And David was the youngest — David's age (*ha'qaton*, the small one) is emphasized here as it will be throughout the narrative, a perpetual juvenility that paradoxically becomes strength. In ancient Near Eastern literature, the youngest son often proves wisest, often becomes the heir; David fulfills this archetypal pattern. Youth implies physical vitality but also spiritual openness, the absence of the cynicism and fear that calcify in adults. His youth also means he has not yet internalized the limitations that older soldiers accept as realistic; he operates in a different epistemic register, one where faith is not yet contradicted by accumulated disappointment.

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