22. David entrusted what he had brought to the keeper of the baggage and hastened to the battle line, where he greeted his brothers.
23. While he was talking with them, the Philistine champion, by name Goliath of Gath, came up from the ranks of the Philistines and spoke as before, and David listened.
24. When the Israelites saw the man, they all retreated before him, terrified.
25. The Israelites had been saying: “Do you see this man coming up? He comes up to insult Israel. The king will make whoever kills him a very wealthy man. He will give his daughter to him and declare his father’s family exempt from taxes in Israel.”
26. David now said to the men standing near him: “How will the man who kills this Philistine and frees Israel from disgrace be rewarded? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should insult the armies of the living God?”
27. They repeated the same words to him and said, “That is how the man who kills him will be rewarded.”
28. When Eliab, his oldest brother, heard him speaking with the men, he grew angry with David and said: “Why did you come down? With whom have you left those sheep in the wilderness? I know your arrogance and dishonest heart. You came down to enjoy the battle!”
29. David protested, “What have I done now? I was only talking.”
30. He turned from him to another and asked the same question; and everyone gave him the same answer as before.
31. The words that David had spoken were overheard and reported to Saul, who sent for him.
32. Then David spoke to Saul: “My lord should not lose heart. Let your servant go and fight this Philistine.”
33. But Saul answered David, “You cannot go up against this Philistine and fight with him, for you are only a youth, while he has been a warrior from his youth.”
34. Then David told Saul: “Your servant used to tend his father’s sheep, and whenever a lion or bear came to carry off a sheep from the flock,
35. I would chase after it, attack it, and snatch the prey from its mouth. If it attacked me, I would seize it by the throat, strike it, and kill it.