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Why David chose five stones ,please read ! (Read 51067 times)
Dan
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Why David chose five stones ,please read !
Jun 19th, 2010 at 11:34am
 
I found the answer to why David chose 5 stones in the book: The Signature of God by Grant Jeffery.
David did not lack faith in the Supernatural power of God, Goliath had 4 brothers, all of which were Giants !  Shocked In the book of 2nd Samuel chapter 21:15-22 ( please feel free to read it yourself ) it mentions 2nd Samuel 21:22 "These four (Goliaths brothers) were decendants of Rapha in Gath , and they fell to the hands of David and his servants (soldiers). Try finding sombody knowadays that can make a head shot on a target 9ft tall 5 times in a row!

Please do more reaserch in the topic by reading 2 Samuel 21 and also pick up the well written Signature of God by Grant Jeffery which also answeres many other questions in Bible text.
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I was pretty good at slinging like 10 years ago.
 
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RJB
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Re: Why David chose five stones ,please read !
Reply #1 - Jun 20th, 2010 at 4:05pm
 
Thanks for the prompt.  I've been meaning to re-read the story of David now that I'm a slinger.
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Dan
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Re: Why David chose five stones ,please read !
Reply #2 - Jun 20th, 2010 at 8:17pm
 
sure thing bro  Wink
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I was pretty good at slinging like 10 years ago.
 
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Knaight
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Re: Why David chose five stones ,please read !
Reply #3 - Sep 15th, 2010 at 9:44am
 
Dan wrote on Jun 19th, 2010 at 11:34am:
I found the answer to why David chose 5 stones in the book: The Signature of God by Grant Jeffery.
David did not lack faith in the Supernatural power of God, Goliath had 4 brothers, all of which were Giants !  Shocked In the book of 2nd Samuel chapter 21:15-22 ( please feel free to read it yourself ) it mentions 2nd Samuel 21:22 "These four (Goliaths brothers) were decendants of Rapha in Gath , and they fell to the hands of David and his servants (soldiers). Try finding sombody knowadays that can make a head shot on a target 9ft tall 5 times in a row!

Please do more reaserch in the topic by reading 2 Samuel 21 and also pick up the well written Signature of God by Grant Jeffery which also answeres many other questions in Bible text.

9 feet tall is unlikely. What's worth noting is that the average height at that point would have been low, if they were even 6 feet tall then they would be bigger and heavier than most everyone else, with reach to boot, big advantages. And strictly speaking it would be easier to make a head shot on a bigger target, plus there are still people around who can pull that off.

The bible is of dubious validity as an objective historical resource, not only has it gone through a great many translations, it is a heavily biased piece to begin with. Goliath would have been exaggerated as tougher than he was, David would have been exaggerated as less physically impressive, so as to make the story seem more miraculous. Its likely there is a grain of truth in that story, which boils down to in a war, the Israelites fielded a slinger as champion who took down someone who had a reputation as very dangerous. With five stones, and lighter armor, multiple tries would have been near guaranteed, though extreme bravery is still needed.

Furthermore, the cited incident with Goliath's brothers occurred after David had become a leader and acquired soldiers, so the stones collected in the initial battle are completely irrelevant anyways. Its another point that serves largely to point out that A) Gods on our side, look at this champion, and B) Seriously, look at this champion, he's pretty awesome.
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jlasud
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Re: Why David chose five stones ,please read !
Reply #4 - Sep 20th, 2010 at 3:03pm
 
I think he choose 5 stones because he knew that thats the maximum of stones he could sling(in case he misses) until goliath puts an end to the fight.He had to fight only goliath,not his brothers too.Am I right?
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Knaight
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Re: Why David chose five stones ,please read !
Reply #5 - Sep 20th, 2010 at 10:28pm
 
jlasud wrote on Sep 20th, 2010 at 3:03pm:
I think he choose 5 stones because he knew that thats the maximum of stones he could sling(in case he misses) until goliath puts an end to the fight.He had to fight only goliath,not his brothers too.Am I right?

He had to fight only Goliath in the duel. His brothers represented a problem later on, so he went and dealt with them, because David got stuff done as a king.
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Re: Why David chose five stones ,please read !
Reply #6 - Sep 22nd, 2010 at 10:59pm
 
 Ha ha, sounds like a tag line from an action movie!  "First he dealt with Goliath, now his brothers are in the crosshairs!"  coming this september to a theater near you!

 He may also have asked for a few extra so that he could pick the best ones, like maybe he picked the best 3 out of the 5 as he couldn't gather them himself and get them the way he liked them. 

  I was in the food store, (yeah the food store,) the other day and was looking at a rack of movies while waiting at the checkout and there was a new film called DAVID, being the story of King David and on the cover they showed a sling... the perplexing thing was I couldn't see that there was any retention or release cord, it looked like one continuous loop!  It was a pretty clear picture and I looked at it closely but that's what it looked like, it may have been bad photography or a serious hollywood blunder or some strange type of sling, IDK....
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Re: Why David chose five stones ,please read !
Reply #7 - Sep 23rd, 2010 at 9:54am
 
Personally I think it was more like a "trust in god, but let´s carry this extra ammo just in case" kinda thing.
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Re: Why David chose five stones ,please read !
Reply #8 - Sep 23rd, 2010 at 4:49pm
 
Personally I doubt whether David really killed Goliath. Later in the modern Bible Elhanan is said to have killed Lahmi, the brother of Goliath, but in older manuscripts it is Elhanan the brother of a Bethlehemite (pronounced Bat'Lahmi in hebrew) who killed Goliath. I think that Elhanan killed Goliath, the story was rewritten to please the current king (David), both versions accidently were compiled together, and the mistake was noticed by a translator who added in "brother" and mistook the word bethlehemite (maybe it was smudged?) for a name.

