Goliath

Philistine giant in the Bible

This article is about the biblical warrior. For other uses, see Goliath (disambiguation).

"David and Goliath" redirects here. For other uses, see David and Goliath (disambiguation).

David and Goliath (1888) by Osmar Schindler

Goliath[A] (/ɡəˈlaɪəθ/ gə-LY-əth) was a Philistine giant in the Book of Samuel. Descriptions of Goliath's immense stature vary among biblical sources, with texts describing him as either 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) or 9 ft 9 in (2.97 m) tall.[1] According to the text, Goliath issued a challenge to the Israelites, daring them to send forth a champion to engage him in single combat; he was ultimately defeated by the young shepherd David, employing a sling and stone as a weapon. The narrative signified King Saul's unfitness to rule, as Saul himself should have fought for the Kingdom of Israel.[2]

Some modern scholars believe that the original slayer of Goliath may have been Elhanan, son of Jair, who features in 2 Samuel 21:19, in which Elhanan kills Goliath the Gittite,[3] and that the authors of the Deuteronomistic history changed the original text to credit the victory to the more famous figure David.[4][5]

The phrase "David and Goliath" has taken on a more popular meaning denoting an underdog situation, a contest wherein a smaller, weaker opponent faces a much bigger, stronger adversary.[6]

## Biblical accounts

[edit]

David hoists the severed head of Goliath as illustrated by Gustave Doré (1866)

In 1 Samuel 17, Saul and the Israelites are facing the Philistines in the Valley of Elah. Twice a day for 40 days, morning and evening, Goliath, the champion of the Philistines, comes out between the lines and challenges the Israelites to send out a champion of their own to decide the outcome in single combat, but Saul is afraid. David accepts the challenge. Saul reluctantly agrees and offers his armour, which David declines, taking only his staff, sling, and five stones from a brook.[7]

David and Goliath confront each other, Goliath with his armor and javelin, David with his staff and sling. "The Philistine cursed David by his gods", but David replies:

> "This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down, and I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a god in Israel and that all this assembly may know that God saves not with sword and spear; for the battle is God's, and he will give you into our hand."

— 1 Samuel 17:46–47

David hurls a stone from his sling and hits Goliath in the center of his forehead, Goliath falls on his face to the ground, and David cuts off his head. The Philistines flee and are pursued by the Israelites "as far as Gath and the gates of Ekron". David puts the armor of Goliath in his own tent and takes the head to Jerusalem, and Saul sends Abner to bring the boy to him. The king asks whose son he is, and David answers:

> "I am the son of your servant Jesse the Bethlehemite."

— 1 Samuel 17:58

## Composition of the Book of Samuel

[edit]

The Books of Samuel, together with the books of Joshua, Judges and Kings, make up a unified history of Israel which biblical scholars call the Deuteronomistic History. The first edition of the history was probably written at the court of Judah's King Josiah (late 7th century BCE) and a revised second edition during the exile (6th century BCE), with further revisions in the post-exilic period.[8][9] Traces of this can be seen in contradictions within the Goliath story, such as that between 1 Samuel 17:54, which says that David took Goliath's head to Jerusalem, although according to 2 Samuel 5 Jerusalem at that time was still a Jebusite stronghold and was not captured until David became king.[10][B]

## Structure of the David and Goliath narrative

[edit]

The Goliath story is made up of base-narrative with numerous additions made probably after the exile:[13]

Original story

* The Israelites and Philistines face each other; Goliath makes his challenge to single combat;
* David volunteers to fight Goliath;
* David selects five smooth stones from a creek-bed to be used in his sling;
* David's courage strengthens others and eventually others defeat four other giants, possibly brothers, but relatives, reference 2 Samuel 21:15-22.
* David defeats Goliath, the Philistines flee the battlefield.

Additions

* David is sent by his father to bring food to his brothers, hears the challenge, and expresses his desire to accept;
* Details of the account of the battle;
* Saul asks who David is, and he is introduced to the king through Abner.[14][C]

## Textual considerations

[edit]

### Goliath's height

[edit]

David with the Head of Goliath, c. 1635, by Andrea Vaccaro

The oldest manuscripts, namely the Dead Sea Scrolls text of Samuel from the late 1st century BCE, the 1st-century CE historian Josephus, and the major Septuagint manuscripts, all give Goliath's height as "four cubits and a span" (6 feet 9 inches or 2.06 metres), whereas the Masoretic Text has "six cubits and a span" (9 feet 9 inches or 2.97 metres).[15][1] Many scholars have suggested that the smaller number grew in the course of transmission (only a few have suggested the reverse, that an original larger number was reduced), possibly when a scribe's eye was drawn to the number six in line 17:7.[16]

