In what book of the Bible does the story of David and Goliath happen?
Goliath
Goliath[lower-alpha 1] is described in the biblical Book of Samuel as a Philistine giant defeated by the young David in single combat. The story signified Saul's unfitness to rule, as Saul himself should have fought for the Kingdom of Israel.[1]
The Samuel Scroll
With the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in which the manuscript containing 1 Samuel 17:4 is found in original Hebrew and can be dated to over 1000 years before the Masoretic Text, the height of Goliath as four cubits and one span is not only a confirmation of the readings in the original Septuagint and in Josephus, but is also a far more reasonable height for a man and not a medical impossibility. As time went on, the ancient narratives became more exaggerated as the passage was copied and recopied many times. Even in later Septuagint manuscripts, Goliath’s height is recorded as "five cubits" and in an even later manuscript as "six cubits", exemplifying how ancient narratives were sometimes exaggerated as they were retold and rewritten by narrators or scribes. Perhaps the story of a young and unarmored David defeating a mighty Philistine warrior would have seemed all the more miraculous the taller Goliath was, contributing to an even more heroic image of David as a leader later on in life as he put his faith in God and defeated countless adversaries. With David being a key character in the narrative of Scripture, such exaggeration in the telling of this story is understandable.