Mazmur 71:4

71:4 My God, rescue me from the power ¹  of the wicked,

from the hand of the cruel oppressor!

Mazmur 71:2

71:2 Vindicate me by rescuing me! ² 

Listen to me! ³  Deliver me! ⁴ 

1 Samuel 15:31

15:31 So Samuel followed Saul back, and Saul worshiped the Lord.

1 Samuel 16:20--17:4

16:20 So Jesse took a donkey loaded with bread, a container of wine, and a young goat ⁵  and sent them to Saul with ⁶  his son David. 16:21 David came to Saul and stood before him. Saul liked him a great deal, ⁷  and he became his armor bearer. 16:22 Then Saul sent word to Jesse saying, “Let David be my servant, for I really like him.” ⁸ 

16:23 So whenever the spirit from God would come upon Saul, David would take his lyre and play it. This would bring relief to Saul and make him feel better. Then the evil spirit would leave him alone. ⁹ 

David Kills Goliath

17:1 ¹⁰ The Philistines gathered their troops ¹¹  for battle. They assembled at Socoh in Judah. They camped in Ephes Dammim, between Socoh and Azekah. 17:2 Saul and the Israelite army ¹²  assembled and camped in the valley of Elah, where they arranged their battle lines to fight against ¹³  the Philistines. 17:3 The Philistines were standing on one hill, and the Israelites ¹⁴  on another hill, with the valley between them.

17:4 Then a champion ¹⁵  came out from the camp of the Philistines. His name was Goliath; he was from Gath. He was close to seven feet tall. ¹⁶ 

[71:4]  ¹ tn Heb “hand.”

[71:2]  ² tn Heb “in your vindication rescue me and deliver me.” Ps 31:1 omits “and deliver me.”

[71:2]  ³ tn Heb “turn toward me your ear.”

[71:2]  ⁴ tn Ps 31:2 adds “quickly” before “deliver.”

[16:20]  ⁵ tn Heb “a kid of the goats.”

[16:20]  ⁶ tn Heb “by the hand of.”

[16:21]  ⁷ tn Heb “he loved him.”

[16:22]  ⁸ tn Heb “Let David stand before me, for he has found favor in my eyes.”

[16:23]  ⁹ tn Heb “would turn aside from upon him.”

[17:1]  ¹⁰ tc The content of 1 Sam 17–18, which includes the David and Goliath story, differs considerably in the LXX as compared to the MT, suggesting that this story circulated in ancient times in more than one form. The LXX for chs. 17–18 is much shorter than the MT, lacking almost half of the material (39 of a total of 88 verses). Many scholars (e.g., McCarter, Klein) think that the shorter text of the LXX is preferable to the MT, which in their view has been expanded by incorporation of later material. Other scholars (e.g., Wellhausen, Driver) conclude that the shorter Greek text (or the Hebrew text that underlies it) reflects an attempt to harmonize certain alleged inconsistencies that appear in the longer version of the story. Given the translation characteristics of the LXX elsewhere in this section, it does not seem likely that these differences are due to deliberate omission of these verses on the part of the translator. It seems more likely that the Greek translator has faithfully rendered here a Hebrew text that itself was much shorter than the MT in these chapters. Whether or not the shorter text represented by the LXX is to be preferred over the MT in 1 Sam 17–18 is a matter over which textual scholars are divided. For a helpful discussion of the major textual issues in this unit see D. Barthélemy, D. W. Gooding, J. Lust, and E. Tov, The Story of David and Goliath (OBO). Overall it seems preferable to stay with the MT, at least for the most part. However, the major textual differences between the LXX and the MT will be mentioned in the notes that accompany the translation so that the reader may be alert to the major problem passages.

[17:1]  ¹¹ tn Heb “camps.”

[17:2]  ¹² tn Heb “the men of Israel” (so KJV, NASB); NAB, NIV, NRSV “the Israelites.”

[17:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “to meet.”

[17:3]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “Israel.”

[17:4]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the man of the space between the two [armies].” See v. 23.

[17:4]  ¹⁶ tc Heb “his height was six cubits and a span” (cf. KJV, NASB, NRSV). A cubit was approximately eighteen inches, a span nine inches. So, according to the Hebrew tradition, Goliath was about nine feet, nine inches tall (cf. NIV, CEV, NLT “over nine feet”; NCV “nine feet, four inches”; TEV “nearly 3 metres”). However, some Greek witnesses, Josephus, and a manuscript of 1 Samuel from Qumran read “four cubits and a span” here, that is, about six feet, nine inches (cf. NAB “six and a half feet”). This seems more reasonable; it is likely that Goliath’s height was exaggerated as the story was retold. See P. K. McCarter, I Samuel (AB), 286, 291.