### Goliath and Saul

[edit]

The underlying purpose of the story of Goliath is to show that Saul is not fit to be king (but that David is). Saul was chosen to lead the Israelites against their enemies, but when faced with Goliath, he refuses to do so; Saul is a head taller than anyone else in all Israel (1 Samuel 9:2), which implies he was over 6 feet (1.8 m) tall and the obvious challenger for Goliath, yet David is the one who eventually defeated him. Also, Saul's armour and weaponry are apparently no better than Goliath's:

> "David declares that when a lion or bear came and attacked his father's sheep, he battled against it and killed it, [but Saul] has been cowering in fear instead of rising up and attacking the threat to his sheep (i.e., Israel)."[1]

David's speech in 1 Samuel 17 can be interpreted as referring to both Saul and Goliath through its animal imagery. When this imagery is considered closely, David can be seen to function as the true king who manipulates wild beasts.[17]

### Elhanan and Goliath

[edit]

In 2 Samuel 21, verse 19, the Hebrew Bible tells how Goliath was killed by "Elhanan the son of Jaare-oregim, the Bethlehemite". The fourth-century BC 1 Chronicle 20:5 explains the second Goliath by saying that Elhanan "slew Lahmi the brother of Goliath", which is thought by biblical source critics to have constructed the name Lahmi from the last portion of the word "Bethlehemite" ("beit-ha'lahmi"), and the King James Bible adopted this identification into 2 Samuel 21:18–19. Regardless, the Hebrew text at Goliath's name in 2 Samuel 21 makes no mention of the word "brother".[18] Most scholars dismiss the later 1 Chronicles 20:5 material as "an obvious harmonization".[19]

### Goliath and the Greeks

[edit]

The armor described in 1 Samuel 17 appears typical of Greek armor of the sixth century BCE; narrative formulae such as the settlement of battle by single combat between champions has been thought characteristic of the Homeric epics (the Iliad) rather than of the ancient Near East. The designation of Goliath as a איש הביניים, "man of the in-between" (a longstanding difficulty in translating 1 Samuel 17) appears to be a borrowing from Greek "man of the metaikhmion (μεταίχμιον)", i.e., the space between two opposite army camps where champion combat would take place.[20] Other scholars argue the description is a trustworthy reflection of the armaments that a Philistine warrior would have worn in the tenth century BCE.[21][D]

A story very similar to that of David and Goliath appears in the Iliad, written c. 760–710 BCE, where the young Nestor fights and conquers the giant Ereuthalion.[23][24] Each giant wields a distinctive weapon—an iron club in Ereuthalion's case, a massive bronze spear in Goliath's; each giant, clad in armor, comes out of the enemy's massed array to challenge all the warriors in the opposing army; in each case the seasoned warriors are afraid, and the challenge is taken up by a stripling, the youngest in his family (Nestor is the twelfth son of Neleus, David the seventh or eighth son of Jesse). In each case an older and more experienced father figure (Nestor's own father, David's patron Saul) tells the boy that he is too young and inexperienced, but in each case the young hero receives divine aid and the giant is left sprawling on the ground. Nestor, fighting on foot, then takes the chariot of his enemy, while David, on foot, takes the sword of Goliath. The enemy army then flees, the victors pursue and slaughter them and return with their bodies, and the boy-hero is acclaimed by the people.[25] However, some scholars question whether the biblical writers would have ever had access to the Iliad, and argue that the similarities between both tales are also present in other ancient Near Eastern accounts of duels.[26][27]

### Goliath's name

[edit]

Tell es-Safi, the biblical Gath and traditional home of Goliath, has been the subject of extensive excavations by Israel's Bar-Ilan University. The archaeologists have established that this was one of the largest of the Philistine cities until it was destroyed in the ninth century BC, an event from which it never recovered. The Tell es-Safi inscription, a potsherd discovered at the site, and reliably dated to between the tenth to mid-ninth centuries BC, is inscribed with the two names ʾLWT and WLT. While the names are not directly connected with the biblical Goliath (גלית, GLYT), they are etymologically related and demonstrate that the name fits with the context of the late tenth- to early ninth-century BC Philistine culture. The name "Goliath" itself is non-Semitic and has been linked with the Lydian king Alyattes, which also fits the Philistine context of the biblical Goliath story.[28] A similar name, Uliat, is also attested in Carian inscriptions.[29] Aren Maeir, director of the excavation, comments: "Here we have very nice evidence [that] the name Goliath appearing in the Bible in the context of the story of David and Goliath... is not some later literary creation."[30]

Based on the southwest Anatolian onomastic considerations, Roger D. Woodard proposed *Walwatta as a reconstruction of the form ancestral to both Hebrew Goliath and Lydian Alyattes. In this case, the original meaning of Goliath's name would be "Lion-man," thus placing him within the realm of Indo-European warrior-beast mythology.[31]

The Babylonian Talmud explains the name "Goliath, son of Gath" through a reference to his mother's promiscuity, based on the Aramaic גַּת (gat, winepress), as everyone threshed his mother as people do to grapes in a winepress (Sotah, 42b).

