The noble-looking, high-browed captain, Jeconabah of the tribe of Issachar, came forward, took the water from Elhanan’s hand , and drank. While the animals were being taken to the spring and watered, the captain sat with Elhanan’s waterskin and rested in the shade of a big rock, which didn’t quite shade him wholly, as the Issacharite was a very stocky, long-legged man. Elhanan, having saved the company, saw the captain beckon him closer with a smile. “We owe you our lives, shepherd!” the captain said, impressed by the shepherd’s hospitality and good looks, since most shepherds he had met were suspicious, dirty, reclusive churls, while this boy was clean of face and hands and had bright, intelligent eyes that shone like jewels in his beautifully-molded, oval face. “What do you want? We have some things we can give you as a reward!” Elhanan bowed, then shook his head. “Nothing is lacking here, I have all we need, me and my sheep! My crook, rod, slingshot, water-skin, knife, they are all I need, for I have my flock and know all the places round-about where the cockle weed grows that I cut into fodder, since there is no grass in these parts to feed them. Besides, El Shaddai takes care of us, we do not need anybody else!”

The captain looked doubtful when he mentioned God and depending on Him alone. “You feed them without grass?” he protested to Elhanan. “Come now! This is a barren place, with just big rocks. I am no fool about such things. How can you do that? Show me that you are telling the truth!” Elhanan leaped away amidst the rocks and returned soon with a bundle of common cockleburrs and thistles. Wearing kidskin gloves, he used his stone-sharpened knife to cut away the unedible parts, and soon had a pile of stems that he fed to an eager ewe that came when he called her by name. When she finished he gave her a gentle push and she scampered away out of sight among the rocks. “Just a little satisfies each sheep, you see, so I don’t need to search far and wide for the scanty grass” he explained to the captain. “There is very good strength in the roots too, which I dig up and give to them. As long as there are weeds such as these, my flock will never starve. And you can see there is always plenty of them, even in the time of drought when other flocks go hungry.” The captain was amazed. “You are telling the truth! Do the other shepherds follow you in this?” Elhanan shook his head. “No, they prefer grass if they can find it, and don’t like the work of preparing the weeds. But I’ve told them the weeds will give more strength than the grass, but they are lazy fellows and don’t listen. So their flocks remain small and ill-fed in these parts.”

Not wanting to let an opportunity slip, Elhanan eagerly inquired about the men’s type and length of training, the various weapons and how they were best used, and what order and place did his unit play in the battle array against Israel’s enemies. The captain’s eyes, already regarding Elhanan with respect, shone with amazement at the depth and sharpness of the boy’s questions--for these were down-to-earth practical things that a man could now--not the rare, unknowable things the priests and the prophesying ro-ehs of Ramah, for instance, fussed about. “How can you, a lone shepherd in the wilderness, know so much about armies and making war? I must grant you, having seen it, your turning weeds into good forage, but-- “ “I always ask the way-farers if they are friendly and mean no harm, whether Moabite, or Edomite, or Israelite, how they fight and in what manner. Usually they are willing to share their knowledge once I share my water so freely and do not send them off looking in the wrong spots where they will perish. To give their knowledge to a lone shepherd seems no harm to them. I also win their hearts to me by singing--”

The captain’s head lowered, and his face grew troubled. He missed the mention of Elhanan’s singing of psalms, being a man of war only. “Since you already know so much, you should be tell me how to overcome the Sea Peoples of the coast!” Elhanan’s eyes were sharp. He saw the captain was not only troubled, but there was fear and shame in his eye--the kind that defeats a man’s spirit so that he will run away a coward. “The Philistines--have they...?” “Yes, the Philistines!” the captain cut in bitterly. “Israel has enemies enough without them, but they are worse than all the others combined! Daily they boast that they will either capture us all and make slaves of us, or else push us into the desert wilderness where we will all perish! Either way, they say they take our land and make its bounty theirs!” Then he fell silent, looking north. There was a shout, a cry of pain, at the spring, and a man came running and swatting at something. He held one hand over his eye, howling so ridiculously that the other soldiers were laughing at him.

Elhanan jumped up. He pulled an herb, bee-balm, from his shoulder bag, and spit on it, then rubbed some earth on it, spit again, and took it to the man, who looked at it doubtfully as Elhanan explained. “My sheep get stung ever so often, and this takes away the pain and the swelling. Try it!” His eye already swelling shut, the soldier took it, then put it over his eye on the sting. He sat down on a rock, groaning. Elhanan went and took an ember from his campfire, got a brand of a certain tree to burn smokily, and took it to the spring, where it soon cleared away the wasps come to drink the water. Returning, he found the man with the sting standing with a smile on his face. “I have no pain anymore, shepherd, it’s gone as you said!” he marvelled. He hurried away to resume his duties.

