Some time after Da'vid was employed by Saul for occasional service at the court as musician and armor-bearer, and several years after the defeat of the Phi-lis'tines at Mich-mash, the warlike heathens decided upon another war against Is'ra-el. Their armies marched into a village of the hill country between the mountains of Ju'dah and the plains of the Med'i-ter-ra'ne-an, about eleven miles southwest of Je-ru'sa-lem and Beth'le-hem. Here they encamped for battle along a range of low hills facing a fertile plain called E'lah. The armies of Is'ra-el went out against them, camping on the range of hills along the opposite side of the valley.
In those days it often happened that when two opposing armies were in position for battle, but neither dared to attack, a champion from each side would meet in single combat. It was agreed that victory would belong to the army whose champion defeated his arrival in the single combat.
The champion of the Phi-lis'tines in this battle was a giant warrior named Go-li'ath. He was nearly nine feet tall, wore armor made of metal plates which overlapped like the scales of a fish, and weighed three hundred pounds, protected his head with a helmet of brass, and had the lower part of his legs covered with heavy metal guards. He carried a short spear thrown over his shoulders, and a sword five feet long which weighed twenty-five pounds.
Every day he marched out on the plain between the two armies and scornfully challenged the Is'ra-el-ites to send out a champion to fight a duel with him. For forty days he cast ridicule and contempt upon the armies of Is'ra-el as Saul's slaves, and taunted them for their cowardice in failing to send out a man to meet him in battle.
During all this time the king who had once led Is'ra-el in slaying forty thousand Phi-lis'tines in one day, sat cowering in weakness while a single Phi-lis'tine braggart held the armies of Is'ra-el in check. Why the difference? Because in the previous victory the noble prince Jon'a-than had been anointed by the Spirit of GOD, and Saul had taken advantage of the confusion caused by his daring exploit to gain a decisive triumph. At this time, however, Jon'a-than had been rejected by his ungrateful father, and the LORD had withdrawn from Saul. Courage had left the army because the LORD was no longer with their king.
Three of Jes'se's sons were among the soldiers encamped on the edge of the valley of E'lah and Da'vid often journeyed back and forth from the royal palace and his father's home, caring for the sheep when his services were not needed by the king. It is likely that he wished to join his brothers in the army opposing the Phi-lis'tines, and that he often spoke of his desire to aid in ridding the land of the cruel oppressors, but neither the king nor Da'vid's older brothers thought him old enough to be a soldier.
One day Jes'se sent Da'vid to the camp of the soldiers, just a few hours' walk from Beth'le-hem, to carry food to his brothers and to ask about their welfare. It so happened that he reached the camp just as the two armies were facing one another ready for battle. He left the provisions which he had brought with the keeper of the army supplies and rushed to the side of his brothers. While he was talking with them, the Phi-lis'tine champion came out on the field with his usual scornful challenge. The soldiers all fell back in fear, but Da'vid looked on with growing anger. Some of the men told him that this had been going on morning after morning for forty days, and that the king had offered a great reward for any man who would slay the giant.
Da'vid then declared that he was ashamed of the cowardly manner in which the Is'ra-el-ites permitted the heathen giant to terrify them, and said that the insult to Is'ra-el and the LIVING GOD of the nation must be wiped out. The remarks of his younger brother were bitterly resented by E-li'ab who said that Da'vid was neglecting his duties in caring for his father's sheep, and that he had no business even to visit the king's armies. It appears that E-li'ab remembered with envy the time when Sam'u-el had rejected him in favor of Da'vid for the sacred anointing. Da'vid showed both forbearance and reason in his reply, "Have I come without an errand? Is there not a need for someone to meet this defiance of our GOD?" Then he turnt to others and made similar remarks.
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