"What are you doing here, leaving your sheep in the field? I know that
you have come down just to see the battle."

But David did not care for his brother's words. He thought he saw a way
to kill this boasting giant; and he said:

"If no one else will go, I will go out and fight with this enemy of the
Lord's people."

They brought David before King Saul. Some years had passed since Saul
had met David, and he had grown from a boy to a man, so that Saul did
not know him as the shepherd who had played on the harp before him in
other days.

Saul said to David:

"You cannot fight with this great giant. You are very young; and he is a
man of war, trained from his youth."

And David answered King Saul:

"I am only a shepherd, but I have fought with lions and bears, when they
have tried to steal my sheep. And I am not afraid to fight with this
Philistine."

Then Saul put his own armor on David--a helmet on his head, and a coat
of mail on his body, and a sword at his waist. But Saul was almost a
giant, and his armor was far too large for David. David said:

"I am not used to fighting with such weapons as these. Let me fight in
my own way."

So David took off Saul's armor. While everybody in the army had been
looking on the giant with fear, David had been thinking out the best way
for fighting him; and God had given to David a plan. It was to throw the
giant off his guard, by appearing weak and helpless; and while so far
away that the giant could not reach him with sword or spear, to strike
him down with a weapon which the giant would not expect and would not
be prepared for.

David took his shepherd's staff in his hand, as though that were to be
his weapon. But out of sight, in a bag under his mantle, he had five
smooth stones carefully chosen, and a sling,--the weapon that he knew
how to use. Then he came out to meet the Philistine.

The giant looked down on the youth and despised him, and laughed.

[Illustration: _The giant looked down on the youth and despised
him_]

"Am I a dog?" he said, "that this boy comes to me with a staff? I will
give his body to the birds of the air, and the beasts of the field."

And the Philistine cursed David by the gods of his people. And David
answered him:

"You come against me with a sword, and a spear, and a dart; but I come
to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of
Israel. This day will the Lord give you into my hand. I will strike you
down, and