Then said David to the Philistine,.... In answer to the contempt he held him in, and to the threatening words he gave him:thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield; the word for "shield" is not the same with that so rendered, 1Sa 17:41; which his armourbearer carried before him, but with that translated a "target", which was between his shoulders, 1Sa 17:6; however, they were all weapons of war, either defensive or offensive:but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied; the Lord of all hosts, in heaven and in earth in general, and in particular the God of the armies of Israel; which he was at the head of, led on, protected and defended, having a kind and merciful regard unto them, and which this Philistine had defied, reproached, and blasphemed; and now David was come, by a commission from this great Jehovah, to vindicate his honour, and to avenge his people on him: he had asked for a man, and now the Lord of hosts, as the Jews observe, comes forth as a man of war, for the battle was his, as in 1Sa 17:47; and David was his messenger, and came in his name, and was the man into whose hands he should be given.
T. Bab. Sotah, fol. 42.