1 Samuel 17:50

THE COMPLETE ROUT OF THE PHILISTINE ARMY

"So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and struck the Philistine and killed him; and there was no sword in the hand of David. Then David ran and stood over the Philistine, and took his sword and drew it out of its sheath, and killed him, and cut off his head with it. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled. And the men of Israel and Judah rose with a shout and pursued the Philistines as far as Gath and the gates of Ekron, so that the wounded Philistines fell on the way from Sharaim as far as Gath and Ekron. And the Israelites came back from chasing the Philistines, and they plundered their camp. And David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem; but he put his armor in his tent."

Some scholars profess to find a difficulty with the statement in this narrative that David killed Goliath with a sling and with a stone (1 Samuel 17:50), and in the very next verse, the text states that David took the giant's sword and, "killed the giant and cut off his head."

This is no difficulty whatever, being merely the way the Biblical narratives are written with much redundancy and repetition. Another example is the case of Jael's killing Sisera. After the enemy was already lying there with his head nailed to the ground with a tent-pin driven though his temples, the narrative states that, "He was in a deep sleep, and swooned and died" (Judges 4:21, ASV)! This is merely the way that ancient historians wrote.

After that smooth stone hurled from David's sling "sank into the forehead" of Goliath, he was as dead as if he had been shot between the eyes with a deer rifle! Subsequent references to David's "killing" Goliath are merely repetitions for the sake of emphasis.

Still another so-called problem regards the statement that David took the head of Goliath to Jerusalem. There is no problem when it is remembered that when David did this is not mentioned. Also, David, at that time, did not have a tent, and the tent where Goliath's armor was placed was evidently the tabernacle where the ark of God was kept. It would seem that David's recovering the sword of Goliath from that tabernacle at a later time should be accepted as sufficient proof of this (1 Samuel 21:8,9).