Goliath of Gath stood between the two armies for forty straight days, bellowing the same challenge. He was over nine feet tall. His bronze armor weighed five thousand shekels. His spear was so heavy he carried it across his shoulders, not in his hand, and attendants followed behind him hauling the rest of his gear. Every morning he shouted across the valley: send one man to fight me, and the loser's nation becomes slaves. No one in Saul's entire army dared answer.
David, the youngest son of Jesse, arrived at camp carrying bread and cheese for his older brothers. He heard Goliath's challenge and was furious—not frightened, furious. His brothers told him to go back to his sheep. He ignored them. When Saul heard a boy had volunteered, he summoned David and told him he was too young. David replied that he had killed a lion and a bear with his bare hands while protecting his flock. "This Philistine," he said, "will be like one of them."
Saul offered his own armor. David tried it on, found he could not walk in it, and took it off. He picked up five smooth stones from a stream, dropped them in his shepherd's bag, and walked toward the giant with a sling. Goliath was insulted. "Am I a dog," he shouted, "that you come at me with sticks?" David answered that Goliath came with sword and spear, but he came with God. "Today I will cut off your head."
One stone. It sank into Goliath's forehead and into his brain. The giant crashed face-first into the dirt. David ran forward, stood on the body, and since he had no sword of his own, drew Goliath's and cut off his head with it. The Philistine army broke and ran. Israel pursued them to the gates of Ekron, killing thirty thousand and wounding twice as many.
Then the trouble began. Women poured out of the cities singing: "Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands." Saul heard it, and Josephus says he realized there was nothing left for David to receive but the kingdom itself. He removed David from his personal guard and sent him into the most dangerous battles, hoping he would die. When his daughter Michal fell in love with David, Saul demanded six hundred Philistine heads as a bride-price—certain it was a death sentence. David brought them all. Saul gave him Michal, then tried to kill him with a spear. Michal lowered David from a window by rope in the night, placed a goat's liver in the bed to simulate breathing under the covers, and bought him enough time to flee to Samuel at Ramah. Every assassin Saul sent after David was seized by the divine spirit and began prophesying instead. Finally Saul went himself—and he too fell to the ground, prophesying helplessly all day and all night.