And David ran and stood upon the Philistine and took his sword and drew it out of its sheath and killed him and cut off his head with it — David's *va'yigzor*, cut off his head, completes the prophetic word of verse 46; the threat that Goliath had made—exposure of the corpse to birds and beasts—is visited upon the giant himself. The taking of Goliath's *cherev*, sword, transforms the giant's own weapon into the instrument of his defeat and humiliation. This action is not mere desecration but theological statement: Goliath is deprived of the dignified burial that would allow entry into the ancestral realm.

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

Publish a note on this verse