Watching all this, the captain grew more impressed with the shepherd, and more willing to talk. Elhanan let the matter rest a moment, but he could not bear the suspense. “Have they waged war against us again? Where are they encamped, sir?” The leader shook his head. He laughed, but it was with a sour expression. “Where are they not encamped in our land these days? We are overrun by them like a plague of locusts!” Elhanan was shocked. He had not dreamed it was going so bad for Israel. The Philistines had always been foes, but had kept to their coasts. Now it seemed they intended to seize the whole land given to his forefathers! “But the king, he is very mighty in war my elder brothers have told me. He will surely meet and crush them in battle with the holy army of Israel!” The captain, looking into Elhanan’s eyes now, saw the wonderful innocence of youth and he met it with his own age’s experience and bitter knowledge. “Ha! He too is keeping to his tent! Don’t depend on the son of Kish to pull us out of the Philistine fish-net, my boy! Their net has caught him too!”

Almost as soon as the truth was out of his mouth, the captain looked upset, and glanced quickly around to see if his men had caught his hasty words. But they were too busy to water themselves and their animals and keeping away the wasps with the smoking branch to have heard him. Relieved, he turned back to the inquisitive, bright-eyed shepherd boy, and was angry. “There! I’ve said too much for your tender ears! But we are in grave danger. That is all I can tell you! Now play me something on your harp, for I see you have one, before we depart.” Elhanan would not be put off. He played and sang several of his songs to the Almighty, and the captain and his men were pleased, and though they wanted more, he turned back to his pressing questioning of the captain. “But where are they encamped? Tell me, sir! I have my mother and father, and my family to think of!” The captain scowled. “Well, maybe it won’t harm to let you know. You make fine music, shepherd! And you have watered us and our beasts, saving us from terrible thirst. The Philistines, well, they are encamped in the Valley of Elah.” Elhanan’s eyes blazed. He leaped forward, right in the face of the captain. “That is near my home! What is happening there!” “The king sent us down here to find a place of refuge for him, that is how bad things are going in the north. The Philistines have a champion, a mighty warrior of Gath who defies us to fight him, and there is no man in Israel mighty enough. So we are encamped opposite them on a mountain but can do nothing--nothing!” “Who is this champion of theirs? Why doesn’t our king fight him and slay him and cut off his foreskin with the strength of the Lord God of Israel? Why doesn’t he chase this Philistine army back into the sea? They came from the sea, let them return to it! They worship a fish-man, let them swim in the depth of the sea with him!”

The captain roared. “Do you know what you are saying, boy? You should see this Gittite. By the gods who spawned him, in his helmet and shoes and with his hand raised, he stands twice the height of the king, who is among the tallest of our people! Never have we seen such a giant come against us! He can stand and make water on your head, he is such a mountain! No one can stop him! No one! I’ve heard he has brothers too, just as big, back in Gath. One is called Lahmi, and he has given word he will come soon against us! I tell you, Israel is finished! Very soon we will have to all run to the caves with our wives and little ones and our servants!” Having said this, the captain was anxious to get going again, having found out that the region south of Bethlehem was no place to quarter the king and his court. Hadn’t he told the king that when he first asked about that part of the country? But the king was desperate, and had sent scouting parties wherever he imagined there existed the slightest possibility he could find refuge from his Philistine foes.

He left Elhanan standing there, and hurried to get his men back on the road north. Stunned and bewildered, Elhanan stood watching the men load the baggage-carrying donkeys with full water-skins and then move off. What should he do? He knew he was needed back in Bethlehem, with the Philistines on his father’s doorstep. He felt feeble and weak in his knees, thinking of the captain’s description of the Gittite giant. But his own songs came to mind, and after playing several on his harp, his strength and spirit returned, and grew to such a pitch that he knew the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was more than able to dash Dagon and his uncircumcised armies to the ground, even if every one of them was as mighty as this Gittite the captain had described to him. As soon as it was light again the following day, he led his flock slowly north. Before he sighted his native city, the captain and his men had returned to Saul the king and reported long before that the area down toward Beer-sheba was unsuitable for flight. They mentioned, in passing, that they had met a shepherd who could play the harp and sing beautifully.

