The unheard story of David and Goliath

大卫和歌利亚的故事

by Malcolm Gladwell

So I wanted to tell a story that really obsessed me when I was writing my new book, and it's a story of something that happened 3,000 years ago, when the Kingdom of Israel was in its infancy. And it takes place in an area called the Shephelah in what is now Israel. And the reason the story obsessed me is that I thought I understood it, and then I went back over it and I realized that I didn't understand it at all.

所以我想讲一个故事，当我写我的新书时，我真的着迷了，这是一个3000年前发生的事情的故事，当时以色列的王国还在襁褓中。它发生在一个叫做舍斐拉的地方，在现在的以色列。这个故事让我着迷的原因是我想我理解了它，然后我回到了它，我意识到我根本不理解它。

Ancient Palestine had a -- along its eastern border, there's a mountain range. Still same is true of Israel today. And in the mountain range are all of the ancient cities of that region, so Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Hebron. And then there's a coastal plain along the Mediterranean, where Tel Aviv is now. And connecting the mountain range with the coastal plain is an area called the Shephelah, which is a series of valleys and ridges that run east to west, and you can follow the Shephelah, go through the Shephelah to get from the coastal plain to the mountains. And the Shephelah, if you've been to Israel, you'll know it's just about the most beautiful part of Israel. It's gorgeous, with forests of oak and wheat fields and vineyards.

古巴勒斯坦有一个--沿着它的东部边界，有一个山脉。以色列今天也是如此。在这山上，有那一带的古城，就是耶路撒冷，伯利恒，希伯仑。还有一个沿地中海沿岸的平原，特拉维夫现在在那里。把山脉和沿海平原联系起来，是一个叫做“舍斐拉”的地区，它是一系列东向西的山谷和山脊，你可以跟着它走，从沿海平原到山区去。如果你去过以色列，你就会知道这是以色列最美丽的地方。这里很美，有橡树、麦田和葡萄园的森林。

But more importantly, though, in the history of that region, it's served, it's had a real strategic function, and that is, it is the means by which hostile armies on the coastal plain find their way, get up into the mountains and threaten those living in the mountains. And 3,000 years ago, that's exactly what happens. The Philistines, who are the biggest of enemies of the Kingdom of Israel, are living in the coastal plain. They're originally from Crete. They're a seafaring people. And they may start to make their way through one of the valleys of the Shephelah up into the mountains, because what they want to do is occupy the highland area right by Bethlehem and split the Kingdom of Israel in two. And the Kingdom of Israel, which is headed by King Saul, obviously catches wind of this, and Saul brings his army down from the mountains and he confronts the Philistines in the Valley of Elah, one of the most beautiful of the valleys of the Shephelah. And the Israelites dig in along the northern ridge, and the Philistines dig in along the southern ridge, and the two armies just sit there for weeks and stare at each other, because they're deadlocked. Neither can attack the other, because to attack the other side you've got to come down the mountain into the valley and then up the other side, and you're completely exposed.

但更重要的是，在这个地区的历史上，它的作用是，它具有真正的战略作用，也就是说，它是沿海平原上敌对的军队找到出路的手段，上山去威胁那些住在山里的人。而3000年前，这正是所发生的。非利士人是以色列国最大的敌人，住在沿海平原。它们来自克里特岛。他们是航海的人。他们可以从一个平原的山谷中走到山上，因为他们想做的是占领高地地区的伯利恒，把以色列王国分成两半。以扫罗王为首的以色列国，显然是捕风，扫罗使他的军队从山上下来，在以拉谷与非利士人打仗，一个最美丽的山谷的shephelah。以色列人在北方挖土厄恩里奇和非利士人沿着南部的山脊挖掘，两支军队在那里坐了几个星期，互相凝视着，因为他们僵持不下。也不能攻击对方，因为攻击对方，你必须下山进入山谷，然后在另一边，你完全暴露。

So finally, to break the deadlock, the Philistines send their mightiest warrior down into the valley floor, and he calls out and he says to the Israelites, "Send your mightiest warrior down, and we'll have this out, just the two of us."

最后，为了打破僵局，非利士人将他们最强大的战士送上谷底，他呼唤着以色列子民说：“把你们最强大的战士打倒在地，我们要把这件事解决，就我们两个。”

This was a tradition in ancient warfare called single combat. It was a way of settling disputes without incurring the bloodshed of a major battle. And the Philistine who is sent down, their mighty warrior, is a giant. He's 6 foot 9. He's outfitted head to toe in this glittering bronze armor, and he's got a sword and he's got a javelin and he's got his spear. He is absolutely terrifying. And he's so terrifying that none of the Israelite soldiers want to fight him. It's a death wish, right? There's no way they think they can take him.

