The Philistines gathered their armies for war against Israel. They camped on one side, and the Israelites camped on the other, with a valley between them. Every day the two armies lined up for battle, but no one attacked, because the Philistines had a warrior who filled Israel with fear. His name was Goliath.

Goliath was from Gath. His height was six cubits and a span — more than nine feet tall. He wore a bronze helmet on his head and a coat of bronze scale armor that weighed five thousand shekels, about a hundred and twenty-five pounds. He had bronze guards on his legs and a bronze javelin slung between his shoulders.

The shaft of his spear was as thick as a weaver's beam, and its iron point alone weighed six hundred shekels, nearly fifteen pounds. A shield-bearer walked ahead of him. Goliath looked like a walking fortress — enormous, covered in bronze, frightening to see.

Every day, for forty days, Goliath came out and challenged Israel. He shouted:

It was an old custom: instead of two armies fighting, one champion from each side would fight, and the winner would decide the battle. But when Saul, the king of Israel, and all the people heard the Philistine's words, they were dismayed and greatly afraid. No one had the courage to face that giant.

In those days there lived in Bethlehem a man named Jesse, who had eight sons. The three oldest had gone to war with Saul. The youngest, David, had stayed home to look after his father's sheep. David was a young shepherd, and he went back and forth between the fields and the camp, carrying food to his brothers and returning to the flock.

One day, Jesse said to David:

"Take your brothers this roasted grain and these ten loaves, and hurry to the camp. Take these ten cheeses to the commander as well. And see how your brothers are doing."

David rose at dawn, left the sheep with a keeper, took up the load and set off, just as his father had told him.

David reached the camp just as the army was marching out to the battle line, raising the war cry. Israel and the Philistines drew up in ranks, army facing army. David left his load with the keeper of the baggage and ran to find his brothers. While he was talking with them, the champion, Goliath of Gath, stepped out from the Philistine ranks and repeated the same words as always. All the men of Israel, at the sight of him, fled in fear.

But David asked the men standing nearby:

"What will be done for the man who defeats this Philistine and takes this shame away from Israel? Who is this Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?"

David's words reached the ears of Saul, who sent for him. David said to the king:

"Let no one lose heart because of that man. Your servant will go and fight this Philistine."

Saul looked at the young shepherd and answered:

"You cannot fight him. You are only a boy, and he has been a man of war since his youth."

But David told him what he had already lived through:

"Your servant used to keep his father's sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a lamb from the flock, I went after it, struck it, and rescued the lamb from its mouth. If it turned on me, I seized it and brought it down. Your servant has beaten both the lion and the bear, and this Philistine will end like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. The Lord, who saved me from the claws of the lion and the bear, will save me from the hand of this Philistine as well."

Then Saul said:

"Go, and may the Lord be with you."

Saul dressed David in his own armor, set a bronze helmet on his head and a breastplate on his chest. David strapped the sword over the armor and tried to walk, but he was not used to any of it.

"I cannot walk in these," he said to Saul. "I am not used to them."

And he took it all off. Instead of armor, David took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the brook, and put them in his shepherd's pouch. Then, sling in hand, he went out to meet the Philistine. Five smooth stones, a simple sling, no sword — only a young shepherd who trusted in God.

The Philistine came closer and closer to David, his shield-bearer ahead of him. When he looked and saw that it was only a boy, ruddy and fine-looking, Goliath despised him and said:

"Am I a dog, that you come at me with a stick?"

And he cursed David by his gods. Then he shouted:

"Come here, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the sky and the beasts of the field!"

But David answered the Philistine:

When the Philistine rose and came to meet him, David ran quickly toward the battle line. He reached into his pouch, took out a stone, and slung it. The stone struck the Philistine on the forehead and sank in, and he fell face down on the ground.

So David defeated the Philistine with a sling and a stone, without a sword in his hand. Then he ran, stood over the giant, took Goliath's own sword, drew it from its sheath, and cut off his head.

When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled. The men of Israel and Judah rose up with a great shout and pursued them, and Israel won a great victory that day. The young shepherd had done what no experienced soldier had dared to do: he trusted in God, and God gave him the victory.

David did not fight for his own glory. He fought to honor the name of God, and he had learned, watching over his sheep, that the Lord slowly prepares the heart of anyone who trusts in him. The victory came not from sword or spear, but from the faith of a boy who knew his God.