Afterwards, the king, tormented in the night by his fears, could not sleep. His staff searched for a harpist to come and soothe the king’s troubled mind. Hearing of the music-making of the shepherd, Elhanan son of Jesse, a royal messenger was sent to Bethlehem to bring him to the king’s court. By the time Elhanan reached his hometown, the disappointed messenger, hearing that Elhanan was not at home and was not expected again for a long time, had already left word to send him as soon as he appeared. Elhanan’s second-eldest brothers Raddai, Nethaneel, and Ozem him at the town gate’s, surprising him. They had provisioned themselves with donkeys and travelling garments and were just setting forth to go find him, when he appeared! Their faces looking as if they had swallowed a terrible poison, Elhanan looked at them in vain for a brotherly greeting. For a moment he thought his father or mother might be in poor health, but, no, it was the king’s summons, sent by a special messenger! Elhanan was called to the tents of the king, and specific instructions were given to bring his harp. “How should the king’s ears be pleased with the crude songs and wretched music you scratch out, shepherd?” Ozem cried bitterly. “I’ve heard the son of Kish has gone mad! This ought to prove it!”

Raddai boxed Ozem’s shoulder. “Stupid donkey! People may be listening, and someone may report your evil mouth to the king’s men. Let the king find out himself, by hearing with his own ears, that someone has made a terrible mistake! When he hears this donkey braying and screeching in his own ear, he will wake up from his dark cloud and give the donkey the thrashing he deserves!” Raddai then began to bray while Ozem jumped about like a crazy goat and strummed an invisible harp, his brothers doubled up with laughter. Elhanan, his face showing pity, went about his business. He took the sheep to the inn, and made arrangements for them to be quartered and fed until he returned. If he did not return by such and such a time, then a hireling was to take charge and lead them to pasturage. Going to his father, Elhanan knelt and received his father’s blessing, which was short and not very heart-felt since he was getting old and forgetting he even had a son named Elhanan. How else could it be explained that he had sent his youngest son forth without even a helper to show him how to keep the sheep well. How else could it be explained that he did not see that at least one of his brothers attend him for a time. No, he had been thrust out utterly alone and forsaken--and if not for God helping him he would have perished, and his sheep with him!

“Now be a good boy and go and minister to your dear elder brothers at the king’s side. Take some bread and some wine and a kid to them, for they must be very hungry by now in that country yonder!” Father Jesse shook his grizzled head. He had just remembered something. “I cannot fathom why the king should call on you to sing and play to him! It is beyond all reckoning! Do you sing? Do you play? But that is what the king’s man said to us--and we must send you. Be sure and do your best not to cast shame upon your father’s head with a poor performance! I hear the son of Kish has been suffering in his spirits lately, and his mind is darkened with deep gloom. Perhaps he is desperate to hear something that will turn his dark thoughts away from the Philistines who have come up against us with their army and champion. Make the best songs you can, my son, and perhaps your songs will lighten him so that he can drink and laugh again with his people! That would be good! When he is in a bad mood, he seems to tax us the more!” Elhanan nodded, then hurried out to get ready for his journey to the king’s camp.

A week later he returned to Bethlehem. He had been found very pleasing to the king, not only to his ears but, surprising Elhanan, who had always been told he was stupid and ugly, pleasing to his king’s eyes. The king pressed him to remain, but Elhanan’s duties to his sheep made him resist the royal wish. “No, sire, my sheep will suffer and maybe perish without me, so I cannot stay here so long away from them. I cannot entrust them to hirelings.” The king, touched by his counsellor and chief commander Abner, relented. This was no cheek-kissing Benjaminite but a Judahite, as independent as they came, and Abner was always right about such matters, the king knew, so he did not press his royal perogative to hold the youth who pleased him so much with his music and beautiful youth. Returned home, Elhanan found exactly what he feared--the sheep being mistreated by a hireling who betrayed his trust and turned lazy. He had fed only the biggest ones and neglected the weakest and smallest, and he was glad he had left the king’s company. Court life with so much bustle and formality and fine clothes did not suit him as well as the wilderness and its freedom to worship God as he pleased. He was just going to leave Bethlehem with his flock when Nathaneel came running.

“Stop, you little fool, you can’t go now!” the fourth-born shouted. “A messenger is with father with the king’s command. “Somehow you have found favor in the king’s sight, and he commands us that you return to him with your music. And father says you must do as the king says, or--,” added on his own, “--he will thrash you in the gate.” Elhanan, despite both king and father and a threatened public thrashing, stood opposed. He went to his father, protesting. Hearing this, his father came out, walking with difficulty on his swollen feet and ankles, to plead with him.

