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1 Samuel 17 · a question people ask

Did the stone kill Goliath, or the sword?

In the text

The chapter tells both, one after the other. "So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and struck the Philistine and killed him; but there was no sword in David’s hand" (17:50). The next verse says David ran, stood over the Philistine, took his sword, drew it out of its sheath, and killed him (17:51). In Hebrew killed in both verses is the same verb. Before the fight David had said, "the LORD doesn’t save with sword and spear" (17:47). The chapter doesn't say more about how 17:50 and 17:51 fit together.

The verses

“and that all this assembly may know that the LORD doesn’t save with sword and spear; for the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give you into our hand.””
1 Samuel 17:47 · World English Bible
“So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and struck the Philistine and killed him; but there was no sword in David’s hand. Then David ran, stood over the Philistine, took his sword, drew it out of its sheath, killed him, and cut off his head with it. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled.”
1 Samuel 17:50-51 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of 1 Samuel 17

1 Samuel 17: The battle is the LORD's

The WEB's champion in 17:4 is in Hebrew the man of the benayim, which Brown-Driver-Briggs gives as the space between two armies. Goliath, the man of that in-between space, defied the armies of Israel (17:10). David called them the armies of the living God (17:26), and came in the name of the LORD of Armies (17:45).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions