as equipment at the worst hour of his life.
3 songs
The music
Every song in the catalogue whose passage falls inside these chapters.
