“Am I A Dog That You Should Come To Me With Sticks?”

I’ve been going through multiple trials, tribulations, and annoyances the past few months which culminated in an unusual outburst of frustration and anger from me last night. My beloved said to me, “Don’t you worry. We’ll slay these giants together.”. Of course, she was referring to one of the very best known of all Bible stories – David and Goliath — the source of countless inspirational sermons. Almost everyone knows the final outcome; the giant dies! But, what about the finer details? There’s a fascinating story there also. Let’s take a look.

The Goliath story is found in 1 Samuel, Chapter 17, here. It could be an interesting exercise for you to read the text before you read this article … to see if you can spot some of the oddities and nuances. You might find some things not mentioned in this article, and then you can share that with all of us.

WARNING: You will not like this article if you need to believe that David defeated Goliath because of his faith in God, and therefore, that it was really God who defeated the big Philistine …. as opposed to a more “non-miraculous” account – that David won the battle because he made some shrewd calculations about his strengths vs. Goliath’s weakness.

Geographical Background

The Philistines were a seafaring people from Crete who had settled along the coast. Israel, led by King Saul, were grouped in the mountains. The two people were sworn enemies. Eventually, the battle tested and fierce Philistines moved east toward the Elah Valley. Their goal was to capture a mountain ridge near Bethlehem, thus splitting Israel in two. The two armies were pitched against each other on opposing mountain ridges, with the Valley of Elah below. Neither made a move. An attack would involve descending down one hill, and then making a certain suicidal charge up the enemy’s ridge. For days on end they just shouted various curses at each other. Finally, the Philistines said “Screw this crap!” – or whatever was equivalent in that era – and they sent their greatest warrior to single-handedly resolve the deadlock.

Goliath was his name, and if the Bible is to be believed as literally true, he was 9’9” tall, wore a bronze helmet, full body armor that weighed 125 pounds, and armed with a javelin, a sword, and a spear with the iron tip alone weighing about 19 pounds. (Based on what we do know, the length of the spear has been estimated to be as long as 26 feet!) This dude was the baddest bad-ass of the ancient world.

Following is an account written by a first century Roman historian (Quadrigarious) regarding a battle in which a Gaul warrior mocked his Roman opponent;

“Meanwhile, a certain Gaul came forward—naked except for a shield and two swords, and bedecked with a torque around his neck and arm-bracelets. He surpassed all in strength, size, the vigor of youth, and courage. At the height of the battle when both sides were feverishly striving against one another, he began to signal with his hands that both sides should stop fighting. The fighting paused and, as soon as it was quiet, the Gaul shouted that if anyone desired to fight him in single combat, then he should come forward. No one dared on account of his size and savage appearance. Then the Gaul began to laugh and stick his tongue out. As soon as he witnessed this, a certain Titus Manlius—a youth of noble birth—was grieved that such a shameful insult should be suffered by his country, and that no one from such a great army should step forward to challenge the Gaul. He, as I said previously, stepped forward and did not allow that Roman courage be shamefully debased by this Gaul. Taking up a shield and a Spanish sword he stood against the Gaul. Both sides anxiously watched the meeting on the bridge …”

You can read what happens next in “Kill a Gaul, Get a Name” here.

Combat in O.T. Times

Single hand-to-hand combat, as above … that’s what Goliath was expecting, and he prepared himself accordingly. As mentioned above, to protect himself against body blows, he wore an elaborate tunic made up of hundreds of overlapping bronze scales covering his arms and reaching his knees. Bronze plates covered his feet, and bronze shin guards protected his legs. His helmet protected most of his head and face.

His three weapons were all designed for close combat. His bronze thrusting javelin was capable of shattering any shield and could penetrate armor. He carried a gigantic sword on his hip. But, his primary weapon was a short-range spear which was “as thick as a weaver’s beam”. Attached to it was a cord and elaborate set of weights allowing Goliath to launch the spear with extraordinary force and accuracy. This giant of man was fully prepared for close combat — what else could it be?

