BIBLE STORIES

  The Philistines had turned against God. They didn’t listen to him, and there were many battles between them and the Israelites. One of the battles was won by a man called David. He was a hero. This is how he did it.

 

  There was a battle between the Philistines and the Israelites. The Philistines stood on one hill and the Israelites stood on another. There was a big valley between them. The two armies stood and watched each other. They weren’t sure who was going to move first. Then the Philistines made a move. A giant man marched out of their camp and into the valley. His name was Goliath. He was wearing a bronze helmet and a bronze coat of armour. He had a huge spear, the handle was as thick as a pole.

 

  Goliath spoke to the Israelites. He had a deep, booming voice. “Israel, send a man out who will fight with me. If he wins, Israel wins, if I win, the Philistines will win.” The Israelites were quite frightened of this big man. For 40 days Goliath came out of the Philistine camp and set the same challenge to the Israelites. But each day the Israelites didn’t know what to do. None of the soldiers were brave enough to fight with him.

 

  There was a man called Jesse. He had three sons, the youngest one of which was called David. David was a shepherd. He wasn’t a soldier really, but sometimes Jesse would send him with some food to give to the Israelite army. One day, David was taking some food to the army when he heard Goliath challenging the army. He became interested and had an idea. He spoke to some of the soldiers. “Let me fight him” he said. But the soldiers laughed at him. “You’re just a little boy. You can’t fight him”. David was quite keen to fight and kept on asking the soldiers. Saul, the head of the army told his soldiers to get David ready to fight.

 

  So the soldiers found a bronze armour and dressed David in it. But as David was so young, the armour was too heavy for him. He couldn’t even walk. It just wasn’t any good for him. They took the armour off him again. David bent down to the ground and found five smooth stones. He picked them out of the river and put them in his bag. He had a catapult with him. But that made him look more like a shepherd than a soldier. He still walked out though to meet Goliath.

 

  Goliath couldn’t believe what he was seeing! He started laughing at David. But David was strong. “I have God on my side and I will kill you Goliath”. The giant became very angry. How could this little boy think that he was better than him, a giant? He marched forward to attack. David was quick to react. He set a stone loose from his catapult. It hit Goliath straight between the eyes and he dropped to the ground. When the giant was on the ground, David used Goliath’s sword and killed him. The Israelites were very happy. The Philistines ran away.

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DAVID AND GOLIATH