The Valley of Elah, c. 1012 B.C.
In a deceptively pastoral setting about twenty miles west-southwest of present-day Jerusalem, two opposing armies squared off. King Saul’s Israelites faced an imposing force of Philistines.
Israelites and Philistines were historic enemies owing to territorial and philosophical disputes.
The Philistine army included giant warriors from the Gaza region. The most prominent was called Goliath, minimally reckoned at more than seven feet—an immensely frightening figure, huge for the era. Scripture says that Goliath stalked forward morning and evening for forty days, berating the Israelites for their reluctance to send forth a champion in single combat.
"Why do you come out and line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose a man and have him come down to me. If he is able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects; but if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us.”
Then the Philistine said, “This day I defy the armies of Israel! Give me a man and let us fight each other.”
As the Book of Samuel added, “On hearing the Philistine’s words, Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified.” They recognized that Goliath had been “a man of war since his youth.”
At the end of the forty days a youthful shepherd named David overheard the challenge while delivering supplies to his older brothers. The Book of Numbers specifies that Israeli men entered the army at age twenty, so David likely was between sixteen and nineteen.
When no Israelite soldiers offered to serve as Saul’s champion, David presented himself. In 1 Samuel 17:36 he said to the king, "Your servant has struck down both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God."
The passage makes two references to lack of circumcision, by inference denigrating the Philistine practice. Subsequently, to earn Saul’s daughter in marriage, David and his merry band delivered 200 Philistine foreskins as a down payment.
Lacking options, the king and court wanted to fit the shepherd with helmet and armor, but David declined. In modern parlance he would have said, “I’ve got this.”
David’s offer was reluctantly accepted, and he calmly walked forth, armed with his shepherd’s sling, seeking five suitable stones.
So…how big were David and Goliath?
Archaeologists have long determined that early Bronze Age males typically stood five feet, five inches. So that’s a reasonable assumption for David.
As for Goliath, we default to the oft-cited Biblical measure. The Samuel author pegs him at six cubits and a span. Typically, a cubit was measured from the elbow to tip of the middle finger although sometimes it stopped at the wrist or the palm. Egyptian measures seem fairly consistent at 20 to 21 inches. Greek and Roman sources indicate an 18-inch cubit. Jewish sources range from 17.5 to 21.5 inches.
A span usually measured the width of the fingers or palm, just about 3 inches.
Therefore, Goliath’s height seems between exactly 9 feet and about 10 feet 9 inches.
Current medical data shows that seven-foot-tall men weigh 225 to 275 pounds, mostly being skinny. However, basketball legend Shaquille O’Neal is 7 feet 1 inch and 325 pounds but has said he peaked at 415 playing weight. At 325 that’s 46 pounds per foot, but 415 equals 60 pounds per foot. So at an intermediate 9 feet 10 inches, Goliath’s median weight was about 450 pounds but he could have been well over 500.
Goliath usually was accompanied by a shield bearer while carrying his own weapons: a large sword and a honking big spear with a head weighing fifteen pounds. It would have been deadly as a thrusting or projectile weapon.
Nowthen: what about the sling?
A sling was not a slingshot with elastic tension, which dated from the 19th century.
Slings were common weapons in the ancient world, and slingers often were fielded in groups to provide volley “fire” at extended distances. A sling might measure 35 to 40 inches of braided cord with a cloth or leather cup or “pocket” in the middle. The projectile—a rock—fit in the cup, held there by inertia when the slinger twirled the weapon.
Some slings had a finger loop for the strong hand; others tied the end to the wrist but in either case the shooter held the loose end in the same hand. Slinging was something like playing the violin—everyone knows the basics but develops his own technique.
Experts could generate useful velocity with a few spins, then let fly. Some slingers are faster off the mark than others, using only one spin while others use three or four.
Spinning the sling overhead, or with an arm extended to the side, or “pitching” overhand from behind all seem to work equally well.
Internet videos demonstrate some astonishing accuracy with slings against precision targets, near to far.
At which point things became extremely difficult.
Contrary to slingshots, slings had no reference for aiming. The slinger needed exceptional hand-eye coordination based on extensive experience to judge weight, distance, and velocity. As a shepherd, David was highly competent in striking predators around his sheep. The distances would have varied considerably—how far was it from one side of the flock to the other where a bear or lion appeared? Scripture tells us that David was an accomplished slinger, able to place a rock on the predator with enough velocity to send it scampering off.
Saul granted David permission to fight, and the shepherd departed with his staff and sling. He stopped at the nearby stream and selected five smooth stones, which he placed in his pouch. They would have been of a size and weight for ballistic consistency. Depending on specifics, likely the stones would attain between 160 and 250 feet per second.
When David confronted Goliath, they exchanged comments, which says something about the distance between them. Even allowing for a giant’s booming voice, he had to hear the responses of the boy before him.
Then there’s the language thing, and the Bible ignores the subject. Almost nothing is known about the Philistine tongue, other than it was part of the Canaanite family. On the other hand, David likely spoke early Hebrew and possibly Aramaic.
Since the combatants had no mutually intelligible language, we have to wonder about veracity of the Samuel passage. Which, according to scholars, likely was written in about the seventh century BC.
In any case, the distance could have varied between fifteen and twenty paces—maybe forty feet.
David’s target was small: the exposed area between the giant’s eyebrows up to the base of his bronze helmet. Allowing for Goliath’s size, call it four inches.
Supremely confident, David swirled the sling and let fly.
David’s first shot was decisive. He did not need to strike a fatal blow, but the impact velocity of that stone knocked the Philistine champion to the ground, apparently senseless. Thus incapacitated, he could not prevent the shepherd from drawing his large sword and decapitating the giant. If Goliath stood 9-feet-10, and we extrapolate 450 and 580 pounds, when David raised the grisly trophy it might have weighed 40 to 45 pounds.
Then the Jews drove the enemy back to Gath.
And eventually David inherited a kingdom.
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