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.
Goliath was apparently 9 feet 9 inches tall. Another view is that he was 6 feet 9 inches tall. [Note: See the note on 1 Samuel 17:4 in the NET Bible, and J. Daniel Hays, "Reconsidering the Height of Goliath," Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 48:4 (December 2005):701-14; Clyde E. Billington, "Goliath and the Exodus Giants: How Tall Were They?" Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 50:3 (September 2007):489-508; and Hays, "The Height of Goliath: A Response to Clyde Billington," Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 50:3 (September 2007):509-16.] He was probably a descendant of the Anakim who had moved to Philistia after Joshua drove them out of Hebron (Joshua 11:21-22). Five thousand shekels’ weight equals 125 pounds (1 Samuel 17:5). Goliath’s spearhead weighed 15 pounds (1 Samuel 17:7), about the weight of a standard shot-put. This is an unusually long description of an individual for the Old Testament. The writer evidently wanted to impress Goliath’s awesome power and apparent invulnerability on the readers so we would appreciate David’s great courage and faith.