Therefore David ran, and stood upon the Philistine, and took his sword, and drew it out of the sheath thereof, and slew him, and cut off his head therewith. And when the Philistines saw their champion was dead, they fled.
Cut off his head - not as an evidence of the giant's death, for his slaughter had been effected in presence of the whole army, but as a trophy to be borne to Saul. The heads of slain enemies are always regarded in the East as the most welcome tokens of victory. But the Israelites were not in the habit of mutilating the corpses of their slain enemies; and there is no evidence that they did so on this occasion to the other soldiers of the Philistines. But Goliath was not an ordinary enemy, nor did he fall in the ordinary fight. He fell by Yahweh's special interposition; and the head of the Philistine giant was to be kept, doubtless after embalmment, as a memento of a great national deliverance, as well as a memorial to David of God's favour to him.