How Tall Was Goliath?
The Masoretic Text says Goliath stood "six cubits and a span," about 9'9". The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Greek Septuagint read "four cubits and a span" instead, closer to 6'9". Scripture never gives their heights, so those four are just estimated for comparison, not scriptural.
3D Model
* Scripture doesn't give a height for Lahmi, Ishbi-benob, Sippai, or the unnamed giant. Those four are estimated for visual scale only, kept below Goliath's Masoretic-Text height. All four were "sons of the giant" of Gath, killed by David's men in 2 Samuel 21:15-22 / 1 Chronicles 20:4-8. Only Lahmi is explicitly named as Goliath's brother in the text.
What's a cubit and a span?
A cubit is about the length of a forearm, elbow to fingertip, roughly 18 inches (45.7 cm). A span is a spread hand, thumb to pinky, about half a cubit, roughly 9 inches (22.9 cm). Neither was pinned to one exact length in the ancient world, so "six cubits and a span" comes out to around 9'9" (297 cm), and "four cubits and a span" to around 6'9" (206 cm). Both are working conversions, not precise measurements.
Two manuscript traditions
The Masoretic Text, the Hebrew tradition behind most English Old Testaments, gives "six cubits and a span". Three older, independent sources disagree, laid out with citations on Wikipedia's Goliath entry: the oldest complete Greek manuscript of Samuel (Codex Vaticanus, 4th century), a Dead Sea Scroll fragment of 1 Samuel (4QSama), and the 1st-century historian Josephus all give "four cubits and a span" instead. That's part of why a number of scholars, and a few modern translation footnotes, take four cubits as the earlier reading and six cubits as a later scribal expansion. It's also possible the shorter number got rounded down by a copyist who didn't buy the taller one. Either way, Goliath comes out well above his contemporaries, who probably averaged around 5'5" for an adult man in the ancient Near East.
Was Goliath really a giant?
A few explanations get argued back and forth:
- The number grew in the telling: oral and scribal traditions have a habit of rounding dramatic numbers upward, and Goliath's height may have picked up a few cubits somewhere along the way.
- A medical condition: pituitary gigantism or acromegaly can produce extreme height along with poor eyesight, which some connect to Goliath needing a shield-bearer to walk ahead of him (17:7) and being slow to notice David's approach (17:41). Robert Wadlow, the tallest person reliably documented in modern history at 8'11", had this same condition, so the biology alone can get someone into this range.
- It runs in the family: Goliath and his kin at Gath are tied to the Rephaim, a lineage elsewhere associated with notable size, including Og of Bashan, whose iron bed measured 9 cubits long in Deuteronomy 3:11, and the Anakim the spies reported in Numbers 13:33 and Deuteronomy 2:10-11, 20-21. On this view the height is a clan trait, not something unique to him.
Scripture doesn't pick one of these for you. All three are later guesses, not anything the text itself claims.
FAQ
- How tall was Goliath in feet?
- It depends which manuscript you trust. The Masoretic Text's "six cubits and a span" works out to about 9'9". The older reading, "four cubits and a span," works out to about 6'9" instead.
- Why do Bibles disagree on Goliath's height?
- The Hebrew manuscript tradition, the Masoretic Text, says six cubits and a span. The earliest Greek translation of Samuel, the Septuagint, a Dead Sea Scroll fragment, and the historian Josephus all say four cubits and a span instead. Most modern translations print the Masoretic six and leave the shorter reading in a footnote, if they mention it at all.
- What is a cubit and a span?
- A cubit is about the length of a forearm, roughly 18 inches (45.7 cm). A span is a spread hand, thumb to pinky, about half that, roughly 9 inches (22.9 cm). Neither was pinned to a fixed modern length, so any conversion is an approximation.
- Did Goliath have a medical condition that made him so tall?
- That's a guess people make, not something the text says. Pituitary gigantism and acromegaly both come up, since they can cause extreme height along with poor eyesight, and some readers tie that to Goliath needing a shield-bearer to walk ahead of him in 1 Samuel 17:7 and being slow to spot David in 17:41.
- Was Goliath the only giant in the Bible?
- No. 2 Samuel 21:15-22 and 1 Chronicles 20:4-8 name four more Philistine giants from Gath, one of them Goliath's own brother. The broader Rephaim and Anakim tradition (Deuteronomy 2:10-11, Numbers 13:33) describes whole peoples said to be unusually large, including Og of Bashan, whose iron bed measured 9 cubits in Deuteronomy 3:11.
