Bible Study · The Manuscripts Disagree

How Tall Was Goliath?

Two figures survive in the ancient copies, nine feet nine and six feet nine. Both describe a man nobody in that army was willing to fight.

By Pastor Johnny Ova · Sound of Heaven · 11 Min Read

The Short Answer

Two Numbers, Both In The Manuscripts

Straight Answer

Ask how tall was Goliath and the honest answer is that the manuscripts give two figures. Most English Bibles follow the Hebrew text at six cubits and a span, which is about nine feet nine inches.

The oldest surviving Hebrew copy of Samuel, some Greek manuscripts and the historian Josephus all read four cubits and a span instead, which is about six feet nine inches.

Scholars are genuinely split on which came first. We are going to lay out both cases, and then say why the existence of a variant like this is normal rather than alarming.

The Evidence

Which Manuscripts Say What

Six Cubits And A Span

The Masoretic Hebrew text, the Latin Vulgate, the Syriac Peshitta and the Aramaic Targum. This is the reading behind almost every English Bible on a shelf.

Four Cubits And A Span

4QSamuel-a from the Dead Sea Scrolls, which is the oldest Hebrew witness we have for this book, along with some Greek manuscripts and Josephus in the first century.

The case for four

It is attested earliest, it has independent support in Greek and in Josephus, and six feet nine is still extraordinary when the average man was around five foot three.

The case for six

Peter Gurry and John Meade argue that “the nine-nine Goliath is probably more likely original”, since a later scribe had a reason to shrink him and no obvious reason to inflate him.

A cubit

Roughly 18 inches, the forearm from elbow to fingertip. A span is about nine inches, the width of an open hand.

Where that leaves it

Unsettled, and honestly so. Either figure describes a man nobody in that army wanted to fight.

The Other Numbers

What His Equipment Weighed

1 Samuel 17 gives the gear in detail, and the weights are their own kind of evidence about the man carrying them.

The coat of armour

Five thousand shekels of bronze, somewhere around 125 pounds. Worn, not carried, all day, in the heat of the Elah valley.

The spearhead

Six hundred shekels of iron, roughly fifteen pounds, on a shaft the text compares to a weaver's rod. The head alone outweighs a modern sledgehammer.

The shield bearer

He has a man walking in front of him carrying the shield. That is a detail about status as much as about size.

The champion

The Hebrew calls him the man of the between, a representative sent out for single combat so two armies do not have to fight. A known practice.

Takeaway

The equipment fits either reading. What it does not fit is an ordinary soldier, which is the only thing the chapter needs you to believe.

Secure · One-Time, Weekly Or Monthly generosity is worship

Give Now.

Every post here is free to read. If this one helped you, you can help keep it that way. Pick an amount and finish on Stripe's secure checkout.

One-Time

Weekly

Monthly

Choose an amount

$25

$50

$100

$250

$500

Give $100

Secure checkout by Stripe Card, Apple Pay and Link Receipt emailed to you

Already Give Weekly Or Monthly?

Change your amount, update your card, or cancel anytime. Enter the email you give with and Stripe sends you a secure link.

Manage My Giving

"Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver."2 Corinthians 9:7

Saying It Plainly

Manuscripts Differ, And That Is Fine

Some people find it unsettling that two ancient copies of the same verse give different numbers. We think the unsettling part is being taught that this never happens, and then finding out on your own later.

Hand-copied documents accumulate differences. That is a fact about copying, not a fact about God. The reason we can discuss Goliath's height at all is that thousands of manuscripts survive and can be compared, which is exactly how scholars work out what the earliest text said.

The Fragile Version

Teach that every copy is identical, and one honest footnote in a study Bible can knock the whole thing over. We have watched that happen to people.

The Durable Version

Say plainly that variants exist, that almost all are trivial, that the disputed ones are visible in the footnotes of any decent Bible, and that no doctrine turns on any of them.

Where We Stand, Plainly

Scripture is God-breathed and it came to us through real human hands using real ink. Both of those are true at once, and pretending the second one away has never protected anybody's faith. It just delays the crisis.

The second thing worth naming is the giants industry. Goliath gets pulled into material about nephilim bloodlines, suppressed skeletons and hidden hybrid races, none of which is in 1 Samuel. The text calls him a Philistine from Gath and a champion. It shows no interest in his ancestry beyond that, and neither should we.

Why do Bibles give different heights for Goliath?

Translators guessed at the cubit measurement

The manuscripts themselves differ, reading either six cubits and a span or four

Some versions exaggerate for effect

The Masoretic Hebrew text reads six cubits and a span. 4QSamuel-a from the Dead Sea Scrolls, some Greek manuscripts and Josephus read four. Scholars are split on which is earlier, and any decent study Bible carries a footnote about it.

The Chapter

The Height Is Not The Point

Read 1 Samuel 17 looking for what it is arguing and the measurement drops down the list quickly.

The chapter spends forty days on an army doing nothing. Saul, a head taller than every other Israelite and the obvious candidate, stays in his tent. The problem the writer is describing is not a large Philistine. It is a nation that has stopped believing anything about its own God.

“You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty... and all those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves.”

1 Samuel 17:45 and 47

David's speech is not about courage and it is not about his own ability. It is an argument about who God is, delivered to an audience of Israelites who had forgotten. The Philistine is the occasion, not the subject.

One more note, since it comes up. The five smooth stones are often explained as one for Goliath and four for his brothers. 2 Samuel 21 does record other large Philistine warriors from Gath being killed later, but the Bible never calls them his brothers or connects the stones to them. It is a nice sermon and it is an inference.

Where This Lands

Not Your Giants

This chapter gets preached as a motivational template. Identify your giant, pick up your stones, take it down. It is memorable and it inverts the story.

In the text, you are not David. Israel is the audience, standing at the back, frightened, watching somebody else do something they could not. The chapter is not teaching you a technique. It is showing you what happens when one person actually believes what the whole nation claimed to believe.

And David's reasoning is worth copying exactly. He does not say the giant is smaller than he looks. He says the Lord who rescued me from the lion and the bear will rescue me from this Philistine. The size was never in dispute. The comparison was.

So whether he was six nine or nine nine changes nothing about the chapter, which is probably why the writer never told us which one mattered.

The Whole Thing In One Line

The manuscripts read either nine feet nine or six feet nine, scholars are split, the armour fits both, and the chapter is about a nation that stopped believing rather than about a tall man.

If A Question Like This Has Rattled You

Finding out something was more complicated than you were taught is a normal part of growing up in faith, not a sign you are losing it. Send it here and somebody at Sound of Heaven will talk it through with you.