The name sometimes appears in English as Goliah.[32]

## Later traditions

[edit]

### Judaism

[edit]

David and Goliath (1616) by Peter Paul Rubens David Giving Thanks to God (18th century) by Charles Errard

According to the Babylonian Talmud (Sotah 42b), Goliath was a son of Orpah, the sister-in-law of Ruth, David's own great-grandmother (Ruth → Obed → Jesse → David). Ruth Rabbah, a haggadic and homiletic interpretation of the Book of Ruth, makes the blood relationship even closer, considering Orpah and Ruth to have been full sisters. Orpah was said to have made a pretense of accompanying Ruth but after forty paces left her. Thereafter she led a dissolute life. According to the Jerusalem Talmud, Goliath was born by polyspermy, and had about one hundred fathers.[33]

The Talmud stresses Goliath's ungodliness: his taunts before the Israelites included the boast that it was he who had captured the Ark of the Covenant and brought it to the temple of Dagon, and his challenges to combat were made at morning and evening to disturb the Israelites in their prayers. His armor weighed 60 tons, according to rabbi Hanina; 120, according to rabbi Abba bar Kahana; and his sword, which became the sword of David, had marvelous powers. On his death it was found that his heart carried the image of Dagon, who thereby also came to a shameful downfall.[34]

In Pseudo-Philo, believed to have been composed between 135 BCE and 70 CE, David picks up seven stones and writes on them his father's name, his own name, and the name of God, one name per stone; then, speaking to Goliath, he says:

> "Hear this word before you die: were not the two woman from whom you and I were born, sisters? And your mother was Orpah and my mother Ruth ..."

After David strikes Goliath with the stone he runs to Goliath before he dies, and Goliath says: "Hurry and kill me and rejoice." David replies: "Before you die, open your eyes and see your slayer." Goliath sees an angel and tells David that it is not he who has killed him but the angel. Pseudo-Philo then goes on to say that the angel of the Lord changes David's appearance so that no one recognizes him, and thus Saul asks who he is.[35]

### Islam

[edit]

Goliath appears in chapter 2 of the Quran (2:247–252), in the narrative of David and Saul's battle against the Philistines.[36] Called Jalut in Arabic (جالوت), Goliath's mention in the Quran is concise, although it remains a parallel to the account in the Hebrew Bible. Muslim scholars have tried to trace Goliath's origins, most commonly with the Amalekites.[37] Goliath, in early scholarly tradition, became a kind of byword or collective name for the oppressors of the Israelite nation before David.[36] Muslim tradition sees the battle with Goliath as a prefiguration of Muhammad's battle of Badr, and sees Goliath as parallel to the enemies that Muhammad faced.[37]

## Modern usages of David and Goliath

[edit]

In modern usage, the phrase "David and Goliath" has taken on a secular meaning, denoting an underdog situation, a contest where a smaller, weaker opponent faces a much bigger, stronger adversary; if successful, the underdog may win in an unusual or surprising way.[6][38]

Theology professor Leonard Greenspoon, in his essay, "David vs. Goliath in the Sports Pages", explains that "most writers use the story for its underdog overtones (the little guy wins) ... Less likely to show up in newsprint is the contrast that was most important to the biblical authors: David's victory shows the power of his God, while Goliath's defeat reveals the weakness of the Philistine deities."[39]

The phrase is widely used in news media to succinctly characterize underdog situations in many contexts without religious overtones. Contemporary headlines include: sports ("Haye relishes underdog role in 'David and Goliath' fight with Nikolai Valuev"—The Guardian[40]); business ("On Internet, David-and-Goliath Battle Over Instant Messages"—The New York Times[41]); science ("David and Goliath: How a tiny spider catches much larger prey"—ScienceDaily;[42] politics ("Dissent in Cuba: David and Goliath"—The Economist[43]); social justice ("David-and-Goliath Saga Brings Cable to Skid Row"—Los Angeles Times[44]). The geopolitical conflict between the Philippines and China, in the context of the Spratly Islands dispute, has been likened to a "David and Goliath" scenario.[45][46]

