Goliath (I)

I. GOLIATH, a famous Giant of the City of Gath, one of the five Principalities belonging to the Philistins. Goliath¹ 1 Sam. xvii. 4, 5, 6, &c.came and presented himself between the two armies of the Philistins and the Hebrews, incamped between Succoth and In the Year of the World 2942, before J.C. 1058, before the Vulgar Æra 1062.Azekah, and defied all the bravest of the Hebrews to encounter him. He was six cubits and a span high, that is to say, about twelve feet and an half, taking a cubit to be twenty inches and a half, and a span to be three inches and a little more. His armour was suitable to his stature, and his insolence every day increased, upon observing that none of the Israelites dared to engage him. The two armies continued in the same place forty days, without coming to blows. At last, David, who was a young man, employed in feeding his father’s flocks, coming to the camp, to bring provisions to his brothers, declared that he would encounter this Giant.

This was immediately reported to the King, who sent for David: but seeing him to be so young, and without arms, he at first could scarce believe him capable of such an undertaking. Nevertheless, he ordered his own armour to be put upon him. But David not being accustomed to it, nor knowing well how to use it, took only his own staff, and chose five pebbles in the brook; so marching against Goliath, he flung a stone at him, which struck the Giant with so much force, that he fell down stunn’d with the blow: whereupon David running in upon him, drew the Giant’s sword, and cut off his head.

Goliath was descended from Arapha, that is to say, from the old Rephaims. He was higher than any two men, and his armour was proportioned to his stature. An Author who has scrupulously examined the weight of his armour, finds, that allowing a proportionable weight to every part which composed it, it must be two hundred and seventy two pounds thirteen ounces. He allows eighteen pounds three quarters for the iron of Goliath’s Spear; to the shaft of this Spear, which must have been six and twenty feet long, at least as much weight as to the iron with which it was bound; to the Helmet fifteen pounds, to the Buckler thirty, to the Sword four pounds and an half, to the Cuirass an hundred fifty six pounds and a quarter: add the Greaves of brass which he wore upon his legs, and the Shield or Lance which was carried by his ‘Squire, and you will find pretty near the weight which he allows for the whole armour.

The defeat of the Giant Goliath by David is an event so extraordinary, that it is not at all surprizing to see how the Eastern people, who naturally love fiction, and telling wonderful stories, should embellish it with some circumstances: they say, Goliath was of such an enormous stature, that his suit of armour compleat weighed a thousand pounds, and that his helmet alone weighed three hundred; that nevertheless David broke his helmet with the stone which he flung at him, and pierced his head, and brain. They further believe, that the Kings of the Philistins, who reigned long in Palestine, were all named Goliath, as the Kings of Egypt were called Pharaoh; and that David, after the defeat of the Giant whom we are speaking of, destroyed the nation of the Philistins, the remains of whom retired into Africk; and that the Barbars, people on the coast of Barbary, are descended from them.

It is believed by some, that David upon this occasion composed the hundred and forty-fourth Psalm; Blessed be the Lord my strength, who teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight. The Septuagint particularly take notice, that it was composed upon Goliath: but it is well known, that the titles of the Psalms are for the most part of very little authority. In the Greek copies, there is an hundred and fiftieth Psalm, which is not in the Canon, and is written upon the same subject: but there is no argument to prove that David was the Author of it.

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