Commentary - Overview

We must read the whole of this grand story of David and Goliath. But first study with me a few things which will help us to understand the story when we read it. There are three main water-courses which run from the hills of Judah across the Philistine plain. Naming them in order from the north, they are the valley of Aijalon, the valley of Sorek, which we learned of in the Story of Samson, and the valley of Elah, where this battle with the Philistines took place. The city of Gath, one of the five Philistine cities and Goliath's home, was by this valley of Elah as it comes from the hills out into the plain. At the place of the battle the valley is not wide, a little meadow between the hills and a brook with a stony bed running through the meadow. Notice also that it is not far across the hills to Bethlehem.

The giant and his armor. We learned of giants in the land of Canaan when the children of Israel sent spies into the land. (Numbers 13:22, 33) Afterward Joshua destroyed the giants, and they remained only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod. One of these, you see, was Goliath's city. (Joshua 11:21-22; 2 Samuel 21:16-22) How tall was Goliath - six cubits and a span? A cubit, the distance from the elbow to the finger tips, is about 18 inches. A span or the stretch of the open hand is about 8 inches. His armor: a helmet of brass; a coat of mail, probably made of scales, and hanging nearly to the knees; the greaves were armor for the legs and feet; the "target of brass" (verse 6), called a "shield" (verse 45), was probably a javelin slung on his shoulders. (Revised Version) He had a sword and a very heavy spear whose staff was like the beam to which the web was fastened in the clumsy looms which the weavers used. About thirty shekels made a pound.

David the shepherd. David came from the sheep in Bethlehem with a simple present from home. "Parched corn" is new wheat roasted at the fire. His "carriage" means what he was carrying, his baggage. He laid aside Saul's armor and went with his shepherd's staff and scrip and sling. The scrip is the shepherd's bag, made often of the skin of a kid, and hung from the shoulder. The sling the shepherd uses for defense, and more often to attract the attention of the sheep by dropping a stone near them when they are heedless and do not mind his call.

As we read the story, please find a verse which seems to you to tell the secret of Goliath's weakness and of David's strength.

Commentary - In-Depth

A battle in the Scriptures represents an experience of temptation, of spiritual conflict. Let someone take the scene and battle presented to us in this story and show how it is descriptive of spiritual conflict in ourselves. In our conflict, what are the two armies camped on either side?

There is the army of heaven on the side of good, and the army of hell on the side of evil; and the state of freedom in which we are like an open valley into which we must go out alone to fight. As in the story, one giant comes out to meet us. We do not have to meet all evil at once; someone stands out as our enemy. If we resist this faithfully the power of all evils is lessened; if we yield to this the power of all is increased.

The great height of the giant suggests the pride and self-confidence of evil, and the armor represents the reasoning and excuses with which evil tries to silence our conscience and to overcome us. Such armor belongs especially to the champion of the Philistines, for they represent a pride of intellect associated with evil life. Shall we reason with the tempter and try to meet argument with argument? That would be to put on Saul's armor; it is not useful; evil is stronger than we at argument. We must refuse to do wrong because it is wrong, because the Lord forbids it. We must be prompt in our decision and short and decided in our answer. Remember the Lord's example in His temptation in the wilderness. (Arcana Coelestia 1659, 1664, 1788)

What in particular is represented by the stones in David's sling? They represent simple facts of Divine truth which are all-powerful against evil. The brook from which we take them is the stream of the Lord's own Word. There were five stones. Five represents what is little or few, and at the same time what is enough. Compare the five barley loaves. (John 6:9) It is little of the Lord's truth that we are as yet able to gather from His Word, but it is all that we need; no giant of evil can stand against it. (Apocalypse Explained 430, 548; Arcana Coelestia 5291)

Someone may remind me that after Goliath had fallen David used the giant's sword to cut off his head. At the moment of temptation it is not wise to delay and to reason with the tempter, but after the evil is overcome by the Lord's strength then we may reason about it and see more clearly why it is wrong and to be shunned. We may then use the sword, turning the giant's own weapon against himself. (Arcana Coelestia 2686, 2799) We read again about Goliath's sword and find it a good weapon in David's hand. (1 Samuel 21:8-9)

We have taken this scene and story as a picture of our own spiritual conflicts. In a deeper sense it must represent conflicts of the Lord's human life. David was a type of the Lord, and especially of the Lord in His conflicts and victories. The meeting of David with Goliath teaches a grand lesson about the Lord in His temptations. As a boy and a young man He went out alone in His Divine innocence (from tending the sheep) to meet the giants of evil proud in their intellectual strength. People and angels stood helpless (like Saul's army), their fate depending upon the result. He made no argument with the tempter (trusted not in armor) but answered him with a simple, "It is written, Thou shalt not" (a stone from His sling). People and angels shared in the Lord's victories (Israel shouted and joined in the pursuit). Read about the Lord's conflicts with giants of evil, in Arcana Coelestia 1673 and other numbers both before and after.

