Goliath

In 1 Samuel 17, Goliath of Gath is the Philistine champion who challenges Israel to single combat. The young David kills him with a sling stone and cuts off his head. The standard Hebrew text gives his height as six cubits and a span, roughly 2.9 metres, but the oldest manuscript of Samuel among the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Greek Septuagint give four cubits and a span, about 2 metres: very tall, but human.

The Bible places Goliath in a longer story about giants. Joshua 11 says the Anakim survived only in Gaza, Gath and Ashdod, and 2 Samuel 21 describes more giants from Gath, including a man with six fingers on each hand. Read together, these passages connect Goliath to the Anakim and, through them, to the Nephilim. 2 Samuel 21:19 credits another warrior, Elhanan, with killing Goliath, and some scholars think the story was later transferred to David.

Excavations at Tell es-Safi, biblical Gath, found a short inscription with names similar to Goliath, suggesting the name fits a real Philistine setting.