The Banjo Bible

“Now Jesse said to his son… ‘Take this Ephah of roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread for your brothers and hurry to their camp…They are with…all the men of Israel in the valley of Elah, fighting against the Philistines.’” 1 Samuel 17:17-19

There came a youngster to Elah’s mound,
To Elah’s mound when the sun was low,
And he carried supplies to help the crown
In a looming war with a bitter foe.|
But the lad would take the rivals down –
Those godless rivals on Elah’s mound.

A giant – Goliath – was on the banks,
On Elah’s banks, when the talk was high.
He taunted the men of Israel’s ranks
To send a soldier out to try
And battle him down to the stony ground –
The stony gravel of Elah’s mound.

Well they saw the giant from head to heel
Was nine feet tall, and he carried a spear,
And a soldier ahead of him bore a shield,  
And neither revealed any hint of fear.
And the Jewish hearts began to pound
With terror wide on Elah’s mound.

Goliath laughed at their hopes o’erthrown,
But the boy advanced like a warrior King.
Then out of his pouch he fetched a stone,
And felled him dead with a perfect sling.
He’d trusted God to bring him down –
The God who reigned on Elah’s mound.

§ One Response to “Been there before”

• banjobible says:

  July 26, 2012 at 9:22 pm

  This poem is based on 1 Samuel 17:1-50. I’m not sure the word ‘mound’ really captures the fact that the battle occurred in a valley, but using it allowed me to retain the same sound at the end of each line as in the original ‘Been there before’.