Then David ran, stood over the Philistine, took his sword, drew it out of its sheath, killed him, and cut off his head with it. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled.
World English Bible
1 Samuel 17:51
This verse is examined in more than one Scripture Analysis section. Each lens is shown on its own terms, in the section's own words; GEBible reaches no verdict of its own.
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WEB World English Bible Public Domain ✓ - Modern English
- BSB Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
- LSV Literal Standard Version A modern, highly literal translation (2020) · CC BY-SA 4.0
- ULB Unlocked Literal Bible An open-licensed literal translation produced for translators · CC BY-SA 4.0
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- MSB Majority Standard Bible A modern translation of the Majority/Byzantine text — the Berean counterpart to the critical-text BSB · Public Domain
- TCENT Text-Critical English New Testament A modern reasoned-eclectic New Testament (2022) · CC BY 4.0
- F35 Family 35 New Testament Wilbur Pickering's Byzantine-priority New Testament, with text-critical commentary notes · CC BY-SA 4.0
- OJB Orthodox Jewish Bible A Messianic-Jewish English Bible using transliterated Hebrew names and terms · CC BY 4.0
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- KJV King James Version Public Domain
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- DRA Douay-Rheims (1899) An English Catholic translation from the Latin Vulgate · Public Domain
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- DBY Darby Bible A literal 19th-century translation by J. N. Darby · Public Domain
- WBT Webster's Bible Noah Webster's 1833 modernization of the King James Version · Public Domain
- TYNDALE Tyndale New Testament (1534) The pioneering early-modern English New Testament (New Testament only) · Public Domain
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- LEESER Isaac Leeser Tanakh (1853) The first Jewish English translation of the Hebrew Bible (1853, Old Testament only) · Public Domain
- KJVCP KJV Cambridge Paragraph Bible David Norton's critical Cambridge edition of the King James Version, set in paragraphs · Public Domain
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Contradictions (3)
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
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How did David kill Goliath?
1 Samuel 17:49-50 says David killed Goliath with a sling and a stone and that "there was no sword in the hand of David." The very next verse, 1 Samuel 17:51, has David running over, drawing Goliath's own sword, and killing him with it.
Critical scholarship: Widely regarded as a genuine contradiction.
Historical detail
More on this question
The proposed answers and sources for each reading are on the question page.
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Who killed Goliath?
1 Samuel 17 credits David with killing Goliath of Gath. 2 Samuel 21:19 says Elhanan son of Jaare-oregim killed Goliath the Gittite, identifying Goliath specifically by the same weapon-description ("the staff of whose spear was like a weaver's beam") used for Goliath in 1 Samuel 17:7.
Critical scholarship: Widely regarded as a genuine contradiction.
Historical detail
More on this question
The proposed answers and sources for each reading are on the question page.
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Who did Elhanan kill?
2 Samuel 21:19 says Elhanan son of Jaare-oregim killed Goliath the Gittite — the same Goliath whom 1 Samuel 17 credits David with killing. 1 Chronicles 20:5 says Elhanan son of Jair killed Lahmi the brother of Goliath.
Critical scholarship: Widely regarded as a genuine contradiction.
Historical detail
More on this question
The proposed answers and sources for each reading are on the question page.
Each section sets the viewpoints side by side; you weigh the evidence. Here, "critical scholarship" means academic study, not a value judgment. How this is built →
Other verses examined for the same kind of question or claim
Within each section, grouped by shared field or question type — not a cross-section comparison.
One of these tensions involves a difference in wording across manuscripts or translations. Examine the original language on Lemma →
Cite this page
This citation refers to this GEBible page — the verse and the analysis gathered here. To cite the underlying scholarship, cite those sources directly.
"1 Samuel 17:51 — Scripture Analysis" GEBible, https://gebible.app/analysis/verse/1-samuel/17/51?version=WEB (retrieved 26 August 2026).