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Passage Research

1 Samuel 17 — Sermon Preparation

The young shepherd David volunteers to face the Philistine giant Goliath and kills him with a single stone from his sling, routing the Philistine army. Below is a research summary for 1 Samuel 17, drawn from openly licensed scholarly databases — original-language morphology, classic sermons from the church fathers through the Puritans, and ancient geography data.

58
verses
914 / 263
Hebrew words / lemmas
12
classic sermon excerpts
4
preachers & commentators

1 Samuel 17 in the Hebrew

Distinctive vocabulary of this chapter, based on original-language morphology.

HebrewTransliterationStrong'sCountGlosses
פְּלִשְׁתִּיPᵉlishtîyH643040Pelishtite
דָּוִדDâvidH173236David
שָׁאוּלShâʼûwlH758618Shaul
מַעֲרָכָהmaʻărâkâhH463410arrangement, pile
נָכָהnâkâhH522112strike
מִלְחָמָהmilchâmâhH44219battle, engagement
יָדyâdH302711hand, open

How preachers through history handled this text

12 public-domain excerpts on 1 Samuel 17, from the church fathers to the Puritans.

Matthew Henry6Spurgeon3Alexander MacLaren2John Wesley1

“Jesse little thought of sending his son to the army at that critical juncture; but the wise God orders actions and affairs, so as to serve his designs. In times of general formality and lukewarmness, every degree of zeal which implies readiness to go further, or to venture more in the cause of God than others, will be blamed as pride and ambition, and by none more than by near relations, like Eliab, or negligent superiors. It was a trial of David's meekness, patience, and constancy. …”

— Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (Concise), on 1 Samuel 17:12–30 (Public Domain)

Places in the text

Based on ancient-geography data

  • Azekah— 1 Sam 17:1
  • Ephes-dammim— 1 Sam 17:1
  • Socoh 1— 1 Sam 17:1
  • Bethlehem 1— 1 Sam 17:12
  • Valley of Elah— 1 Sam 17:19

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