XXXIV DAVID FIGHTS THE GIANT

HUS did David divide his time: part he spent in the court of King Saul, and part in the country on his father’s farm.

Then there came a war, and the king went out to battle. Instead of the music of the harp he listened to the music of the drums. But David was needed at home, for his older brothers were in the army, and he kept the sheep.

One day his father said to David, “David, I want you to take these ten loaves of bread and this basket of parched corn to your brothers in the army, and here are ten cheeses for their captain; and bring me word again about your brothers and about the war.”

And David made his way down a long valley till by and by he came to a level plain. There was a hill on one side of the plain to the east, and another hill on the other side to the west, and these hills were full of soldiers. On the western hill the Philistines had their camp, and on the eastern hill were the forces of the Israelites; and between them across the plain ran a little brook.

And as David drew near he heard a noise of shouting. The Philistines shouted with a great shout, and the Israelites answered. And then there came a voice, like the voices of ten stout men in one, and called out something which David was too far away to understand. And when he came nearer, there he saw in the middle of the plain, with his back to the Philistines and his face to the army of Israel, a mighty giant. The giant was ten feet high, and all his clothes were made of brass. He had a helmet of brass upon his head, and a breastplate of brass upon his breast, and a target of brass upon his back, and boots of brass upon his feet. In one hand he carried a huge spear, in the other hand a sword. Before him went his squire, bearing his shield.

And this is what the giant said, “Choose you a man for you,” he cried, “and let him come to me. If he be able to fight with me and kill me, we will be your servants; but if I prevail against him and kill him, ye shall be our servants, and serve us.” And not a man of all the hosts of Israel dared to go out and fight him.

Then the soul of David was stirred within him. He spoke to the first man whom he met. “Tell me,” he said, “what does this mean?”

And the man answered, “Yonder is Goliath, the giant of Gath. Every day he comes out at this hour and defies our army. King Saul has promised that whosoever shall face him and overcome him shall have a great reward in gold, and the hand of the princess, as well. But nobody is bold enough to try it.”

David said, “I will try it.”

So the word came to his brother Eliab that David had offered to fight Goliath; and Eliab did not like it. It seemed to him, as it often seems to older brothers, that the boy was still a child. As for King Saul, when they told him, he smiled and shook his head. “You are not able,” he said, “to fight with this Philistine, for you are but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth.”

But David said, “I have fought lions and bears since I was ten years old. I have seized them by the beard and killed them. I can do the same with this Philistine. The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion and out of the paw of the bear, He will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine.”

Even so, it seemed like the proposal of a lamb to fight a wolf. But what else could be done? At last, the king took David into his own tent, and offered him his armor. But the king was the tallest man in the army, and the shepherd boy was short of stature. Saul’s helmet came down over David’s ears, and his coat of mail touched David’s heels. He put them off. “I can fight best,” he said, “in my own way.”

And David took his staff in his hand,—the stout stick with which he kept the sheep,—and he had his sling, and from the bank of the brook he chose him five smooth stones. And thus he went out into the plain between the armies, and faced the giant.

And the giant in all his armor came, and his squire carried his shield before him, and when he looked to see what champion the Israelites had found at last, there was but a boy,—a red-cheeked boy with a staff in one hand and a sling in the other.

The giant was very angry. “Am I a dog,” he cried, “that thou comest at me with a stick? I will give thy flesh to the fowls of the air and to the beasts of the field, and they shall pick thy bones.”

And David answered, “Thou comest to me with sword and spear and shield; but I come to thee in the name of the Lord God of hosts, whom thou hast defied.”

Thus the champions drew together, while the two armies watched in breathless silence. And David ran to meet the giant. And even as he ran, he put his hand into his shepherd’s bag, and took out a smooth stone and put it in his sling and slung it. Up went the sling, out went the stone, down went the giant. Straight as an arrow, the stone struck him in the forehead. And David ran, and with the giant’s sword cut off the giant’s head.

Then did the Philistines flee, and the men of Israel raised a great shout and chased them.