Lions and Bears

¹⁹ They are with Saul and all the Israelite troops fighting the Philistines in the Elah Valley.” ²⁰ So David got up early in the morning, left someone in charge of the flock, and loaded up and left, just as his father Jesse had instructed him. He reached the camp right when the army was taking up their battle formations and shouting the war cry. ²¹ Israel and the Philistines took up their battle formations opposite each other. ²² David left his things with an attendant and ran to the front line. When he arrived, he asked how his brothers were doing. ²³ Right when David was speaking with them, Goliath, the Philistine champion from Gath, came forward from the Philistine ranks and said the same things he had said before. David listened. ²⁴ When the Israelites saw Goliath, every one of them ran away terrified of him. ( ²⁵ Now the Israelite soldiers had been saying to each other: “Do you see this man who keeps coming out? How he comes to insult Israel? The king will reward with great riches whoever kills that man. The king will give his own daughter to him and make his household exempt from taxes in Israel.”) ²⁶ David asked the soldiers standing by him, “What will be done for the person who kills that Philistine over there and removes this insult from Israel? Who is that uncircumcised Philistine, anyway, that he can get away with insulting the army of the living God?” ²⁷ Then the troops repeated to him what they had been saying. “So that’s what will be done for the man who kills him,” they said. ²⁸ When David’s oldest brother Eliab heard him talking to the soldiers, he got very mad at David. “Why did you come down here?” he said. “Who is watching those few sheep for you in the wilderness? I know how arrogant you are and your devious plan: you came down just to see the battle!” ²⁹ “What did I do wrong this time?” David replied. “It was just a question!” ³⁰ So David turned to someone else and asked the same thing, and the people said the same thing in reply. ³¹ The things David had said were overheard and reported to Saul, who sent for him. ³² “Don’t let anyone lose courage because of this Philistine!” David told Saul. “I, your servant, will go out and fight him!” ³³ “You can’t go out and fight this Philistine,” Saul answered David. “You are still a boy. But he’s been a warrior since he was a boy!” ³⁴ “Your servant has kept his father’s sheep,” David replied to Saul, “and if ever a lion or a bear came and carried off one of the flock, ³⁵ I would go after it, strike it, and rescue the animal from its mouth. If it turned on me, I would grab it at its jaw, strike it, and kill it. ³⁶ Your servant has fought both lions and bears. This uncircumcised Philistine will be just like one of them because he has insulted the army of the living God. ³⁷ “The LORD,” David added, “who rescued me from the power of both lions and bears, will rescue me from the power of this Philistine.” “Go!” Saul replied to David. “And may the LORD be with you!”