He stood and cried to the armies of Israel, and said to them, Why are you come out to set your battle in array? am I not a Philistine, and you servants to Saul? choose you a man for you, and let him come down to me.
am not I a Philistine, and you servants to Saul? a common Philistine, according to Jarchi; not a captain of a hundred, or of a thousand; and yet would fight anyone of them, their general officers, or be they who they would; or rather, as Abarbinel, he was a prince among the Philistines, and king of Gath; and though he was, and it was usual with great persons to engage with their equals, yet he did not insist on that; but would engage with any man, though of an inferior rank, even with any of Saul's servants; and by calling the Israelites the servants of Saul, he might have some respect to Saul's arbitrary government over them; and since they must be servants and slaves, it was as well to be servants to the Philistines as to him: