44 The Philistine said to David, "Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the sky, and to the animals of the field."
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
Come to me, and I will give thy flesh - He intended, as soon as he could lay hold on him, to pull him to pieces.
And the Philistine said to David, come to me,.... He seems to have stood still, disdaining: to take another step towards such a pitiful combatant, and therefore bids him come up to him, and he would soon dispatch him; unless he said this, because David was light and nimble, and he heavy and unwieldy because of his bigness, and the burden of armour on him, and therefore could not make such haste as he wished to destroy his adversary, of which he made no doubt:
and I will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the field; the wild beasts he means; though Jarchi thinks he spoke improperly, since it is not the way of the beasts of the field, as sheep, oxen, &c. to devour a man, or even to eat any flesh; and therefore he observes, when David comes, he uses another word, which signifies the wild beasts of the earth, and so we render it, 1-Samuel 17:46; but Kimchi shows that even these are comprehended in the word here used, see Isaiah 18:6.
*More commentary available at chapter level.