David Picked Up Five Stones but Only Needed One

1 Samuel 17:40 records a detail that most readers pass over: "He took his staff in his hand and chose for himself five smooth stones from the brook and put them in the shepherd's bag which he had, even in his pouch, and his sling was in his hand." Five stones. Goliath was one man. Theologians, warriors, and rabbis have all asked the same question: why five? The answer the midrash gives does not flatter the Israelite army standing on the hillside watching.

Who Were the Other Four Stones For?

The Babylonian Talmud (compiled c. 500 CE), tractate Sotah 42b, and Legends of the Jews (1909–1938) record the same tradition: the five stones were one for Goliath and four for Goliath's four brothers. The text of 2 Samuel 21 and 1 Chronicles 20 later records four descendants of the Philistine giant Raphah — Ishbi-benob, Saph, Lahmi, and the unnamed giant with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot — who were all eventually killed by David's warriors. The midrash reads David's stone selection as prophetic awareness: he was not walking down to fight one man. He was walking down to begin the elimination of an entire line. David picked up five stones because he already knew the scope of what he was starting. The Midrash Rabbah (c. 400–500 CE) adds that the stones themselves called out to be chosen, merging in flight to form a single projectile.

Why Did Goliath Mock David?

1 Samuel 17:43 records Goliath's contemptuous question: "Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?" He then cursed David by his gods. The Midrash Aggadah tradition, in Midrash Tanchuma (c. 800–900 CE), reads this scene with characteristic attention to the power of words. Goliath's curse, invoking his gods, was not just taunting — it was a declaration of which divine patron was backing him. David's response was the inverse: he invoked not his own prowess but the name of the God of Israel. "You come to me with sword, spear, and javelin," David said, "but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have taunted." The midrash reads this exchange as the actual battle — a contest of divine sponsorship that Goliath had already lost before the stone was thrown, because the God David invoked was the one who controlled both the stone and the hand that threw it.

What Made David Willing When Saul's Army Wasn't?

1 Samuel 17 records that Goliath had been challenging Israel twice a day for forty days, and no one had stepped forward. The entire army, including Saul, was terrified. David was only present because his father had sent him with food for his brothers. The Midrash Rabbah asks what made David different, and the answer it gives is not about physical courage. David had spent years alone with sheep in the wilderness. He had killed a lion and a bear to protect his flock (1 Samuel 17:34–36). He was not afraid of large, violent things because he had already faced large, violent things and won — and he understood those victories as divine protection, not personal strength. His argument to Saul was essentially theological: the same God who delivered him from the lion would deliver him from this Philistine. Fear, the midrash notes, is a failure of theological memory.

What Was Goliath's Armor and Why Did It Not Help?

Legends of the Jews describes Goliath's armor with the care given to Temple furnishings: a bronze helmet, a coat of mail weighing 5,000 shekels of bronze, bronze leg armor, a bronze javelin, a spear with an iron point weighing 600 shekels. The midrash notes that this armor was precisely designed to stop every known weapon — sword, arrow, spear. It was not designed to stop a stone thrown at the forehead. The gap in the armor, the one place on Goliath's face not covered by his helmet, was exactly where the stone struck. The Midrash Aggadah tradition says the stone struck and the blow drove the stone through Goliath's forehead, through his skull, and into the earth — and the ground shook, and the entire Philistine army saw their champion fall face down, toward Israel rather than away from it. A warrior who falls forward falls in submission, not defeat. Even Goliath's corpse was forced to acknowledge David's God.

What Did David Say After the Battle?

The aftermath of Goliath's death is as decisive as the death itself. The Philistines fled; Israel pursued. David took Goliath's head to Jerusalem and his armor to his own tent. The Talmud in tractate Sotah 42b records that David kept those weapons as reminders — not of his own strength, but of the limits of human armor against divine purpose. The stone and the sling became metaphors in rabbinic literature for the principle that the least impressive instrument, in the right hands and with the right intention, consistently defeats the most impressive human arsenal. David picked up five smooth stones from a brook. The brook did not require him to; the brook just offered what it had. And the midrash concludes that God's instruments always look like what they are: small, smooth, and completely adequate. Read more stories of David, the judges, and the warriors of Israel across the ancient texts at jewishmythology.com.