The Boy Warrior - Season 1 - Episode 4

4 years ago

The Boy Warrior - Season 1 - Episode 4

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That was when David heard it. A sound of steel rattling together, so loud that it was like a thunderclap. He listened, and he heard it again. And again.Boom-boom boom-boom. He stood up on the bench, and he saw rows upon rows of spears, bobbing up and down with the steps of the men who held them.

The Israelite army was marching to war.
David soon saw the baggage attendant.
“Hold it,” the man said. “Who goes there?”
“David, son of Jesse, of the king’s court,” he said hurriedly.

“The cart?” the attendant asked.
“Supplies. For my brothers.”

The man nodded and came up and took the reins, leading the mule toward the baggage tent. David jumped down off the cart and took off through the streets of the tent city.
“Where are you going, boy?” he heard the attendant shout.
“Coming,” he called back as he ran.
David ran on through the alleys of the drab brown military tent-settlements, following the slope of the mountain. He passed a street at whose far left end he saw a beautiful, sprawling tent he assumed would be the king’s. He noticed the guards manning the perimeter of the huge tent out of the corner of his eye. One of the guards looked at him as he ran past. Definitely the king’s.

He soon crossed the last line of tents and came face to face with a stone wall about three cubits high. Not a wall of hewn stones held together with mortar like the city walls off to the west, but a wall of stones piled atop each other, stretching across the tentline to east and west. Most likely a point of cover for archers, David thought, though there were no archers in sight. He hopped the wall and continued running.

The slope of the mountain was steeper once past the wall. And the thunderclaps were louder now. Much louder. The stretch of ground between the stone wall was a mass of tortured earth, with clods of grass and earth torn up by the footsteps of the Israelite army marching steadily downward.

And David saw what made the noise like thunder. Their footsteps.Left-right left-right left-right.Boom-boom boom-boom boom-boom. Hundreds of men all marching as one, the tips of their spears bobbing up and down. David heard Abner, the chief of King Saul’s army, shouting orders up and down the ranks.

But the Israelite army weren’t the only ones moving. Across the Valley of Elah, on the other mountain, the Philistine army marched steadily down the steep decline, so far away that he couldn’t hear them.

Something happened as the men neared the valley. Two lines of soldiers stayed back, while the others continued marching downward. David, throwing caution to the wind now, ran all the way down until he was right behind the last line of soldiers. He stopped right behind a man he had seen many times in the barracks.
“David?” The man asked in surprise when he turned around and saw him. “What are you doing here?”

“I came to look for my brothers,” he said, looking up and down the line of still-standing soldiers, some of whom were now talking.
“No,”the soldier said. “They are in the vanguard.” He nodded toward the soldiers still marching down the mountain.

They were already near the valley when David saw it. On the Philistine side, something huge was making its way down to the valley. No, not something, as he realized when he looked closer. Someone. He had thought it was a battering ram, but surely battering rams didn’t have two legs or wear helmets or coats of mail.

The giant— which was David’s opinion of the man, whoever he was —ran all the way to the front of the Philistine army. There was a shield-bearer before him, carrying a shield so large that he was completely hidden behind it.
“HALT!” Abner’s voice boomed across the mountainside. The Israelite army stopped marching at once.

The huge Philistine was wearing a shirt of mail of copper links, like the one the king had, except this one was nearly thrice as big. He roared, reminding David of the lion he had once killed who took a lamb from his flock.
“Why have you come out to draw up in battle formation?” he thundered in a voice so deep and loud it seemed to come from the heavens themselves. “Am I not the Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourself, and let him come down to me. If he is able to strike me down, we will then become your servants. But if I prevail against him, you will become our servants and serve us.”
The giant paused, and, in a way, the silence was even more menacing than his voice.
“I do taunt the battle line of Israel this day. Give me a man, and let us fight it out!”