When the Philistine began to advance toward him again, David quickly ran up to the battle line to face the Philistine. David put his hand into the bag; he took out a stone and slung it. It struck the Philistine in the forehead; the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell face down on the ground. Thus David bested the Philistine with sling and stone; he struck him down and killed him. David had no sword. (1 Samuel 17:48-50)

Rembrandt’s representation of David and Goliath is one of the four prints, which he prepared for Menasseh ben Israel’s treatise Piedra Gloriosa (The Glorious Stone). The stone with which Goliath was killed was the symbol of the Messiah. In the etching David swings his sling and Goliath begins to fall forward. In the background, throngs of Israelites cheer David on.

The story of David and Goliath is a classic tale of an invincible giant defeated by a young boy. The backdrop of this story is the crisis of national existence brought about by the threat of Philistine domination. The Philistines are described as a mighty people with overwhelming military prowess. Goliath is the embodiment of this power.

The people of Israel were at a point of utter despair. Goliath had not only struck terror in their hearts through his enormous size and his heavy armor and weapons; he had defiantly blasphemed the God of Israel. This form of psychological warfare through taunting and provocation had thoroughly destroyed the morale of the troops. 

Just when hopelessness and desperation conquered the hearts of people and king, David arrived at the front to deliver provisions to his older brothers. They greeted him with their feelings of anxiety, impotence and shame which they vented in the form of anger and ridicule towards their little brother.

David is undaunted by them, and by his own description, by all other threats as well:

David replied to Saul, ‘Your servant has been tending his father’s sheep, and if a lion or bear came and carried off an animal from the flock, I would go after it and fight it and rescue it from its mouth. And if it attacked me, I would seize it by the beard and strike it down and kill it. Your servant has killed both lion and bear; and that uncircumcised Philistine shall end up like one of them, for he defied the ranks of the living God. The Lord, who saved me from lion and bear will also save me from that Philistine.’ Then Saul said to David, ‘Go, and may the Lord be with you.’ (1 Samuel 17:34-37)

When it was decided that David would take on the mighty Goliath, the king offered to gird David in his royal sword and armor, but these would not be David’s weapons.

Saul clothed David in his own garment; he placed a bronze helmet on his head and fastened a breastplate on him. David girded his sword over his garment. Then he tried to walk in these but was not used to it…So David took them off. He took his stick, picked a few smooth stones from the wadi, put them in the pocket of his shepherd’s bag and sling in hand, he went toward the Philistine. (1 Samuel 17:38-40)

Goliath’s power ideology did not scare David:

You come against me with sword and spear and javelin; but I come against you in the name of the Lord of Hosts the God of the ranks of Israel, whom you have defied…For the battle is the Lord’s and He will deliver you into our hands. (1 Samuel 17:45)

After Goliath had been felled with a single stone from his slingshot, David ran over to the Philistine, pulled Goliath’s sword from its scabbard, dispatched him, and cut off his head. The just desserts of the uncircumcised Philistine find expression in the words of the Psalmist:

The wicked draw their swords, bend their bows, to bring down the lowly and needy, to slaughter upright men. Their swords shall pierce their own hearts and their bows shall be broken. (Psalms 37:14-15)

Following his victory over Goliath, David does not take the giant’s sword as a trophy; instead, it is deposited in the sanctuary as testimony to God’s salvation. Only later, when David becomes a fugitive from the jealousy of Saul, does he take the sword in his moment of need.

David said to Ahimelech, ‘Haven’t you got a spear or sword on hand?’…the priest said, ‘There is the sword of Goliath the Philistine who you slew in the valley of Elah; it is over there, wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you want to take that one, take it, for there is none here but that one.’ David replied, ‘There is none like it; give it to me.’ (1 Samuel 21:9,11)

But David does not wield the sword against his pursuers. He will find himself in a position to slay Saul twice, but he stays his hand. His righteousness will not allow him to lay a hand on the anointed one of God. He will be defamed by his enemy Nabal the Carmelite, but he will hold back from using the sword, placing his faith in God to restore his honor. He will be cursed by Sheva the son of Bichri but he will not slay him, again accepting his fate with dignity and waiting for justice to be served.

David the son of Jesse will be acclaimed time and again as a great warrior, but his initial triumph over Goliath has taught him the unforgettable lesson regarding all of his enemies, that no matter how mighty the sword, ultimately, ‘battle is the Lord’s’.

1. Menasseh ben Israel (1604-1657) was a scholar and rabbi in the Beth Israel Congregation in Amsterdam. He is described by his colleague, Joseph Delmedigio as: “the ornament of scholars and the glorious diadem of our people in the eyes of the nations [goyim], who writes learned works, the likes of which have never been seen in any lands or peoples; and their theologians consult him daily to hear his learning.” Menasseh founded the earliest Hebrew printing press in Amsterdam (1626) and published many works in Hebrew, Spanish and Portuguese. Among his works in 1655 he published a book in Spanish entitled    Piedra Gloriosa, o De la Estatua de Nebuchadnezzar (The glorious stone, or On Nebuchadnezzer’s statue). The book outlined the history of Israel through the time of the Messiah, through interpreting Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in messianic terms. Menasseh commissioned the illustrations for the book, including the picture of David slaying Goliath from his close friend Rembrandt. Rembrandt consulted with Rabbi Menasseh ben Israel on questions of Hebrew and biblical accuracy in his paintings. See   “The Unhappy Rabbi”, in Steven Nadler, Rembrandt’s Jews (Chicago, 2003), pp. 105-143.