Editing Goliath (section)

===Goliath and Saul===
The underlying purpose of the story of Goliath is to show that Saul is not fit to be king (but that David is). Saul was chosen to lead the Israelites against their enemies, but when faced with Goliath, he refuses to do so; Saul is a head taller than anyone else in all Israel (1 Samuel 9:2), which implies he was over {{convert|6|ft|m}} tall and the obvious challenger for Goliath, yet David is the one who eventually defeated him. Also, Saul's armour and weaponry are apparently no better than Goliath's: {{quote|"David declares that when a lion or bear came and attacked his father's sheep, he battled against it and killed it, [but Saul] has been cowering in fear instead of rising up and attacking the threat to his sheep (i.e., Israel)."<ref name="autogenerated2005"/>}}

David's speech in 1 Samuel 17 can be interpreted as referring to both Saul and Goliath through its animal imagery. When this imagery is considered closely, David can be seen to function as the true king who manipulates wild beasts.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Beard |first=Brady A. |date=2020-11-01 |title=Snatched from the hand of a bear : a comparative perspective on the bear in David's speech in 1 Sam 17:34–37 |url=https://journals.co.za/doi/10.10520/EJC-20a3d4d2b9 |journal=Journal of Northwest Semitic Languages |volume=46 |issue=1 |pages=1–20 |hdl=10520/EJC-20a3d4d2b9 }}</ref>