Aside from the above allegorical use of "David and Goliath", there is also the use of "Goliath" for a particularly tall person.[47][48] For example, basketball player Wilt Chamberlain was nicknamed "Goliath", which he disliked.[49]

## In popular culture

[edit]

David and Goliath (1509) by Michelangelo, on the Sistine Chapel ceiling

American actor Ted Cassidy portrayed Goliath in the TV series Greatest Heroes of the Bible (1978).[50] Italian actor Luigi Montefiori portrayed this 9 ft 0 in (2.74 m)-tall giant in Paramount's 1985 live-action film King David as part of a flashback. This film includes the King of the Philistines saying: "Goliath has challenged the Israelites six times and no one has responded." It is then on the seventh time that David meets his challenge.

Toho and Tsuburaya Productions collaborated on a film called Daigoro vs. Goliath (1972), which follows the story relatively closely but recasts the main characters as kaiju.[citation needed]

In 2005, Lightstone Studios released a direct-to-DVD movie musical titled "One Smooth Stone", which was later changed to "David and Goliath". It is part of the Liken the scriptures (now just Liken) series of movie musicals on DVD based on scripture stories. Thurl Bailey, a former NBA basketball player, was cast to play the part of Goliath in this film.[citation needed]

In 2009, NBC aired Kings, which has a narrative loosely based on the biblical story of King David, but set in a kingdom that culturally and technologically resembles the present-day United States.[51] The part of Goliath is portrayed by a tank, which David destroys with a shoulder-fired rocket launcher.[citation needed]

In 1975, Kaveret recorded and released a humorous interpretation of the Goliath story, with several changes made such as Goliath being the "Demon from Ashkelon", and David randomly meeting Goliath rather than dueling each other on a battlefield.

### Italian Goliath film series (1960–1964)

[edit]

The Italians used Goliath as an action superhero in a series of biblical adventure films (peplums) in the early 1960s. He possessed amazing strength, and the films were similar in theme to their Hercules and Maciste movies. After the classic Hercules (1958) became a blockbuster sensation in the film industry, the 1959 Steve Reeves film Terrore dei Barbari (Terror of the Barbarians) was retitled Goliath and the Barbarians in the United States, (after Joseph E. Levine claimed the sole right to the name of Hercules); the film was so successful at the box office, it inspired Italian filmmakers to do a series of four more films featuring a beefcake hero named Goliath, although the films were not really related to each other. Note that the Italian film David and Goliath (1960), starring Orson Welles, was not one of these, since that film was a straightforward adaptation of the biblical story.[citation needed]

The four titles in the Italian Goliath series were as follows:[citation needed]

* Goliath contro i giganti/Goliath Against the Giants (1960) starring Brad Harris
* Goliath e la schiava ribelle/Goliath and the Rebel Slave (a.k.a. The Tyrant of Lydia vs. The Son of Hercules) (1963) starring Gordon Scott
* Golia e il cavaliere mascherato/Goliath and the Masked Rider (a.k.a. Hercules and the Masked Rider) (1964) starring Alan Steel
* Golia alla conquista di Bagdad/Goliath at the Conquest of Baghdad (a.k.a. Goliath at the Conquest of Damascus, 1964) starring Peter Lupus

The name Goliath was later inserted into the film titles of three other Italian muscle man movies that were retitled for distribution in the United States in an attempt to cash in on the Goliath craze, but these films were not originally made as Goliath films in Italy.[citation needed]

Both Goliath and the Vampires (1961) and Goliath and the Sins of Babylon (1963) actually featured the famed superhero Maciste in the original Italian versions, but American distributors did not feel the name Maciste had any meaning to American audiences. Goliath and the Dragon (1960) was originally an Italian Hercules film called The Revenge of Hercules.[citation needed]

## See also

[edit]

* Og
* An Army of Davids
* Battle of Ain Jalut
* Gilgamesh
* List of tallest people
* David Plates

## References

[edit]

### Notes

[edit]