“Have regard for your dear elder brothers, my son! Think of their health and well-being before your own! The son of Kish has so many of his people to feed, he always takes a double tithe of what I send. Your brothers will need more food--for what you first brought will soon be swallowed up by the host of the king’s cousins and uncles! And the armies have been encamped there so long now there is absolutely nothing left in the valley or the mountains round about for man or beast--no, you cannot let your elder brothers starve! And the king’s summons, it cannot be despised. He has a fierce heart of a bear, his son of Kish the king, and might send a cruel sword against us here if you refuse! By the way, have you seen the great giant, the champion of Gath everyone is talking about? I’ve heard a most evil report of him! No man of us will ever take hisforeskin off, I tell you! We are in deep trouble this time! We may all have to flee to a cave in the South! At my age, with my gray hairs and gout, think of it! Me and your old mother and our household living in a Cave of Abdullam--terrible! terrible!”

“No, father, I did not see him, for he had gone back to his brothers in his city when I came to the king’s camp, and was to come again, by his word.” So Elhanan had to find another hireling to take his flock in charge. Almost always fellows who refused strenuous work like farming or viticulture, who preferred to hang about the town gates and talk to wayfarers and then ask for small loans so they could buy bread and cheese to eat--hirelings had no heart for a shepherd’s flock--they looked on it only as a hated piece of work for low pay that took them away from the city gates where life was interesting and leisurely. But who else could he get but these lazy good-for-nothings? He had no choice since his brothers still at home refused to take the flock. Besides, with the Midianites and Amalekites raiding on one side, and the Philistines doing the same on the other, the entire nation was in the iron grip of her enemies, and he could not turn away from his father’s plea to help in this way. Everyone in Bethlehem and other cities of Israel had heard about the king’s collapse by this time. Cowering in his tent, tormented day and night by fears and dark clouds of the mind, the king was unable to stand and fight, and his army was the same, fearing the feather-crowned, crowing champion of Gath that daily challenged the Army of Israel, who had gone back to Gath and might even return with any number of his giant brothers--all sons of the “mighty god Dagon” and a Dagon temple priestess, people were claiming.

So Elhanan gritted his teeth, obeyed his father, and took a donkey carrying the ten cheeses, the ephah of parched corn, and ten loaves that Jesse gave him, and delivered them to the camp of Saul to his brothers Eliab, Abinadab, and Shammah. Then, not disappointed when he received no thanks from them, he reported to the king’s pavilion. He found it in a Benjaminite uproar, the king in a fit throwing himself violently upon the ground, and all his counsellors and commanders shouting at each other in bewilderment. It was sometime before Elhanan could get anyone to tell him what had happened, to cause the son of Kish so much distress. From an uncle of the king, for the king’s court was mostly Benjaminites kinsmen of his father Kish, he learned the champion had returned from Gath just then, and had something from the temple called “Dagon’s Eye.” If the giant wasn’t unconquerable enough, he had thought to bring along something even more fearsome and deadly--an Eye of Burning, according to reports, that smote human flesh and bone from a great distance, wherever it gazed, so that no mortal man could stand against it. Elhanan couldn’t conceive such a thing even as it was described to him. Nevertheless, the heaps of bones from his defeated enemies, proof of God’s great deliverances in his life, came to mind. This Philistine champion’s bones, too, would soon be picked clean by the jackals, and foxes, and vultures and whiten the ground!

He said to the king’s uncle, with others listening, “What reward will the man get who slays this Philistine, cuts off his infidel foreskin, and takes away the shame and reproach he has given Israel? Who is that uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?” The old man, with the others, fell back thunderstruck. “My, what presumptuous spirit you have! Do you, a mere youth, think you can stand up to him, when the king will not, nor any champion we have amongst us will not take the king’s place against the giant?” The kinsman’s rebuke ordinarily would have caused the rebuked to shrink away in shame. But he had rebuked the wrong person this time. Elhanan, remembering how God gave him victories against a mighty lion, a bear, and many other foes, stood straight for the sake of his God’s honor and Israel’s sake and did not waver. “What reward will the man get who kills this uncircumcised Philistine?”

The king’s uncle, amazed that the youth had shrugged off his rebuke so handily, was beside himself with wonder and shock. “Why, the treasure of a rich man will be his, and the king’s daughter in marriage, and even his father’s household will not be taxed by the king for his father’s lifetime! But don’t think you will get them! You may be daring in spirit, but I fear you are presuming too great a thing, my boy! The giant will seize you like a quail of Horeb in his bare hands, break your body in two in his grip, and then cast you to the ground and trample your bones into the earth!” The king’s uncle hurried away, and the others shook their heads and left Elhanan. Without the king’s men around as a restraint on their anger, his brothers threw themselves against him at that moment.

