The Sword of Goliath
The sword of the Philistine champion Goliath, taken as spoil after the shepherd David slew him and later kept wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod at the sanctuary of Nob, where the fugitive David received it, saying there was none like it. The weapon is described in the First Book of Samuel, and David's possession of it anchors his kingship narrative in the biblical account, the champion's own blade becoming the king's trusted arm. The Philistine forging of iron in the early Iron Age made such swords prized and rare, which lends the story its realistic edge. Its fate after the reign of David i