And, now, here comes a young boy, David, a shepherd (a lowly and oft despised profession) without armor, and carrying his shepherd’s staff. Goliath, infuriated by this perceived lack of respect, bellows out; “Am I dog, that you should come to me with sticks?”

The Philistine army, as most ancient armies, consisted of three parts;

–1) The Cavalry, armed men on horseback or in chariots.

–2) The Infantry, armored foot soldiers carrying swords and shields.

–3) The Projectile Warriors, archers and slingers.

Think of these three groups as balancing each other out … as in the game of rock, papers, scissors. Infantry had long pikes and armor, and stands up to cavalry. Cavalry beats the projectile warriors, because the horses moved to fast for artillery to take aim. And projectile warriors beat the snot out of infantry, as a slow and lumbering soldier weighed down by armor was a sitting duck to a skilled slinger launching his projectiles from a hundred yards away.

The astute reader sees where this is leading. Goliath came barreling down the mountain as heavy infantry. When Goliath said “come to me”, he meant come right up to me so we can fight in close quarters. David “runs” towards Goliath …. with his missile. Goliath should have ducked.

About those slingers

First, be aware that “slingers” is NOT the same as sling shot. Slingers carried a leather pouch with a long strand of rope attached to each side. A rock, or lead ball, is placed in the pouch, and then the sling is swung around in increasingly wider and faster circles until one end of the rope is released, hurling the projectile forward. So simple a cave man can do it … except that it required long practice and extraordinary skill. But, what a magnificent payoff!

Slingers could hit birds in midflight. Irish slingers could hit a coin from as far away as they could see it. Slingers could kill a human from a distance up to six hundred feet! The Romans even developed a tool to remove lead balls that had been embedded deep in some poor schmuck’s body.

David whips his sling around and around, faster and faster, about seven revolutions per second, while aiming his projectile at Goliath’s ­only point of fatal vulnerability, his forehead. What could the lumbering giant do? As he stands there mocking the God of Israel, ready for close combat, when the horror suddenly dawned on him … because, his army had slingers also … that he brought the equivalent of a knife to a gunfight. David’s stone would have hit Goliath in just over a second … and, at about 35 meters per second that stone’s stopping power is equivalent to a modern handgun. Goliath was dead before he even knew what hit him.

For a fascinating overview on these deadly weapons, check out this article, “A Formidable Ancient Weapon” from slinging.org. here.

Goliath’s Gigantism and Associated Problems

Goliath had a brother and three sons who were also giants. (For example, in 2 Samuel 21:16 Ishbibenob, Goliath’s son, is credited with almost killing David until the swift intervention of David’s nephew Abishai. ) Is there a medical explanation for Goliath’s great size? Yes. This article here

suggests that the Goliath family had, “autosomal dominant inheritance. …. a hereditary pituitary disorder possibly due to the AIP gene, causing early onset and familial acromegaly or gigantism.” This benign tumor of the pituitary gland causes an abundance of human growth hormone, which could be an explanation for Goliath’s great size. (The tallest man in history, Robert Wadlow, suffered from acromegaly. He was 8’11” tall and still growing until he died.)

Pituitary giants look impressive in terms of stature, but they do not have speed and agility to match their perceived strength. A side effect of acromegaly are vision problems because the tumors grow to the point where they compress the nerves leading to the eyes … which will result in severely restricted vision and/or diplopia (double vision).

Goliath’s Odd Behavior

The text states that the Philistine went down to the valley “with his shield bearer in front of him”. Why bring a shield bearer? Shield bearers accompanied archers (slingers ) because warriors with a bow&arrow didn’t have a free hand to carry their own protection. Goliath, as mentioned above, was heavy infantry and came to battle for close-quarters combat. Well, it appears that due to his acromegaly he needed an attendant to act as his visual guide.

The text states that Goliath says to David, “Come here.” Why doesn’t Goliath go to David? Why does the text indicate that Goliath is moving slowly? Also, why isn’t Goliath terrified if he sees that David is coming to the fight as a slinger? He absolutely would have known that slingers beat infantry. What’s also unusual is that he accuses David of coming at him with “sticks” – plural – when David only had a single shepherd’s staff. In other words, Goliath approaches the battle virtually totally oblivious to the actual circumstances.