“Why did you come back here?” Eliab cried, making as big a scene he could. “What is going to happen to those wretched sheep of yours you’re always boasting you care so much about? This proves you’re a liar and are neglecting them! Oh, I know your pride, and your evil mind. You come here just to observe the battle, and watch us brave men spill our precious life blood for our country, and then you’ll run back to your little sheep!” Everyone had turned to see who was causing Eliab’s outcry, and Elhanan merely shook his head. Having anticipated it, his brother’s accusations flew like arrows over his head, as he turned him a mild expression. “What have I done? Why do you say that?”

He turned from his brothers to some other Israelites, repeating what he had just said to the king’s uncle. They were just as amazed that anyone in Israel could act so daring and wanting to fight the giant. It was reported then to the king, who immediately sent for Elhanan. This time the king was back in his right mind, or mostly so. At least he was standing on his two feet again, his arms held by chief commander Abner and his aid, and his hair was neatly combed, oiled, and tied with a royal diadem so that he appeared more like a king than an abject who couldn’t face battle. “Yes, I will go and fight the Philistine,” he assured the trembling, pale, defeated king. “There is no reason for anyone to fear him, you’ll see.” The king shook off his supporting general, he was so amazed. “But you are not able to fight him, for you’re a mere youth, and he is a trained soldier!”

Elhanan’s sparkling, almond-shaped eyes shone with victory as he drew a big breath and stood as tall as he could. He told the king what God had enabled him to do for his flock, how he had slain a bear and then a lion. “Thy servant slew both the lion ands the bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be just like one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God! See if the Lord will not deliver him into the hands of your servant too, and give me his foreskin to present to you!”” Elhanan continued, when the king did not stop him. “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 heathen.” Saul, at his wit’s end, shook his head doubtfully. How could this stripling, however brave his heart, fight a mountain of a man that was the Philistine giant? But he gave up trying to dissuade him. After all, he was of the tribe of Judah, not a favored Benjaminite, and so his life could be ventured. “Go, and the Lord be with you,” said the king routinely, not expecting any such thing of the Lord.

Not noting how weak the royal blessing really was, Elhanan stepped from the royal tent, everyone of the Benjaminite fraternity falling away silently from him as if he were a Philistine idol-worshipper and not their appointed champion, whom the king their royal kinsman himself had just given his blessing. Yet even in this dark, little Benjaminite pond there happened to be a croaking frog--someone brave or reckless enough to voice a protest heard by all, “How can this be? A mere boy like that fight and give his life when the king won’t fight? Now I’ve seen everything! Yes, I’ve seen everything now!” Saul heard it, and winced. Before he could take further steps and find out who it was who dared speak out like that, the king felt his latent shame boil. He knew that if he didn’t do something now for his royal name, the tribes of Israel would greet his face with catcalls. So he sent a man and called Elhanan back.

“Take my armor,” Saul commanded, his kingliness reviving a bit. With his armor on the boy, let the boy fight. It would shame all the others who feared for their lives and wouldn’t fight for the king, while it would show that he, Saul the king, was compassionate, caring for the brave but reckless youth! “Yes, take the king’s armor!” chorused the king’s general, Abner, who had already drawn his own sword to keep other whisperers from daring to wag their tongues in the king’s presence. Feared and hated by his inferiors, it was said of him that he was strong, superbly trained, and brave enough to take the challenge of the giant and stand the chance of defeating him, but what would he gain personally from it? Abner’s king was really his own self, his enemies whispered. Not even for the king his master would he risk his best interests. Immediately, royal armor-bearers took Saul’s magnificent armor, the brass helmet, the coat of mail, and his sword, and started to arm Elhanan. Elhanan sagged beneath the great weight, then quickly stripped it all off.

“Sire, I cannot go with your armor crushing me to the ground,” he said to the king and his men. “I have not trained with such things.” Instead, he said, his own light clothes were best for his lighter frame, and he took his shepherd’s pouch and slingshot. As for the “Eye of Dagon,” he thought he might think of how to fight it later. Surely, God had seen it and prepared something that would equal ten-arms’ might to defeat it. What that “something” might be, he hadn’t the slightest idea--but he knew from past experience that God, though he might tarry, was always on time with help. Seeing that the shepherd boy of Judah-Ephratah was not going to be dissuaded, Saul’s heart was touched by the boy’s valor and felt at a loss to keep Elhanan from a sudden, brutal death. The king whispered something to Abner, but the chief commander shook his head, whispering something from his own experience. At this word from Abner that the boy was best let go to his certain doom, the king turned back to his cushions, giving orders to clear his tent so he might be alone with just himself and his first-born son, Jonathan. The other two sons with him would go with Abner to safety. Together, Saul and Jonathan would remain to face the giant when he came with his Philistines--and then die!

