What does 1 Samuel 17:51 mean?
The Philistines and Israelites have stood against one another for war for at least forty days (1 Samuel 17:1–3, 16). Morning and evening, a Philistine giant—Goliath (1 Samuel 17:4–7)—has taunted the Israelites and challenged them to representative warfare (1 Samuel 17:8–10, 23). No Israelite soldier was willing to fight Goliath (1 Samuel 17:11, 24). But David, still young and splitting his time between tending sheep and tending King Saul (1 Samuel 16:14–23; 17:15), responded to the challenge (1 Samuel 17:32). He knew that the Philistine was defying the armies of the living God and trusted that God would give him the victory (1 Samuel 17:26, 37, 45–46).After all the anticipation (1 Samuel 17:38–40), and the taunting (1 Samuel 17:41–44), the actual battle was quite short (1 Samuel 17:48–49). David used his sling (Judges 20:16; 1 Chronicles 12:2) to fire one stone at the Philistine champion, hitting him with enormous force in the forehead. Goliath immediately fell face-down on to the field of battle (1 Samuel 17:49).
This verse seems to say that Goliath was unconscious, perhaps, but not yet dead. With a crushed skull, however, he's clearly finished. David quickly closes the rest of the distance between himself and Goliath, takes the large man's sword, and kills him outright. No sword is mentioned in the first list of Goliath's armor and weapons earlier in the chapter (1 Samuel 17:5–7), but it is noted in David's comments (1 Samuel 17:45). Some commentators suggest that perhaps David used Goliath's spear or "scimitar." Others suggest that Goliath's proper sword was simply left out of the earlier inventory.
In any case, David uses the Philistine's own weapon to kill the giant and cut off his head—which may well have been two separate actions. This makes good on David's earlier promise (1 Samuel 17:46). It was common in this era to collect the head as a trophy of the battle. It would certainly serve as evidence to both sides of the battlefield that the Philistine champion was truly dead.
The news quickly spread among the Philistine army. When Goliath taunted them, the Israelites fled (1 Samuel 17:24). Now that their champion is soundly defeated, the Philistines run from Israel. Their retreat was a breach of Goliath's challenge to the armies of Israel: "Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me. If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us" (1 Samuel 17:8–9). Neither Goliath nor the Philistine army expected to be the servants in that agreement.
