The Boy Warrior - Season 1 - Episode 10

Episode 4 years ago

The Boy Warrior - Season 1 - Episode 10

Final
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“Am I a dog, so that you are coming against me with sticks?” he roared, stamping his feet and shaking the earth. He let out a string of unspeakble curses punctuated by strange names David assumed were names of Philistine gods.
“Just come to me,” the giant shouted, swinging a spear by its s---t that looked a lot like the beams loom workers and weavers back home in Bethlehem used, “and I will give your flesh to the birds of heaven and to the beasts of the field.”

Behind him, the Philistines let out cheers and cries of rage, shaking their fists and jabbing the air with their spears. But David was not fazed. As he looked at Goliath, any doubts he had about his decision faded away into thin air.
It was just like that time when he came back from answering a call of nature and saw a commotion among the flock. He had seen the signs of a scuffle on the ground, and prominent among the torn earth were the huge paw prints that belonged to none other than the major predators that terrorized the flocks in the fields. As he saw the prints, David had known, just known, that all he had to do was follow those prints and he would rescue the stolen sheep and slay the lion.

That was the exact same way he knew, just knew, that Goliath didn’t stand a chance against him, not with the mighty arm of Jehovah behind him. In a way, David pitied the Philistine.
He had no idea what was about to happen.
“You are coming against me with sword and spear and javelin,” he called back to Goliath, “but I am coming against you in the name of Jehovah of armies, the God of the battle line of Israel, whom you have taunted. This very day Jehovah will surrender you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head, and on this day I will give the corpses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the heavens and to the wild beasts of the earth; and people of all the earth will know that there is a God in Israel.
“All those gathered here will know that it is not with the sword or spear that Jehovah saves, for the battle belongs to Jehovah, and he will give all of you into our hand.”

Behind him, the army of Israel let out cheers and shouts of anger. Goliath roared and, keeping behind his shield-bearer, ran to meet David. But the last son of Jesse didn’t sit still. He ran to meet his contender.

With motions he had practiced a thousand times while shooting down pidgeons, he t----t his hand into his bag and brought out a stone, slotted it into the leather pouch of his sling and waited. Goliath’s shield-bearer would have been a big obstacle if he had been wielding a sword, but thankfully he wasn’t. He took aim at the part of Goliath that protruded at least four whole cubits above the top of his shield.

And he let it fly.

The sickening crunch of breaking bone that rang through the darkening valley as the stone made contact with Goliath’s forehead drew muffled sounds of surprise from both armies and stopped the Philistine’s shield-bearer dead in his tracks.

The whole world seemed to pause around him. Goliath fell backward and hit the earth with so much force that the shield-bearer stumbled. David did too, but he quickly recovered his balance, t----t his wooden sling into his bag and ran to the fallen giant. He knelt beside him and la!d his two hands around the hilt of his sword and drew it out of its scabbard with a loud, sweet ring of steel on steel.

The sword was heavy, and about the same height as he was from hilt to tip. He raised it and, with a loud cry, swung it down on Goliath’s neck. The weight and sharpness of the sword parted Goliath’s head from his body in one clean stroke.

Blood gushed from the hollow stump of his neck, saturating the floor of the valley a deep, dark crimson. David held the sword and panted, his chest heaving up and down.

In the Valley of Elah, all was silent. Over two thousand men stood against each other in battle formation, and yet not a sound issued from any of them.

And then David raised Goliath’s decapitated head by its hair, still dripping blood. He turned it first to show the Philistine army, then the Israelites. David saw a kind of horror in the shield-bearer’s eyes that words couldn’t describe.
From one side of the valley Abner let out a cry of rage, half scream and half shout, a cry that was primal in its sound. It sounded like the cry of a madman, loud and senseless, and yet the Israelite army seemed to understand, because they echoed with screams of their own.
No words, just screams.

Goliath’s shield-bearer dropped his shield and turned to run back to the Philistine battle line, but as he ran past the dead contender’s body, David reached out and slashed with goliath’s sword, a blow that cut him nearly clean from shoulder to g---n. The soldier fell, his body shaking with death spasms, his blood joining Goliath’s to paint the white sand red.

The Israelite army thundered down to the valley, keeping close behind their commander who ran like the madman he probably was, stampeding right past David to the Philistine army who had broken all their neat lines and turned to run. It was as if the only thing that had given them courage was their giant of a champion, and now that he was dead, they were finished.
David joined in the pursuit. They chased the Philistines right up the slope of the other mountain for three hours that were a blur of piercing and hacking and slashing.
And screaming.

Some Philistine soldiers even turned to fight, but the onslaught of Israelite soldiers washed over them like waves over rock. In the end, when darkness had fallen completely, the entire mountain was strewn with bodies, from the valley right up to the plain of Philistia and the gates of two cities of Philistine axis lords, Ekron and Gath, where the soldiers had tried to run for refuge.

As David stood, sword in hand, watching the battle wind down, one thought registered in his head: it was over. The battle had not yet finished, but it was over.

And by the mighty hand of Jehovah their God, they had won.