Quickly, all his servants began to gather the king’s most valuable possession and begin loading the pack-donkeys for a sudden evacuation. Benjaminite relative after relative, all having grown rich in the royal circle--began striking their elaborate, expensive tents and taking off with their own gear and possessions, leaving the king’s tent standing alone in a widening circle bare ground. This had to be the ignoble end of the king’s reign, the son of Kish deserted by even his close brethren--that was clear to all except the shepherd who had just left the royal presence. Clearly, it was the end! All hope had fled from Saul and his court.

Elhanan, unescorted and forsaken, found his way out to the battle front to see what was happening. Everything was the same as he had seen it, the two equal in size armies camped on opposing mountainsides, with the Valley of Elah between. But now the giant of Gath named Goliath was again present, tipping the scales overwhelmingly, it was thought by both sides, in the Philistines’ favor. There was a stir on the opposite mountain, the shouts of victory coming up from the thousands of Philistines gathered with their horses, tents, and weapons. The shouting seemed to grow louder and louder, as a procession of the Philistines made its way down into the valley and began to cross.

“Woe to us, Goliath the Gittite is back and is coming to attack us with all his Philistines!” sentinels cried, running back from the battlefront. “Prepare yourselves, he is not alone. He is coming with his new weapon to slay us all! Run for your lives, sons of Israel!!” Now this was considered worse than Lahmi’s coming. Ignoring the terrified sentries yelling “The Eye of the god Dagon is with him!, ” his slingshot in hand Elhanan kept walking down the mountainside toward the approaching Philistines. Before the Philistines reached the mountain the Israelites held, they paused, and then a very tall, feather-crowned figure stepped out from between them and proceeded with big strides, strutting like a king of kings, with only his shield-bearer going before him.

Elhanan, ignoring the warnings to flee, kept walking down, though he paused once to pick up five smooth stones in a dry creek bed. Soldiers in full armor tried to stop him going down, not knowing the king had appointed him the army’s champion for the day’s battle. “Hey! Not that way, boy, he’ll kill the likes of you. Save your life! Climb as high as you can! He’s coming! Seek cover in the rocks above at once!” Elhanan could hear the shouts of terror behind him, with dislodged rocks raining down the steep slopes as the whole army of Israel began to scramble and flee in panic to higher ground. But he kept going down the mountain. Soon there was no one left of Saul’s army but himself, and he was facing the approaching Gittite.

Beyond human dimension, the warrior grew in size, and continued to advance, his mailed vest and other pieces of armor making a kind of rough music as he went. Elhanan could see plainly this was no ordinary mortal man--everything was massive, beyond normal girth and height. He was described to him as a giant, and that he was! His helmet, his coat of mail, his greaves of brass on his legs, the staff of his spear as big as a weaver’s beam--it was all truly reported. He had human-looking flesh and bone and hair (thick, cord-like braids hung in masses from his head), but his size and strength was such that he had to have been spawned by beings greater than men! But what beings could they be? The Philistine paused and gazed up and about the slopes of the mountain where the followers and court of Saul had scampered like flocks of little sheep and goats to safety. He wasn’t interested in the shepherd boy standing nearby and observing him, for by his clothes and without any sword and armor he could not be a warrior. With no contender visible, he repeated his challenge, raising his voice and shouting as he had done many days.

“Why are you coming out like this in battle array? Am I not a Philistine,and you servants of Saul? Well, then, choose among you a man for your side, and let him come down to fight me. If he kills me, then we are your slaves. If I kill him, then you become our slaves.” Would any Israelite dare to fight the likes of him? Of course, not! So the giant enjoyed himself richly, expanding his massive chest, thumping it with his hand and laughing at the sight of the fast-retreating haunches of the Israelites. His shield-bearer beside him also laughed with his master the Gittite as he threw another taunt after them.