Another possibility is that David killed a giant and his name was changed to Goliath by borrowing from the Elhanan story because in the ancient Hebrew language Goliath came to mean huge. Then later someone from outside the culture who missed the subtlties thought goliath was the name of Davids opponent and did the same thing to Elhanan's opponent as my first theory.
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Pikåru wrote on Nov 19th, 2013 at 6:59pm:
Massi - WTF? It's called a sling. You use it to throw rocks farther and faster than you could otherwise. That's all. 
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timann
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Re: Why David chose five stones ,please read !
Reply #9 - Sep 24th, 2010 at 1:45pm
 
Quote:
Personally I think it was more like a "trust in god, but let´s carry this extra ammo just in case" kinda thing.

That`s what I think, too.  It`s what I would do, under those circumstances Smiley
timann
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Re: Why David chose five stones ,please read !
Reply #10 - Sep 24th, 2010 at 3:18pm
 
Kinda like the WWII "Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition." attributed to a Chaplin manning a deck gun at Pearl Harbor.

Above text totally redacted

So much for attributions ... the story is here:
http://my.execpc.com/~dschaaf/praise.html

P.S. what I mean to say is take a lot of ammo to a gunfight (or sling)


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Re: Why David chose five stones ,please read !
Reply #11 - Oct 5th, 2010 at 6:26pm
 
I agree with u Dan i have thought this for a long time and thanks for posting the truth Wink
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Re: Why David chose five stones ,please read !
Reply #12 - Oct 7th, 2010 at 7:08am
 
slingingrat wrote on Oct 5th, 2010 at 6:26pm:
I agree with u Dan i have thought this for a long time and thanks for posting the truth Wink

Well, an opinion. Whether it is the truth or not..... Wink
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Re: Why David chose five stones ,please read !
Reply #13 - Oct 8th, 2010 at 2:11am
 
wanderer wrote on Oct 7th, 2010 at 7:08am:
slingingrat wrote on Oct 5th, 2010 at 6:26pm:
I agree with u Dan i have thought this for a long time and thanks for posting the truth Wink

Well, an opinion. Whether it is the truth or not..... Wink


I agree with wanderer; it's a possibility but it's not necessarily the truth and certainly not, "The Truth". There is no reason given for the number of stones selected in the story or the other texts. Making it an article of faith based on speculation is not a good idea.
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Thearos
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Re: Why David chose five stones ,please read !
Reply #14 - Oct 9th, 2010 at 6:31am
 
I must say, I don't understand, Dan, what you're saying. This is the quotation from 2 Samuel 21


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15 Once again there was a battle between the Philistines and Israel. David went down with his men to fight against the Philistines, and he became exhausted. 16 And Ishbi-Benob, one of the descendants of Rapha, whose bronze spearhead weighed three hundred shekels [b] and who was armed with a new sword , said he would kill David. 17 But Abishai son of Zeruiah came to David's rescue; he struck the Philistine down and killed him. Then David's men swore to him, saying, "Never again will you go out with us to battle, so that the lamp of Israel will not be extinguished."
18 In the course of time, there was another battle with the Philistines, at Gob. At that time Sibbecai the Hushathite killed Saph, one of the descendants of Rapha.



19 In another battle with the Philistines at Gob, Elhanan son of Jaare-Oregim [c] the Bethlehemite killed Goliath [d] the Gittite, who had a spear with a shaft like a weaver's rod.

20 In still another battle, which took place at Gath, there was a huge man with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot—twenty-four in all. He also was descended from Rapha. 21 When he taunted Israel, Jonathan son of Shimeah, David's brother, killed him.

22 These four were descendants of Rapha in Gath, and they fell at the hands of David and his men.
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Now it concerns a war of David, when he is king, against the Philistines. We are told that during this war, 4 men from Gath were killed, of the descendants of Rapha (those 4 were born to the giant, leharaphah beGath). It is not about the incident in 1 Samuel where David kills Goliath. These 4 men were not killed by David's sling, but by David's men (beyad avedav) as well as "by his hand".


So which is it:

1. The five stones in David's pouch in 1 Samuel symbolize the future fights by David against the Philistines.
a. The real David had five stones, and they predicted his wars as a king and the further slaying of Philistines, not just Goliath.
b. The author of 1 Samuel introduced this detail to announce the future war.
In any case, it's not a case of David getting five headshots.

2. Goliath the Gittite is in fact the "real Goliath"-- conflated with the nameless six-digits-on every-extremity giant, also from Gath-- and his slaying did occur, but only after David became king; the story was later shifted back to before David became king, as a symbol of David's destiny and the divine favour that he enjoyed. (I suppose this has been noted before, but I don't what the commentaries say on this). Again, no five headshots, but just a story that's been transposed. Perhaps the five stones symbolize, consciously or no, the "future" fights against Philistines when David is king (which is in fact the real context when these killings occurred).

I've not read the book you recommend, Dan. My view ? It's a realistic detail-- what a slinger would do (five stones as a good tactical load for a fight-- this only makes the splendid accuracy of the shot the more striking, and the more impressive as a sign of divine favour; of course, this does contradict the confidence with which David speaks to Goliath, but this very mystery, of the contrast between human precaution and inspired speech is religiously meaningful and challenging);

-- later commentators on the bible, trying to make sense of this, think of the passage in 2 Samuel, and intepret it symbolically.

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