Whose God did Goliath Curse and Where did David Take his Head: Comments on 1 Samuel 17

Yigal Levin

The Bialik Institute

The duel between David and Goliath is one of the best-known stories in the Bible, and has been examined from many different points of view: literary, historical, geographical, military and more. In this paper, we discuss the following issues:

1. According to verse 43, "and the Philistine cursed David by his elohim". The word elohimcould refer to either the pagan Goliath’s multiple gods, or to David’s one God, and various translators and interpreters over the ages have suggested one or the other.
We examine several cases in both the Bible and in ANE literature of someone cursing or blessing by another person’s deity, and conclude that Goliath cursed David in the name of David's God, the God of Israel. This is in accordance with the general conception of each nation or kingdom having its own patron deity, who has the power to either curse or bless his people.

2. According to verse 54, David took Goliath's decapitated head to Jerusalem, and put "his" vessels in "his" tent. David's bringing Goliath's head to Jerusalem does not make sense within the context of the story, and has been the subject of many attempted explanations. The context also does not clarify whose vessels were put in whose tent. We suggest, following Josephus and Pseudo-Philo, that "Jerusalem" is a textual error, and that David brought both Goliath’s head and his vessels to Saul’s tent in the Israelite camp.

3. According to verse 20, David, upon arriving at the battlefield, came to the "ma'agal" – literally "the circle". Most commentators assume this to refer to the Israelite camp, and some add that it must have been round-shaped. In a final note, we suggest identifying this "ma'agal" with the site of Khirbet Qeiyafa, and supply references to literature on the site and its identification.