This document is about Elah (place name). For other homonyms, please refer to the Elah document. The region where the war took place during the time of King Saul against the Philistines, in which Goliath participated and met his death at the hands of David.
1 Samuel 17:1Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together, and encamped in the valley of Elah, and set the battle in array against the Philistines.1 Samuel 17:2The Philistines stood on the mountain on the one side, and Israel stood on the mountain on the other side: and there was a valley between them.1 Samuel 17:3A champion out of the camp of the Philistines named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span went out.1 Samuel 17:4He had a helmet of bronze on his head, and he wore a coat of mail; and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of bronze.1 Samuel 17:5He had bronze shin armor on his legs, and a bronze javelin between his shoulders.1 Samuel 17:6The staff of his spear was like a weaver’s beam; and his spear’s head weighed six hundred shekels of iron. His shield bearer went before him.1 Samuel 17:7He stood and cried to the armies of Israel, and said to them, “Why have you come out to set your battle in array? Am I not a Philistine, and you servants to Saul? Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me.1 Samuel 17:8If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then will we be your servants; but if I prevail against him and kill him, then you will be our servants and serve us.”1 Samuel 17:9The Philistine said, “I defy the armies of Israel today! Give me a man, that we may fight together!”1 Samuel 17:10When Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistine, they were dismayed, and greatly afraid.1 Samuel 17:11Now David was the son of that Ephrathite of Bethlehem Judah, whose name was Jesse); and he had eight sons. The man was an elderly old man in the days of Saul.1 Samuel 17:12The three oldest sons of Jesse had gone after Saul to the battle: and the names of his three sons who went to the battle were Eliab the firstborn, and next to him Abinadab, and the third Shammah.1 Samuel 17:13David was the youngest; and the three oldest followed Saul.1 Samuel 17:14Now David went back and forth from Saul to feed his father’s sheep at Bethlehem.1 Samuel 17:15The Philistine came near morning and evening, and presented himself forty days.1 Samuel 17:16Jesse said to David his son, “Now take for your brothers an ephah of this parched grain, and these ten loaves, and carry them quickly to the camp to your brothers;1 Samuel 17:17and bring these ten cheeses to the captain of their thousand, and see how your brothers are doing, and bring back news.”1 Samuel 17:18Now Saul, and they, and all the men of Israel, were in the valley of Elah, fighting with the Philistines.1 Samuel 17:19David rose up early in the morning, and left the sheep with a keeper, and took and went, as Jesse had commanded him. He came to the place of the wagons, as the army which was going out to the fight shouted for the battle.1 Samuel 17:20Israel and the Philistines put the battle in array, army against army.1 Samuel 17:21David left his baggage in the hand of the keeper of the baggage, and ran to the army, and came and greeted his brothers.1 Samuel 17:22As he talked with them, behold, the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, came up out of the ranks of the Philistines, and said the same words; and David heard them.1 Samuel 17:23All the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him, and were terrified.