Commentary for Young Students

The people of Israel were at war with the Philistines. Saul was the leader of their army. They were in one of the valleys that run from the hills of Judah out into the Philistine plain. The camp of Israel was on the hills on one side of the valley, and the camp of the Philistines was on the other side. There was a green meadow between them, and a brook with a stony bed running through the meadow.

In the Philistine army was a giant named Goliath. This great strong man, taller than all the rest, came out toward the camp of Israel and called to them. He was armed with heavy armor on his head and body and legs. He carried a great sword and spear, and a man with a shield went before him. He called to the army of Israel to send out a man to fight with him; if Goliath killed him, the people of Israel would serve the Philistines; if Goliath was killed, the Philistines would serve Israel. The giant was so big and strong and proud! The men of Israel and Saul were greatly afraid. Each morning and evening for forty days Goliath came out and called.

No one dared to go to fight with Goliath till one day David came to the camp. He came from his home in Bethlehem; his father sent him with a present to ask for the welfare of his three older brothers who were soldiers in Saul's army. He saw the giant come out from the Philistine camp and heard his proud words, and everyone was afraid - everyone but David. He said to Saul, "Let no man's heart fail because of him; thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine" And he went, only a shepherd boy in his shepherd's dress, with his shepherd's staff and sling and bag, and in it five smooth stones out of the brook. He did not trust, as the Philistine did, in his size and in his armor, but in the Lord, who had helped him as a shepherd to save the sheep from a lion and a bear.

The Philistine despised David, but David said, "Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied." And David ran to meet the Philistine and threw a stone with his sling. It struck the giant in the forehead and he fell on his face. The men of Israel shouted and chased the army of the Philistines down the valley and out into the plain. We must read the whole chapter. You will often think of the story, and it will remind you that even a child can be brave and strong trusting the Lord.

Questions for discussion:

1. Who was Goliath? How was he armed?

2. What errand brought David to the camp? From where did he come?

3. How was David armed? Why was he not afraid?

1664. That the wars in this chapter mean in the internal sense nothing other than spiritual conflicts, which are temptations, has been stated already in the preliminary section. ¹ Nor do the wars in the rest of the Word, especially in the Prophets, have any other meaning. Wars waged by men can have no place whatever in the internal parts of the Word, for such things as wars are not the spiritual and celestial things which alone constitute the Word. That 'wars' in the Word means conflicts with the devil, or what amounts to the same, with hell, becomes clear from the following places besides many others: In John,

They are spirits of demons, performing signs, to go out to the kings of the land and of the whole earth, to assemble them for the war of that great day of God Almighty. Revelation 16:14.

Here anyone may see that no other kind of war on the great day of God Almighty is meant.

[2] In the same book,

The beast that comes up from the Abyss will make war. Revelation 11:7.

Here 'the Abyss' is hell. In the same book,

The dragon was angry with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her seed, who kept the commandments of God and bear testimony to Jesus Christ. Revelation 12:17.

It ² was allowed to make war on the saints. Revelation 13:7.

All these wars are conflicts such as constitute temptations. Nor are the wars of the kings of the south and of the north, and the other wars of Daniel 8, 11, and also those involving Michael, Daniel 10:13, 21; 12:1; Revelation 12:7, anything different.

[3] That wars have no other meaning is clear from the rest of the Prophets as well, as in Ezekiel,

You have not gone up into the breaches and made a hedge for the house of Israel, to stand in war on the day of Jehovah. Ezekiel 13:5.

This refers to the prophets. In Isaiah,

They will beat their swords into hoes, and their spears into pruning-hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, neither will they learn war any more. Isaiah 2:4.

Clearly no other wars [than spiritual wars] are meant here, and therefore instruments of war, such as swords, spears, shields, and many others, mean nothing else in the Word than things that belong to such wars.

