Biblical Antiquities of Philo: The Biblical Antiquities of Philo: Chapter LXI

CHAPTER LXI.

LXI. And after these things the Philistines came to fight against Israel. And David was returned to the wilderness to feed his sheep, and the Madianites came and would have taken his sheep, and he came down unto them and fought against them and slew of them 15,000 men. This is the first battle that David fought, being in the wilderness.

2. And there came a man out of the camp of the Philistines by name Golia, and he looked upon Saul and upon Israel and said: Art not thou Saul which fleddest before me when I took the ark from you and slew your priests? And now that thou reignest, wilt thou come down unto me like a man and a king and fight against us? If not, I will come unto thee, and will cause thee to be taken

1 And God sent Cervihel, the angel that is over strength. 6. And David went forth unto Golia and said unto him: Hear a word before thou diest. Were not the two women of whom thou and I were born sisters? and thy mother was Orpha 2 and my mother was Ruth.

Footnotes

234:1 LXI. 5. The Midrash Samuel, quoted by Cohn, says: The five stones which David chose, he took in the name of God, in the name of Aaron the priest, and in the names of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

234:2 6. Orpah is identified in the Midrashim of Ruth and of Samuel (Cohn) with Harapha (2 Sam. 21:18 margin) who was thought to be the mother of giants there mentioned. So, too, in the Quaest. Hebr. in Paral. She also figures as the mother of Ishbi-benob in a tale in the Talmud (Sanhedrin, 95) quoted by Eisenmenger, Entdecktes Judenthum, i. 413. See Introd., p. 60.)