Goliath's height in the manuscripts

textual · Hebrew Bible manuscript tradition

Hebrew and Greek witnesses disagree on Goliath's height: six cubits and a span versus four cubits and a span.

The Masoretic text of 1 Samuel 17 gives Goliath six cubits and a span. The Septuagint, the Dead Sea Scrolls fragment 4QSam-a and Josephus give four cubits and a span. Both figures are textually real; which is earlier is argued among specialists. The point for this archive is that 'nine feet nine' is one manuscript tradition, not a measured skeleton, and that a second tradition places him nearer two metres. See the Goliath entry for the fuller text-critical note.

Sources: 1 Samuel 17 Masoretic text; Septuagint 1 Samuel 17; 4QSam-a; Josephus