This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and remove your head from you — David's prophecy (*YHWH yisgarcha b'yadi*) assumes victory with absolute certainty, speaking of it as already accomplished in the divine will. The verb *v'higatti*, I will strike, is not conditional but declarative, asserting that the outcome is determined not by the relative strength of warriors but by divine decree. The removal of Goliath's head and the scattering of his body to the birds and beasts inverts his own threat: instead of David becoming carrion, Goliath will become a monument to divine judgment. The corpse displayed without burial becomes a sign to all nations of the LORD's power.

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