1. ^ Hebrew: גָּלְיָת, romanized: Goləyāṯ; Arabic: جُليات, romanized: Ǧulyāt (Christian term) or جَالُوت, Ǧālūt (Quranic term)
2. ^ Not all scholars agree that the account in 1 Samuel 17:54 contradicts the one in 2 Samuel 5, and various explanations have been proposed as to why David would have brought Goliath's head to the Jebusite stronghold of Jerusalem.[11] Hoffmeier (2011), drawing on Ancient Near Eastern comparative data, suggests that David was performing a symbolic action intended to announce his victory over Goliath as well as to intimidate the Jebusites.[12]
3. ^ Compare texts of short and long versions of 1 Samuel 17.
4. ^ Hoffmeier (2011): "A number of critical evalua-tions of more minimalist readings of David and Goliath duel quickly followed Finkelstein and A. Yadin's articles. Philip King's analysis of Goliath's weapons in the Seymour Gitin Festschrift is worth men-tioning.33 Contrary to Finkelstein's conclusion, King determines that "Goliath's bronze helmet, cuirass, greaves, long range bronze jav-elin, spear with socketed blade, shield-bearer, and sword have their counterparts in the repertoire of a Mycenaean soldier."34 He flatly rejects the portrayal of Goliath as a 7th century Greek hoplite. In the Lawrence Stager Fest-schrift, Alan Millard likewise offered a critical response to Finkel-stein and A. Yadin.35 Most recently, Moshe Garsiel wrote a comprehen-sive critique of the recent mini-malistic literary and archaeological readings of this classic narrative.36"[22]

### Citations

[edit]

