1 Samuel 17:23-24

The champion, the Philistine of Oath, Goliath by name. The Hebrew is, "The champion (see on 1 Samuel 17:4 ), Goliath the Philistine his name, of Gath," probably the very words of the original record. Out of the armies, or ranks. This is a very probable correction of the Kri, made by restoring a letter which has apparently dropped out. The word in the written text might mean "the open space between the two armies;" but it occurs nowhere else, and this space was chiefly occupied by the ravine. The men of Israel … fled from him. I.e. they drew back in haste from the edge of the ravine, which Goliath could no more have crossed, encased in armour weighing two and a half hundred-weight, than a knight could have done in the middle ages. In 1 Samuel 17:40 we read that it was out of this ravine that David selected his pebbles, and, being encumbered with no armour, it was easy for him to climb up the other side and attack his heavily armed opponent.