He sees two or more sticks when there is only one, he moves slowly because everything around him is a blur, he needs an assistant to help him survey the landscape, he tells David to come to him because he can’t see David clearly.

Surely, David as a mighty warrior – who, according to the text, killed a bear and lion with his bare hands — was aware of these significant incongruities he saw with his own eyes. And, so, David did obey Goliath’s command to come to him, and by the time Goliath saw what was really happening, it was too late.

Lessons Learned

One of my bible teachers often said this, “There is but one correct interpretation, but many applications.”. And so, you have the facts before you, and I’m sure you can come up with many applications (life lessons). I would love to hear them.

I’ll leave you with just one lesson, and not surprisingly, it pertains to my aforementioned angry outburst. We too often misread our conflicts. We flat out misinterpret the data.

We tend to believe we see all the giants just as they are, but alas, do we really SEE them? Well, not if they are beating you! How will you know that you really SEE the giants? When you see that whatever qualities you believe gives them great power, is the very thing that gives them great weakness. It is only then that you can run at them … and slay them.

Amen. And, Amen.

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BONUS SECTION: NEPHILIM

There are only two places in all Scripture which mentions “Nephilim”. Most bibles translate the word as “giants”.

 ———-

“There also we saw the giants [Nephilim]; and we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.” —– Numbers 13:33

“Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose. Then the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” The giants [Nephilim] were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty MEN who were of old, MEN of renown. Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” —— Genesis 6: 1-5

———–

Many people interpret the following from these two scant references as follows; —– that Nephilim are the product of copulation between human women (daughters of Adam) and divine beings (sons of god). I would file this under “Patently Absurd” for the following ten reasons.

 1)- Look at the text. It clearly refers to these offspring as …. MEN! (Why do we even need to proceed any further?)

 2) There is really zero etymological evidence to justify the translation as “giants“. Zero. In fact, more than a few translations simply leave the word untranslated as “Nephilim”. Why? Because there are only two occurrences of the word …. And NO ONE really knows what the word means.

3) A much more honest translation is from the Hebrew root word “Naphal” meaning, “to fall“. But, there is no justification to attribute Naphal as “fallen angels”. Naphal could be anyone. The Hebrew language has plenty of words to use for angels that could have been used if the author meant angels, (“angels,” “cherubim,” and “seraphim”).

4) In the New Testament “sons of God” always refers to redeemed human beings. It would be very unlikely that ungodly demons would ever be referred to as “sons of God” .

5) There are no biblical accounts of any demon taking on human form. None. Nada. Zilch. When angels do appear to men, they are always obedient angels, and always here to help.

6) The reference to Nephilim is particularly problematic for the offspring-of-fallen-angels crowd. That’s because this reference in Numbers occurs very long after the Flood. And if we know anything about the flood at all, it is this: EVERY LIVING THING ON EARTH DIED (except those eight folks on the ark).

7) Would you be attracted to a beautiful horse, and want to have sex with it? Because that’s what angel-human sex would be like … intercourse between two fundamentally different beings.

8) Human-angel sex assumes an awful lot about angels … that somehow angels can change from spirit to human, along with all the appropriate hardware (penis, tubes, etc.) AND somehow manufacture sperm that is identical to human DNA. Think about all that. You should be rolling on the floor laughing.

9) Angels are SPIRIT beings!! Jesus said that angels are NOT “given to marriage”. Sure seems like angels are asexual. And don’t go thinking that when angels assume human form (if they can) that they automatically also grow weenies and little swimmers. That’s sci-fi fantasy stuff.

10) Actually, according to Jesus, angels do NOT have the power to take on human bodily substance. When Jesus explained his bodily resurrection to his disciples he said, —- “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? “See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” —- Case closed.

Bottom Line: The Nephilim were men. We don’t know much more than that. So, we should leave it at that. People should stop inventing stories that just aren’t there.

Author: Stucky

I'm right, you're wrong. Deal with it. View all posts by Stucky