So the word came to his brother Eliab that David had offered to fight Goliath; and Eliab did not like it. It seemed to him, as it often seems to older brothers, that the boy was still a child. As for King Saul, when they told him, he smiled and shook his head. “You are not able,” he said, “to fight with this Philistine, for you are but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth.”
But David said, “I have fought lions and bears since I was ten years old. I have seized them by the beard and killed them. I can do the same with this Philistine. The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion and out of the paw of the bear, He will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine.”
Even so, it seemed like the proposal of a lamb to fight a wolf. But what else could be done? At last, the king took David into his own tent, and offered him his armor. But the king was the tallest man in the army, and the shepherd boy was short of stature. Saul’s helmet came down over David’s ears, and his coat of mail touched David’s heels. He put them off. “I can fight best,” he said, “in my own way.”
And David took his staff in his hand,—the stout stick with which he kept the sheep,—and he had his sling, and from the bank of the brook he chose him five smooth stones. And thus he went out into the plain between the armies, and faced the giant.
And the giant in all his armor came, and his squire carried his shield before him, and when he looked to see what champion the Israelites had found at last, there was but a boy,—a red-cheeked boy with a staff in one hand and a sling in the other.
The giant was very angry. “Am I a dog,” he cried, “that thou comest at me with a stick? I will give thy flesh to the fowls of the air and to the beasts of the field, and they shall pick thy bones.”
And David answered, “Thou comest to me with sword and spear and shield; but I come to thee in the name of the Lord God of hosts, whom thou hast defied.”
Thus the champions drew together, while the two armies watched in breathless silence. And David ran to meet the giant. And even as he ran, he put his hand into his shepherd’s bag, and took out a smooth stone and put it in his sling and slung it. Up went the sling, out went the stone, down went the giant. Straight as an arrow, the stone struck him in the forehead. And David ran, and with the giant’s sword cut off the giant’s head.
Then did the Philistines flee, and the men of Israel raised a great shout and chased them.