1. ^ a b c Hays, J. Daniel (December 2005). "Reconsidering the Height of Goliath" (PDF). Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society. 48 (4): 701–2\. Archived (PDF) from the original on 30 December 2010.
2. ^ Nelson 2000, p. 519.
3. ^ Finkelstein & Silberman 2007, pp. 2, 57.
4. ^ Halpern 2003, p. 8.
5. ^ Finkelstein & Silberman 2007, p. 196.
6. ^ a b "David, and Goliath". Oxford Advanced American Dictionary. Retrieved 11 February 2015. "used to describe a situation in which a small or weak person or organization tries to defeat another much larger or stronger opponent: The game looks like it will be a David and Goliath contest."
7. ^ 1 Samuel 17:40
8. ^ Campbell & O'Brien 2000, p. 2 and fn6.
9. ^ Person 2010, p. 10–11.
10. ^ "1 Samuel, CHAPTER 17 | USCCB". bible.usccb.org.
11. ^ Hoffmeier 2011, p. 103.
12. ^ Hoffmeier 2011, pp. 104–108.
13. ^ Campbell & O'Brien 2000, p. 259-269 fn58.
14. ^ Johnson 2015, p. 10-11.
15. ^ Ehrlich, C. S. (1992). "Goliath (Person)". In D. N. Freedman (ed.), The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (Vol. 2, p. 1073). New York: Doubleday
16. ^ Driesbach 2016, p. 73.
17. ^ Beard, Brady A. (1 November 2020). "Snatched from the hand of a bear : a comparative perspective on the bear in David's speech in 1 Sam 17:34–37". Journal of Northwest Semitic Languages. 46 (1): 1–20\. hdl:10520/EJC-20a3d4d2b9.
18. ^ Halpern 2003, pp. 7–10.
19. ^ Hubbard, Robert L.; Younger, K. Lawson; Arnold, Bill T.; Konkel, August H.; Hill, Andrew E.; Jobes, Karen H. (2015). NIVAC Bundle 2: Historical Books. The NIV Application Commentary. Zondervan Academic. p. unpaginated. ISBN 978-0-310-53003-9. Retrieved 4 March 2022. "Most scholars dismiss the parallel in 1 Chronicles 20:5 as an obvious harmonization"
20. ^ Azzan Yadin (2004). "Goliath's Armor and the Israelite Collective Memory" (PDF). Vetus Testamentum. LIV (3): 373–95\. Archived (PDF) from the original on 25 December 2014.
– See also Israel Finkelstein. "The Philistines in the Bible: A Late Monarchic Perspective". Journal for the Study of the Old Testament. 27 (131): 67.
– For a brief online overview, see Christopher Heard (28 April 2006). "Yadin on "David and Goliath" in VT 54 (2004)". Higgaion. Archived from the original on 13 October 2007.
21. ^ Zorn, Jeffrey R. (2010). "Reconsidering Goliath: An Iron Age I Philistine Chariot Warrior". Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research. 360: 1–22\. doi:10.1086/BASOR41104416. S2CID 163281106.
22. ^ Hoffmeier 2011, p. 92.
23. ^ Finkelstein & Silberman 2007, pp. 198–199.
24. ^ Homer, Iliad Book 7 ll.132–160.
25. ^ West 1997, pp. 370, 376.
26. ^ Frolov, Serge; Wright, Allen (2011). "Homeric and Ancient Near Eastern Intertextuality in 1 Samuel 17". Journal of Biblical Literature. 130 (3): 451–471\. doi:10.2307/41304213. ISSN 0021-9231. JSTOR 41304213.
27. ^ Hoffmeier 2011, pp. 93–94.
28. ^ Tell es-Safi/Gath weblog and Bar-Ilan University; For the editio princeps and an in-depth discussion of the inscription, see now: Maeir, A.M., Wimmer, S.J., Zukerman, A., and Demsky, A. (2008). "A Late Iron Age I/Early Iron Age II Old Canaanite Inscription from Tell eṣ-Ṣâfī/Gath, Israel: Palaeography, Dating, and Historical-Cultural Significance". Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research.
29. ^ Vernet Pons, M. (2012). "The etymology of Goliath in the light of Carian Wljat/Wliat: a new proposal". Kadmos, 51, 143–164.
30. ^ "Tall tale of a Philistine: researchers unearth a Goliath cereal bowl". The Sydney Morning Herald. Reuters. 15 November 2005.
31. ^ Woodard, Roger D. (2022), "On Goliath, Alyattes, Indo-European Wolves, and Lydian Lions: A Reexamination of 1 Sam 17:1–11, 32–40" (PDF), in Rollston, Christopher (ed.), Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies in Honor of P. Kyle McCarter Jr. (Ancient Near East Monographs), SBL Press, pp. 239–254
32. ^ For example in Shakespeare: Hassel, R. Chris (12 May 200). Shakespeare's Religious Language: A Dictionary. Athlone Shakespeare dictionary series. London: A&C Black. p. 144\. ISBN 9780826458902. Retrieved 24 November 2023. "GOLIAH[:] Goliath, the giant whom David slew." `{{cite book}}`: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
33. ^ Jerusalem Talmud Yebamoth, 24b.
34. ^ For a brief overview of Talmudic traditions on Goliath, see Jewish Encyclopedia, "Goliath".
35. ^ Charlesworth, James H. 1983. The Old Testament pseudepigrapha vol 2. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-18813-7 p. 374.
36. ^ a b Encyclopedia of Islam, G. Vajda, Djalut
37. ^ a b Hughes Dictionary of Islam, T.P. Hughes, Goliath
38. ^ "David and Goliath". Macmillan Dictionary. Retrieved 11 February 2015. "used for describing a situation in which a small person or organization defeats a much larger one in a surprising way"
39. ^ Greenspoon, Leonard. "David vs. Goliath in the Sports Pages". Society of Biblical Literature. Archived from the original on 23 September 2015. Retrieved 12 February 2015.
40. ^ McRae, Donald (3 November 2009). "Haye relishes underdog role in 'David and Goliath' fight with Nikolai Valuev". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 3 November 2009. Smaller boxer battles gigantic WBA world heavyweight champion.
41. ^ Blair, Jayson (24 June 2000). "On Internet, David-and-Goliath Battle Over Instant Messages". The New York Times. Retrieved 27 March 2015. Tiny online start-up battles Internet giant.
42. ^ "David and Goliath: How a tiny spider catches much larger prey". ScienceDaily. 12 June 2014. Retrieved 10 February 2016. Tiny spider preys on ants up to almost four times its size.
43. ^ "Dissent in Cuba: David and Goliath". The Economist. 16 January 2003. Retrieved 27 March 2015. "A one-party election faces a small but unprecedented challenge."
44. ^ Rivera, Carla (21 November 2001). "David-and-Goliath Saga Brings Cable to Skid Row". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 27 March 2015. Skid row resident battles telecoms giant to win cable access.
45. ^ Gracie, Carrie (6 July 2015). "South China Sea: David v Goliath as dispute goes to court". BBC News. Retrieved 17 July 2025.
46. ^ Bello, Ethan (27 February 2025). "David and Goliath in the South China Sea". Illinois Global Review. Retrieved 17 July 2025.
47. ^ "Goliath". Merriam-Webster. Retrieved 26 March 2021.
48. ^ "Goliath". Cambridge English Dictionary. Retrieved 26 March 2021.
49. ^ "Legends profile: Wilt Chamberlain". NBA. Retrieved 26 March 2021.
50. ^ "'Greatest Heroes of the Bible' David & Goliath (TV episode 1978)". imdb. Retrieved 28 April 2011.
51. ^ Alston, Joshua (16 July 2009). "What Would Jesus Watch?". Newsweek. Retrieved 19 June 2016.

