Now David was the son of that Ephrathite of Bethlehem Judah, whose name was Jesse; and he had eight sons: and the man was an old man in the days of Saul, stricken [in years] among men.
Part of the reward for defeating Goliath that Saul had promised was that the victor’s family would be tax free in Israel (1 Samuel 17:25). [Note: See McCarter, p. 304; and Shemaryahu Talmon, King, Cult, and Calendar in Ancient Israel: Collected Studies, pp. 65-66.] The giving of the leader’s daughter in marriage to a valiant warrior was not without precedent in Israel (cf. Caleb’s challenge in Joshua 15:16).