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How Tall Was Goliath in the Bible?
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Andrea del Castagno: David with the Head of Goliath
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Andrea del Castagno: David with the Head of Goliath
Andrea del Castagno: David with the Head of Goliath David with the Head of Goliath, tempera on leather on wood by Andrea del Castagno, c. 1450–55; in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. 115.5 × 76.5 cm.

How Tall Was Goliath in the Bible?

Written by
Melissa Petruzzello
Melissa Petruzzello (she/her) is Assistant Managing Editor and covers plants, algae, fungi, insects, spiders, renewable energy and environmental engineering. She also handles certain topics in Christianity,...
Melissa Petruzzello
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Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
Britannica Editors
History

According to 1 Samuel 17 of the Hebrew Bible (which contains a large portion of the Christian Old Testament), Goliath was a heavily armed Philistine giant who challenged King Saul for 40 days to send out a man to fight him. No one would face this intimidating warrior until young David, a shepherd (and future king of Israel), volunteered. Armed only with a sling and a few stones, the brave and godly David hit the giant in the forehead with a stone and killed him.

This biblical underdog story is famous, but just how tall was Goliath? The Bible tells us, kind of. In the New Revised Standard Version, 1 Samuel 17:4 states, “And there came out from the camp of the Philistines a champion named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was four cubits and a span.” A cubit is generally understood to be about 18 inches (45.7 cm), and a span was half a cubit, which would make Goliath 6 feet 9 inches (2.06 meters) tall. So, a sizable man, but not improbably tall. Many NBA players, including Kevin Durant (6 feet 11 inches [2.11 meters]) and the towering Victor Wembanyama (7 feet 4 inches [2.23 meters]), are taller.

However, the four-cubit height is typically accompanied by a footnote that specifies that this number only appears in certain ancient sources, namely the Septuagint (a Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible), some Dead Sea Scrolls, and the writings of Josephus. In contrast, the Masoretic text, the authoritative Hebrew version, describes Goliath’s height as six cubits and a span, which would make him a shocking 9 feet 9 inches (2.97 meters) tall. (For reference, the tallest verified person in history was American man Robert Wadlow, who measured 8 feet 11 inches [2.72 meters] in height.) The six-cubit measurement appears in many translations of the Bible, including the Latin Vulgate and the English King James Version. One number or the other likely represents an unintentional or deliberate scribal change from antiquity (and who knows if either accurately describes a real person), but we’ll leave that speculation to you.

Melissa Petruzzello