the middle of my flock, and I pursued after, and took it again from their mouths, and they arose and would have devoured me, and I caught them by the jaws and slew them.  I thy servant slew the lion and the bear, therefore this Philistine uncircumcised shall be as one of them.  I shall now go and deliver Israel from this opprobrium and shame.  How is this Philistine uncircumcised so hardy as to curse the host of the living God?  And yet said David:  The Lord that kept me from the might of the lion and from the strength of the bear, he will deliver me from the power of the Philistine.  Saul said then to David:  Go, and our Lord be with thee.

Saul did do arm him with his armor, and girded his sword about him.  And when he was armed, David said:  I may not ne cannot fight thus, for I am not accustomed ne used, and unarmed him, and took his staff that he had in his hand, and chose to him five good round stones from the brook and put them in his bag, and took a sling in his hand, and went forth against the giant.  And when Goliath saw him come, he despised him and said:  Weenest thou that I am a hound that comest with thy staff to me?  And he cursed David by his gods, and said to David:  Come hither and I shall give thy flesh to the fowls of heaven and to the beasts of the earth.  David said unto Goliath:  Thou comest to me with thy sword and glaive, and I come to thee in the name of the Lord God of the host of Israel which thou hast this day despised; and that Lord shall give thee in my hand, and I shall slay thee and smite off thy head.  And I shall give this day the bodies of the men of war of the Philistines to the fowls of heaven, and to the beasts of the earth.  Then Goliath rose and hied toward David, and David on that other side hied, and took a stone and laid it in his sling, and threw it at the giant, and smote him in the forehead in such wise that the stone was fixed there, in that he fell down on his visage.  Thus prevailed David against the Philistine with his sling and stone, and smote him and slew him.  And he had no sword but he went and took Goliath’s own sword and therewith smote off his head.  And then the Philistines seeing this giant thus slain, fled, and the Israelites after followed, and slew many of them, and returned again and came into the tents, pavilions and lodgings of the Philistines, and took all the pillage.

David took the head of Goliath and brought it into Jerusalem, and his arms he brought into his tabernacle.  And Abner brought David, having the head of Goliath in his hand, tofore Saul.  And Saul demanded of him of what kindred that he was, and he said that he was son of Jesse of Bethlehem, and forthwith that same time Jonathan, the son of Saul, loved David as his own soul.  Saul then would not give him license to return to his father, and Jonathan and he were confederate and swore each of them to be true to other, for Jonathan gave his coat that he was clad withal, and all his other garments, unto his sword and spear,