Lexham English Bible

1 Samuel 17:27-36 Lexham English Bible (LEB)

27. And the troops had spoken to him according to this word, saying, “So it will be done for the man who defeats him.”

28. His oldest brother Eliab heard while he was speaking to the men, and Eliab became very angry against David and said, “Why have you come down today, and with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your presumptuousness and the evil of your heart! For you have come down in order to see the battle!”

29. David replied, “What have I done now? I merely asked a question!

30. He turned around from him to another opposite him and he spoke to him in the same way, and the people answered him as before.

31. Now the words which David had spoken were heard and they reported them to Saul, and he summoned him.

32. David said to Saul, “Do not let anyone’s heart fail concerning him! Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.”

33. But Saul said to David, “You will not be able to go against this Philistine to fight with him, because you are only a boy, whereas he has been a man of war since his childhood!”

34. And David said to Saul, “Your servant has been a shepherd of the flock for his father. If the lion or the bear would come and carry off a sheep from the group,

35. I would go out after it and strike it down and rescue the sheep from its mouth. If it rose against me, I would grab it by its beard and strike it down and kill it.

36. Your servant has struck down both the lion and the bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he defied the battle lines of the living God.”