### Bibliography

[edit]

* Campbell, Antony F.; O'Brien, Mark A. (2000). Unfolding the Deuteronomistic History. Fortress Press. ISBN 9781451413687.
* Driesbach, Jason (2016). 4QSamuela and the Text of Samuel. BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-32420-6.
* Finkelstein, Israel; Silberman, Neil Asher (3 April 2007). David and Solomon: In Search of the Bible's Sacred Kings and the Roots of the Western Tradition. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-0-7432-4363-6.
* Halpern, Baruch (2003). David's Secret Demons: Messiah, Murderer, Traitor, King. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. ISBN 978-0802827975.
* Hoffmeier, James K. (2011). "David's Triumph Over Goliath: 1 Samuel 17:54 and Ancient Near Eastern Analogues". In Bar, S.; Kahn, D.; Shirley, J. J. (eds.). Egypt, Canaan and Israel: History, Imperialism, Ideology and Literature: Proceedings of a Conference at the University of Haifa, 3-7 May 2009. BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-19493-9.
* Johnson, Benjamin J.M. (2015). Reading David and Goliath in Greek and Hebrew: A Literary Approach. Mohr Siebeck. ISBN 9783161540462.
* Nelson, William R. (2000). "Goliath". In Freedman, David Noel; Myers, Allen C. (eds.). Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible. Eerdmans. ISBN 9789053565032.
* Person, Raymond F. (2010). The Deuteronomic History and the Book of Chronicles. Society of Biblical Literature. ISBN 9781589835177.
* West, M.L. (1997). The East Face of Helicon. West Asiatic Elements in Greek Poetry and Myth. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 9780191591044.

## External links

[edit]

Wikiquote has quotations related to Goliath.

* Media related to Goliath at Wikimedia Commons

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* Ashkelon
* Azekah
* Beersheba
* Besor
* Bethcar
* Bethel
* Bethlehem(-Judah)
* Bethshan
* Beth Shemesh
* Carmel
* Dan
* Ebenezer
* Edom
* Ekron
* Endor
* Engedi
* Ephesdammim
* Ephraim, Mount
* Eshtemoa
* Gallim
* Gath
* Gaza
* Geba
* Gibeah
* Gilboa
* Gilgal
* Hachilah
* Hareth
* Havilah
* Hebron
* Hormah
* Jabesh-Gilead
* Jattir
* Jezreel
* Jordan River
* Keilah
* Kiriath Jearim
* Maon
* Michmash
* Migron
* Mizpah
* Mizpeh in Moab
* Moab
* Naioth
* Nob
* Ophrah
* Paran
* Ramah
* Ramoth
* Shaaraim
* Shen
* Shiloh
* Shochoh
* Shunem
* Shur
* Tabor
* Valley of Elah
* Zeboim
* Zelzah
* Ziklag
* Zobah
* Zuph, Land of

Persons|

| Rulers/leaders|

* David
* Eli
* Samuel
* Saul

|

Others|

* Abiathar
* Abiel
* Abigail
* Abishai
* Abner
* Achish
* Agag
* Ahijah
* Ahinoam
* Ahimaaz
* Ahimelech
* Ahinoam
* Ahitub
* Amalekites
* Ammon
* Amorites
* Children of Israel
* Elkanah
* Hannah
* Hophni
* Ichabod
* Ishui
* Israelites
* Joab
* Jonathan
* Joshua the Bethshemite
* Kenites
* Kish
* Laish
* Man of God
* Matri
* Melchishua
* Merab
* Michal
* Ner
* Phalti
* Peninnah
* Philistines
* Phinehas
* Phinehas's wife
* Witch of Endor
* Zeruiah

Phrases/events|

* Ark of the Covenant
* Ashtaroth
* Baalim
* Battle of Aphek
* Battle of Michmash
* David and Goliath
* Ephod
* Kohen
* Philistine captivity of the Ark
* Pim weight

Manuscripts|

* The Samuel Scroll

Textual analysis|

* Court History of David
* Deuteronomistic history
* Books of the Kingdoms
* David and Jonathan

Sources|

Hebrew Bible • Septuagint • Wycliffe Bible • King James Version • American Standard Version • World English Version

* v
* t
* e

Second Book of Samuel

Bible chapters|

2 Samuel 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 • 16 • 17 • 18 • 19 • 20 • 21 • 22 • 23 • 24

Places|

* Abel-beth-maachah
* Ammah
* Ammon
* Arabah
* Aram
* Aroer
* Ashkelon
* Baal-hazor
* Baal-perazim
* Baale of Judah
* Bahurim
* Beersheba
* Berothah
* Betah
* Bethlehem
* Beth-shan
* Bithron
* City of David
* Damascus
* Dan
* Edom
* Enrogel
* Euphrates
* Gath
* Geba
* Geshur, Syria
* Gezer
* Giah
* Gibeah
* Gibeon
* Gihon Spring
* Gilboa, Mount
* Gilead
* Gilo
* Gittaim
* Hama
* Hebron
* Helam
* Helkathhazzurim
* Jabesh-Gilead
* Jazer
* Jericho
* Jerusalem
* Jezreel
* Jordan River
* Kidron Valley
* Lo-debar
* Maacah
* Mahanaim
* Metheg-ammah
* Millo
* Moab
* Mount Ephraim
* Mount of Olives
* Perez-uzzah
* Rabbah
* Rogelim
* Syria
* Tekoah
* Tyre
* Valley of Rephaim
* Valley of Salt
* Zelah
* Ziklag
* Zobah