“I defy the armies of Israel this day! Give me a man, if you have one, that we may fight each other! Give me a man!” Since his Eye of Dagon--the weapon that could slay an entire army--was obviously not needed for a pack of cowards, Goliath decided to send it back to his tent for safe-keeping. He reasoned that if he could only shame the Army of Israel into attacking him, then he would use it then--but such, apparently, was not going to happen. Israel was too afraid, too broken in spirit to fight him. Why waste the Eye’s strength for nothing! He wouldn’t need his weapons. Why, with his bare hands he would break any man the Israelites dared send against him! Elhanan watched as the giant’s shield-bearer went up to the giant to take the glittering huge jewel that he carried like an amulet on a big golden neck-chain. “The Eye of Dagon!” he thought. “So I must face not one but two champions at once!” He began to pray to the Most High God to take his five smooth stones and confound not only the Eye but the Philistine who carried it. Then he began to sing one of his songs of victory. As he sang a message flashed into his mind.

Mighty Man of Ten Arms, I the Lord your God am the Disallowed Stone! Take Me and fling Me, the Stone that the builders rejected, and I will become the head of the corner!

Before the Eye hanging from the golden chain could be moved out of reach amidst the thousands of the Philistine host, Elhanan ran down, stopping just a stone’s throw from the giant. “Stop, I am your man, Philistine!” he called out. “Let’s fight! And I will take your foreskin, uncircumcised dog, and cast both it and your ugly head at the king’s feet! And as for Dagon’s eye, I will crush it beneath my own feet!” Goliath and his shield-bearer could not believe their ears. The loitering, lone shepherd had issued a challenge? He had come alive and dared cast such words at them! Surely it was a joke, yet the shepherd boy did not seem to be anything but serious. Goliath’s eyes--dark and heavy-lidded, fixed on Elhanan. His head of coarse, corded, brown hair shook out from his feathered helmet, as he lifted his helmet and ran his beringed fingers slowly swung slowly through his hair, scratching his scalp in disbelief. Replacing his helment, he set down his spear and leaned on it as he squinted upwards, trying to fathom how a shepherd boy from Israel could gather so much courage. But, no, it was the Israelite way, he concluded. When they couldn’t stand up like men and fight like men, they resorted to mere bluster. It was only a joke to send this one shepherd boy against him, and he was being made to look ridiculous. That was all it was--a stupid Israelite joke! Goliath liked his jokes and riddles as much as any man, but his pride was touched to think that his enemies believed he could be taken in this way. Taunting Israel’s king and army was enjoyable before, but he was angry now!

“Am I a dog, that you come to me with a shepherd’s staff? You mean you are so crazy, that you do neither fear me nor the great Eye of my mighty god Dagon?” He began cursing Elhanan and the name of the God of Israel. He started upwards, intending to teach him a lesson. “Come to me, Israelite shepherd, and I will tear your little maiden’s arms from your body and will make food out of you for the birds and the jackals and foxes! No, I will do something better with you. I have a riddle for you. What creature has its head between its legs, and buttocks between its arms?” Just to make sure the shepherd boy got the point, he added, “If you don’t know, I will tell you! A shepherd boy who presumes to play with a warrior, after I pull off his legs and arms and stick them at opposite ends of his puny body!”

The king was visibly shaken to see the giant’s face so close, though a smile was clamped on his lips. The enormous dark brows and eyes hung aslant and sightlessly, the mouth fell agape, the jaw jutting and the big yellow teeth exposed, while blood oozed from the grimacing lips in a black rivulet that puddled on the tent floor. No other head of a man could equal the size. After a long look, the king was satisfied. With a sigh that was more a groan than a sigh of relief, the king sank back on his cushions. Without another look at Elhanan, he wearily waved for Jonathan to take the shepherd boy and the head away. Elhanan was waiting just for this command, and he quickly exited the tent, determined to keep the head from the greedy, ignoble, and deceitful king’s grasp. After all, there had not been one word of his rewards, rewards he had honestly won before the watching eyes of the entire army of the Lord!