[4] In the same prophet,

To the thirsty bring water; O inhabitants of the land of Tema, meet with his bread the fugitive, ³ for they will flee ⁴ before the swords, before the drawn sword, and before the bent bow, and from the grievousness of war. Isaiah 21:14-15.

In Jeremiah,

Shepherds and their flocks will come against the daughter of Zion, they will pitch their tents against her round about; they will graze, each off his own space. Declare a sacred war against her; arise and let us go up at noon. Jeremiah 6:3-5.

Here, since it is waged against 'the daughter of Zion', that is, the Church, no other kind of war is meant.

[5] In the same prophet,

How is the city of praise not forsaken, the city of My joy? Therefore her young men will fall in her streets, and all the men of war will be cut down on that day. Jeremiah 49:25-26.

'The city of praise and of joy' stands for the things that belong to the Church, 'the men of war' for those who fight.

[6] In Hosea,

I will make for them a covenant on that day, with the wild animals of the field, and with the birds of the air, ⁵ and with the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish ⁶ the bow, and the sword, and war from the land, and I will make them lie down in safety. Hosea 2:18.

Here similarly 'war' stands for conflicts, and the various instruments of war stand for the things belonging to spiritual conflict which are 'broken' when a person comes into the calmness of peace as evil desires and falsities come to an end.

[7] In David,

Behold the works of Jehovah who makes solitary places in the earth, making wars cease even to the end of the earth. He breaks the bow, and snaps the spear, He burns the chariots with fire. Psalms 46:8-9.

Here too the meaning is similar. In the same author,

In Salem is the dwelling-place of God, and His habitation in Zion. There He broke the bow's fiery arrows, the shield and the sword, and war. Psalms 76:2-3.

Because the priests represented the Lord who alone fights on man's behalf, their duties are called military service, Numbers 4:23, 35, 39, 43, 47.

[8] It is a constant truth that Jehovah alone, that is, the Lord, fights and overcomes the devil present with a person when he is involved in the conflicts brought by temptations, even though to that person this does not appear to be so. For evil spirits have no power at all to exert the slightest influence on man unless they are permitted to do so, and angels cannot act to avert anything at all unless enabled to do so by the Lord. Thus it is the Lord alone who endures every conflict and overcomes, something that was also represented at various times by the wars that the children of Israel waged against the nations. That He alone does so is also stated in Moses,

Jehovah your God is going ⁷ before you, He Himself will fight for you. Deuteronomy 1:30.

In the same book,

Jehovah your God is going ⁷ with you to fight for you with your enemies, to save you. Deuteronomy 20:4.

[9] So too in Joshua, such as 23:3, 5. For all the wars that were being waged at that time against the idolatrous inhabitants of the land of Canaan represented the Lord's conflicts with hell, and consequently the conflicts of His Church, and of members of the Church. This also accords with the following statements in Isaiah,

As the lion roars, and the young lion, over its prey (when a multitude of shepherds run towards him he is not dismayed by their voice nor daunted by the tumult they make) so Jehovah Zebaoth will come down to fight on Mount Zion and on its hill. Isaiah 31:4.

[10] For the same reasons also Jehovah, or the Lord, is called 'a Man of War', as in Moses,

Jehovah is a Man of War, Jehovah is His name. Exodus 15:3.

In Isaiah,

Jehovah will go forth as a Mighty Man, as a Man of Wars. He will stir up zeal; He will cry out, yes, He will shout aloud, He will prevail over His enemies. Isaiah 42:13.

This also is why many things that war entails are attributed to the Lord, such as 'crying out', and 'shouting aloud' here.

[11] Spirits and angels also appear as men of war, when a representation is being made, as in Joshua,

Joshua lifted up his eyes and saw, and behold, a man was standing before him, with his sword drawn in his hand. He said to Joshua, I am the Prince of the army of Jehovah; and Joshua fell on his face ⁸ to the earth. Joshua 5:13-14.

These things were seen taking the form they did because they were representative, and this also is why descendants of Jacob called their wars the Wars of ]Jehovah.

It was similar in the Ancient Churches among whom there were books which also were called The Wars of Jehovah, as is clear in Moses.

It is said in the Book of the Wars of Jehovah. Numbers 21:14-15.

These were written about in a way not unlike the wars described in this chapter; but wars involving the Church were meant. Such a manner of writing was common in those times, for they were interior men and their thoughts were of more exalted things.

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