Persons|

| Rulers|

* David
* Hadadezer
* Hanun
* Hiram
* Ish-bosheth
* Nahash
* Saul
* Talmai
* Tou

|

Prophets|

* Gad
* Nathan

Others|

* Abiathar
* Abigail
* Abinadab
* Abishai
* Abner
* Absalom
* Adonijah
* Adoram
* Adriel
* Ahilud
* Ahimaaz
* Ahimelech
* Ahio
* Ahitophel
* Ahitub
* Aiah
* Amalekites
* Amasa
* Ammiel
* Ammonites
* Amnon
* Amorites
* Archite
* Armoni
* Asahel
* Ashurites
* Baanah
* Barzillai
* Bathsheba
* Benaiah
* Canaanites
* Carmelite
* Cherethites
* Elhanan
* Eliada
* Eliam
* Eliphalet
* Elishama
* Elishua
* Goliath
* Hivites
* Hushai the Archite
* Hushathite
* Ibhar
* Ira
* Ishbi-benob
* Israelites
* Ithra
* Japhia
* Jebusites
* Jedidiah
* Jehoiada
* Jehoshaphat
* Jezreelite
* Joab
* Jonadab
* Jonathan son of Saul
* Jonathan son of Abiathar
* Kish
* Maacah
* Machir
* Mephibosheth
* Merab
* Micah
* Michal
* Nabal
* Nachon
* Nepheg
* Ner
* Obed-Edom the Gittite
* Pelethites
* Phaltiel
* Philistines
* Rechab
* Rimmon
* Rizpah
* Saph
* Seraiah
* Shammuah
* Sheba son of Bichri
* Shimeah
* Shimei
* Shobab
* Shobi
* Syrians
* Solomon
* Tamar daughter of David
* Tamar daughter of Absalom
* Uriah the Hittite
* Woman of Tekoah
* Zadok
* Zeruiah
* Ziba

Phrases/events|

* Ark of the Covenant
* Book of Jasher (Biblical references)
* David's Mighty Warriors
* Shofar
* United Monarchy of Israel

Manuscripts|

* Samuel Scroll

Textual analysis|

* Court History of David
* Deuteronomistic history
* Books of the Kingdoms
* David and Jonathan

Sources|

Hebrew Bible • Septuagint • Wycliffe Bible • King James Version • American Standard Version • World English Version

* v
* t
* e

The Bible and warfare

Hebrew
Bible
battles|

| Torah / Pentateuch battles|

* Battle of Siddim
* Parting of the Red Sea
* Battle of Refidim
* Golden calf
* War against the Midianites

|

Joshua and Judges battles|

* Fall of Jericho
* Battle of Ai
* Battle of Hazor
* Battle of the Waters of Merom
* Battle of Mount Tabor
* Gideon's campaign (Well of Harod)
* Micah's Idol / Sack of Laish
* Benjamite War / Battle of Gibeah
* Battle of Aphek
* Battle of Mizpah

United monarchy period|

* Battle of Michmash
* David or Elhanan versus Goliath
* Battle of Mount Gilboa
* Pool of Gibeon
* Siege of Jebus
* Battle of the Wood of Ephraim
* Baal-perazim
* Jeroboam's Revolt
* Shishak's raid of Jerusalem
* Battle of Mount Zemaraim

Israel and Judah period|

* Battle of Zephath
* Israelite–Aramean War
* Syro-Ephraimite War
* Sennacherib's campaign in Judah
* Siege of Lachish
* Assyrian siege of Jerusalem
* Battle of Megiddo (609 BC)
* Judah's revolts against Babylon
* Siege of Jerusalem (597 BC)
* Siege of Jerusalem (587 BC)

Exilic period|

Purim war (Book of Esther)

Bible Portal

Authority control databases

International|

* ISNI
* VIAF
* FAST
* WorldCat

National|

* Germany
* United States
* France
* BnF data
* Australia
* Czech Republic
* Spain
* Argentina
* Israel

People|

* DDB

Other|

* İslâm Ansiklopedisi
* Yale LUX

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