Chapter 17
The Philistines show up to fight Israel. They come all the way into Judah. Saul musters an army also, and the two armies face off against each other in the Valley of Elah. The valley is between the two armies, with the armies themselves each occupying high ground. The Philistine city of Gath is to the west of this valley.
Goliath of Gath is the champion of the Philistines. His coat of mail weights over 100 lbs. He has a lot of big armor and big weapons. He challenges the army of Saul, and all are too afraid to go out and face Goliath. MSB says 6 cubits and a span is about 9' 9" tall.
2023 - This verse:
4 And there came out from the camp of the Philistines a champion named Goliath of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. [1Sa 17:4 ESV]. So there's a footnote in ESV about the word "six". It says six in Hebrew. However, the Septuagint, Dead Sea Scrolls, and Josephus all say Goliath was FOUR cubits and a span. In the stories, he's ALWAYS 9' tall. But four cubits is only 6'. This would have been tall for the day, but nothing like 9'. Is it reasonable that the entire army of Saul would have been afraid to go up against a guy 6' tall? Further, don't we know that some of the giants of the day were in the 9' range, or at least their beds were that big? The story is much more dramatic at 9'. So...why is it only 6' in all the translations, and 9' in the original Hebrew? Maybe none of the translators believed Goliath could really have been 9' tall?
This verse:
12 Now David was the son of an Ephrathite of Bethlehem in Judah, named Jesse, who had eight sons. In the days of Saul the man was already old and advanced in years. [1Sa 17:12 ESV]
Interesting that we are being re-introduced to David. Almost as if the first anointing of David by Samuel was added to this book later. Either that, or we have jumped backwards in time, to before David was anointed at all. MSB does not comment on this. Almost has to be a flashback though, because Saul doesn't know who David is when he meets him. Previously, David was Saul's armor bearer. So this seems to have been written before Chapter 16, and possibly even by a different author. (That reminds me, I haven't done the chapter intro's to Ruth or this book. That's probably why I'm in the dark here.)
Vs 23 repeats the information we were given earlier in the chapter, almost for David's benefit as this is the first time David has seen Goliath. Vss 24-27 also seem redundant. A different style of writing than we have seen previously in this book. MSB note earlier said that chapters 16-31 are the third section of this book, from Saul's rejection by God to Saul's death. So perhaps it really is written by a different man...except that David was anointed in 16.
Here is one you never hear emphasized:
51 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. [1Sa 17:51 ESV]
Goliath was not killed by the rock. It knocked him unconscious, and may eventually have killed him, but his "cause of death" was a sword.
At the end of the chapter, David is brought before Saul, and tells him his name, and his father's name. So later, when Saul's servants suggest David as lyre player and armor bearer, one would think that Saul would recognize the name. Why didn't the servants tell Saul that David was the one who had earlier killed Goliath? Again...no MSB note on this. There is an MSB note that says since Saul had promised his daughter to the one who killed Goliath, and Saul now knows that David will be part of his own family, he is very curious as to David's lineage. Again - how do you explain why Saul didn't recognize the name earlier - if the lyre playing came first? How does Saul not know who David is already, either over the lyre, or when David volunteers to kill Goliath? When could this have taken place? This is pretty difficult to resolve in my book. This needs to be explained. MSB completely disregarding it makes me think I am missing something basic here, that I should already understand the timeline.
Several possible explanations in this article:
https://www.apologeticspress.org/apcontent.aspx?category=6&article=807
The family of the man who killed Goliath would be free of taxes forever. So Saul needed pretty detailed info on David's family. It could be that David was just some kid playing the lyre in the background, and his face may not have been known to Saul at this time. Maybe David had not yet become armor bearer to the king. Saul would have wanted to know a lot more about David's family since David was now his future son-in-law. And last but not least, Saul was subject to all kinds of mental instability, and that may well have affected his memory to some extent.
2024 - Also, David only played the lyre for Saul when Saul was under the influence of the evil spirit. David played only to calm Saul back to his normal self during such times. Saul might not remember much, if anything, that happened while he was in that sort of "possessed" state when the evil spirit was there. And one more thing along these lines...we have no idea of the frequency of appearance of this evil spirit. It might only have showed up every third year, so in addition to only seeing David when Saul was in a bad way, that may have only occurred very occasionally. So Saul might only rarely have seen David, and might never have seen him when he (Saul) was "in his right mind". So yes. At the slaying of Goliath, Saul might have wanted to know a lot more about this kid who'd previously played music for him. And the whole armor bearer thing would certainly have come only AFTER Goliath.
2024 - And perhaps, too, the story of David and Goliath was written down before David became King, either by a different author, or by the same author before he decided to write a whole history of Saul and David. In that case, the story of David killing Goliath would have been written as a "stand alone" story for those who didn't know about the previous, and irrelevant to the Goliath story, information. Then when the whole history was written, the Goliath story, previously written, was just inserted. It was not modified from its stand-alone presentation because so many were already familiar with it in that form. This also makes a lot of sense.
Put all these together and, while many questions are left, and there can be no certainty of the chronology or the motivations of King Saul, there are reasonable explanations for why events might have unfolded this way. There was this verse that seemed strange to me when I read it the first time:
15 but David went back and forth from Saul to feed his father's sheep at Bethlehem. [1Sa 17:15 ESV]
This almost seems like David was already Saul's lyre player, but was only sent for when he was needed, and in between, David tended his father's sheep. Possible corroboration comes from these verses:
17 And Jesse said to David his son, "Take for your brothers an ephah of this parched grain, and these ten loaves, and carry them quickly to the camp to your brothers. 18 Also take these ten cheeses to the commander of their thousand. See if your brothers are well, and bring some token from them." [1Sa 17:17-18 ESV]
This seems to be the first (only?) time David had been sent to the army camp to take food to his brothers. Jesse wants him to give gifts to the commander of their thousand, not to the King himself. If David was well known to Saul, wouldn't Jesse have sent the gifts to the King directly? So the menial job of occasionally when summoned playing the lyre for the king - they may not even have met face to face, ever. There was no reason for Saul to remember the details of the family of a kid that played lyre for him, nor even to remember the kid's name. I think it is all right here, right in the Bible, as to how these events can be explained.