Now David was the son of that Ephrathite of Bethlehem whose name was Jesse — the introduction of David comes with deliberate anonymity and obscurity, his father Jesse identified only by genealogical convention. *Ephratah* (Ephrath) is the ancient name for the Bethlehem region, suggesting both rural marginality and the patriarchal tradition (Bethlehem is Rachel's burial place in Genesis 35). Jesse (*Yishai*) appears in genealogies but has no narrative significance in his own right; his importance lies solely in fatherhood, in being the conduit through which David arrives. The very ordinariness of this introduction—contrasted with Goliath's spectacular emergence—prepares for the reversal: the great shall be humbled, the small exalted.

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