⁸ He stood and shouted to the Israelite battle formations, “Why do you come out to line up in battle formation?” He asked them, “Am I not a Philistine and are you not servants of Saul?^(A) Choose one of your men and have him come down against me. ⁹ If he wins in a fight against me and kills me, we will be your servants. But if I win against him and kill him, then you will be our servants and serve us.”^{(B) 10} Then the Philistine said, “I defy the ranks of Israel today.^(C) Send me a man so we can fight each other!” ¹¹ When Saul and all Israel heard these words from the Philistine, they lost their courage and were terrified.

¹² Now David was the son of the Ephrathite^(D) from Bethlehem of Judah named Jesse. Jesse had eight sons^(E) and during Saul’s reign was already an old man. ¹³ Jesse’s three oldest sons had followed Saul to the war, and their names^(F) were Eliab, the firstborn, Abinadab, the next, and Shammah, the third, ¹⁴ and David was the youngest.^(G) The three oldest had followed Saul,