"Whose son art thou, thou young man?"--SAMUEL 17:58.
Never was there a more unequal fight than that between David and
Goliath. David five feet high; Goliath ten. David a shepherd boy,
brought up amid rural scenes; Goliath a warrior by profession. Goliath
a mountain of braggadocia; David a marvel of humility. Goliath armed
with an iron spear; David armed with a sling with smooth stones from
the brook. But you are not to despise these latter weapons. There was
a regiment of slingers in the Assyrian army and a regiment of slingers
in the Egyptian army, and they made terrible execution, and they could
cast a stone with as much precision and force as now can be hurled
shot or shell. The Greeks in their army had slingers who would throw
leaden plummets inscribed with the irritating words: "Take this!" So
it was a mighty weapon David employed in that famous combat.
A Jewish rabbi says that the probability is that Goliath was in such
contempt for David, that in a paroxysm of laughter he threw his head
back, and his helmet fell off, and David saw the uncovered forehead,
and his opportunity had come, and taking his sling and swinging it
around his head two or three times, and aiming at that uncovered
forehead, he crushed it in like an egg-shell. The battle over,