And the Philistines stood on a mountain on the one side, and Israel stood on a mountain on the other side: and [there was] a valley between them.
Ver. 3. And the Philistines stood on a mountain, &c.] Thus the two armies stood long facing one another; expecting who should begin, and waiting for advantages. In like sort when the Caliph of Egypt came against Baldwin II, king of Jerusalem, both the armies lay the one facing the other for three months' time, and then rose, - the Christians fearing the multitude of the Turks, and the Turks the valour of the Christians, - and so returned without any notable thing done. a And so they might have done here, had not David undertaken the giant.
a Turk. Hist., fol. 27.