Outside, Prince Jonathan just as quickly led Elhanan back through the guards and sentries to the open ground. Elhanan turned once and looked into Jonathan’s eyes, who took the meaning and looked ashamed for all Elhanan had endured that night in the king’s presence. “Do not trouble yourself concerning their baseness toward you, “ said Jonathan. “For you have become our Dawid this day!” Elhanan heard him, but couldn’t grasp the term at first, it was only given to the highest and bravest commanders of the army--and only the most honored warriors were ever given such a title. But it was late, and the day too far gone for thinking much about it. The Samech of Ephratah went away into the dark to his private place, while Jonathan found he could not sleep, wondering how Elhanan could keep his anger after being defrauded of just reward for slaying the Gittite giant” And from that day Jonathan could not stomach the company of his fellow Benjaminites, and so he kept Elhanan as much as he could at the court to share his company. To please the restless Elhanan, who thought of his sheep going without proper care, Jonathan had a special royal seal fashioned by a master craftsman in the court. “Dawid” was cut on the fine gemstone. Bowing, the prince presented it to Elhanan, who was reluctant to receive it, since taking it might say to others that he was thinking himself superior to the king and his commander, Abner. The prince would not give up, however, and kept pressing it upon Elhanan, until he took it. Hearing of the great honor Jonathan had conferred upon the shepherd and harpist from Bethlehem of Ephratah in Judah, the king first entertained suspicion that this “Dawid” in his midst might have desire to surpass the son of Kish in the favor of the people. Mainly to get free of the poisonous atmosphere round the king at court, Elhanan, taking bands of warriors, went from the court and gained victories over the Philistines and other enemies of Israel every time he went out. The women of Israel found him a great new hero and champion, and began singing his name more often than they sang the name and exploits of the son of Kish. Cast increasingly in the shade of the rising Dawid of Bethlehem, the king fretted and wondered what to do. No matter how well he fought, this Dawid surpassed him with his stunning victories. The idea he had designs on the throne grew in the king’s mind until the time the king became so jealous of Dawid-Elhanan he sought to kill him, forcing him to become a fugitive. Pursued by Abner and all his soldiers, even the king taking command and pursuing him in person, he had to seek refuge in caves and even amongst the enemies of Israel the Philistines, until Saul the king was dead and the throne free to be given to him according to the word of the Lord spoken by Samuel.

Many years later, after Elhanan had sat long on the throne vacated by Saul whom the Philistines had slain along with Jonathan, the king had much to regret. He had won a great contest with the Eye of Dagon—thanks to Yahweh the Almighty of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob standing with him when he confronted the Gittite giant. But later the Eye had returned to sow discord and division, and evil spread in his kingdom, starting first in his own household after he took Bathsheba and had her husband killed in battle to get him out of the way. His son Amnon raped his beautiful half-sister, and then his son Absalom killed Amnon and fled. When Absalom returned to the court with his father’s forgiveness, thanks to Joab taking him under his wing, he repaid his father by sowing insurrection among the people, finally rising up against the king to take his throne. He fled Absalom, but succeeded in turning and defeating him in battle—and Absalom was slain by Joab, against the king’s word to spare his son’s life.

What grief! First Amnon, then Absalom. And there was continual fighting in the royal household and among the subject countries Israel ruled—was there any peace left to him after he had taken Bathsheba and had a child by her, murdering her husband to get his way? He had repented, but the Lord God punished his sin by taking the child’s life then allowing his sons to revolt, one after the other. He had won a single battle against the Eye of Dagon, but it had returned to Israel and plagued his reign year after year, for decades, until he lay on his deathbed. He knew that the kingdom would be divided, when his sons forsook the Lord God and whored after idols—what peace would follow his reign? His son Solomon might know peace, but only for a time—that is, if he could hold the throne. Elhanan, who was commonly called King Dawid now, could only give Solomon every advantage conceivable and pray God’s blessing upon him. He himself grieved that it might not be sufficient to keep the throne for his son—some other contender in the royal household might rise up to bloodily seize it.

But the thing that gave Dawid greatest remorse was the sense he had failed his divine purpose. He had always dreamed one thing, desired one thing above all other things men wanted in life—to build the holy House of God. But God had forbidden him to begin the construction, saying he was a bloody man of war. War? He had been called to make war on Israel’s enemies, and he had obeyed the summons. But he knew the Almighty meant by “war.” He had unlawfully taken another man’s wife, then arranged for the husband’s murder—and Uriah the Hittite had been his own loyal champion, a mighty soldier who would die rather than disobey the king his master. He had deliberately betrayed the love and trust of this good man! God would not let the malefactor go unpunished. He had rejected Dawid’s most earnest request, to build the holy temple—which had grown to be Dawid’s whole purpose in life, the one thing for which he worked, prayed, and dreamed. Another—his son—would build it. Yes, his and Bathsheba’s son, who had not suffered for Dawid’s dream, not fled from Saul full thirteen years in the burning wilderness, who had not lived with the heathen of the Philistia to preserve his life-—all so that a boy bred in the palace could reap the greatest honor of the Lord!

Was it worth the woman he had stolen from another man? The king wept, but tears for what might have been did him no good on his deathbed.