这是古代战争中所谓的单一战斗的传统。这是一种解决争端的方式，而不是引发一场重大战争的流血冲突。非利士人被降下来，他们的勇士，就是巨人。他身高6英尺9英寸，他在这个闪闪发光的青铜盔甲上从头到脚，他有一把剑，他拿着标枪，他拿着他的长矛。他太可怕了。他是如此的可怕，以至于以色列的士兵都不想和他作战。这是一个死亡的愿望，对吗？他们不可能认为他们能把他带走。

And finally the only person who will come forward is this young shepherd boy, and he goes up to Saul and he says, "I'll fight him."

最后，唯一能站出来的人就是这个小牧童，他走到撒乌耳跟前，说：“我要跟他打。”

And Saul says, "You can't fight him. That's ridiculous. You're this kid. This is this mighty warrior."

扫罗说，你不能与他打仗。那太荒谬了。你就是这个孩子。这就是这位伟大的战士。”

But the shepherd is adamant. He says, "No, no, no, you don't understand, I have been defending my flock against lions and wolves for years. I think I can do it."

但牧羊人是坚定不移的。他说：“不，不，不，你不明白，我多年来一直在保护我的羊群对抗狮子和狼。”我想我能做到。”

And Saul has no choice. He's got no one else who's come forward. So he says, "All right." And then he turns to the kid, and he says, "But you've got to wear this armor. You can't go as you are."

扫罗也没有选择。他已经没有其他人了。所以他说：“好吧。”然后他转向孩子，他说，“但是你必须穿上这件盔甲。”你不能像现在这样去。”

So he tries to give the shepherd his armor, and the shepherd says, "No." He says, "I can't wear this stuff." The Biblical verse is, "I cannot wear this for I have not proved it," meaning, "I've never worn armor before. You've got to be crazy."

于是他试着给牧羊人披上盔甲，牧羊人说：“不。”他说，“我不能穿这些东西。”圣经中的诗句是：“我不能穿这个，因为我没有证明它，”意思是，“我从来没有穿过盔甲。”你一定是疯了。”

So he reaches down instead on the ground and picks up five stones and puts them in his shepherd's bag and starts to walk down the mountainside to meet the giant. And the giant sees this figure approaching, and calls out, "Come to me so I can feed your flesh to the birds of the heavens and the beasts of the field." He issues this kind of taunt towards this person coming to fight him. And the shepherd draws closer and closer, and the giant sees that he's carrying a staff. That's all he's carrying. Instead of a weapon, just this shepherd's staff, and he says -- he's insulted -- "Am I a dog that you would come to me with sticks?"

于是他在地上爬了下来，捡起五块石头，放进他的牧羊人的袋子里，开始沿着山坡向下走去迎接巨人。巨人看见这人影靠近，就呼叫说：“到我这里来，我好把你的肉喂给天上的飞鸟和田野的走兽。”他对前来与他作战的人发出这种嘲讽。牧羊人越来越近，巨人看到他手里拿着一根拐杖。那是他所有的东西。而不是武器，只是这个牧羊人的工作人员，他说，他被侮辱了，“我是一只狗，你会用棍子来找我吗？”

And the shepherd boy takes one of his stones out of his pocket, puts it in his sling and rolls it around and lets it fly and it hits the giant right between the eyes -- right here, in his most vulnerable spot -- and he falls down either dead or unconscious, and the shepherd boy runs up and takes his sword and cuts off his head, and the Philistines see this and they turn and they just run.

牧童把他的一块石头从口袋里拿出来，放在他的弹弓里，把它滚过来，让它飞起来，然后它就在眼睛之间撞到了巨人的右面--就在这里，在他最脆弱的地方，他倒下了，要么死了，要么失去了知觉，牧童跑了起来，拿起他的剑，砍下了他的头，非利士人看见，就转身逃跑。

And of course, the name of the giant is Goliath and the name of the shepherd boy is David, and the reason that story has obsessed me over the course of writing my book is that everything I thought I knew about that story turned out to be wrong.

当然，巨人的名字叫歌利亚，牧童的名字叫大卫，而故事之所以让我着迷于写我的书的过程，就是我所知道的关于那个故事的一切都是错误的。

So David, in that story, is supposed to be the underdog, right? In fact, that term, David and Goliath, has entered our language as a metaphor for improbable victories by some weak party over someone far stronger. Now why do we call David an underdog? Well, we call him an underdog because he's a kid, a little kid, and Goliath is this big, strong giant. We also call him an underdog because Goliath is an experienced warrior, and David is just a shepherd. But most importantly, we call him an underdog because all he has is -- it's that Goliath is outfitted with all of this modern weaponry, this glittering coat of armor and a sword and a javelin and a spear, and all David has is this sling.

所以大卫，在那个故事里，应该是失败者，对吗？事实上，这个词，大卫和歌利亚，已经进入我们的语言作为一个比喻，不可能的胜利，一些弱党对某人远远强。为什么我们称大卫为失败者？好吧，我们称他为失败者，因为他是个孩子，一个小孩，而歌利亚是这个又大又强壮的巨人。我们也称他为失败者，因为歌利亚是一个有经验的战士，而大卫只是一个牧羊人。但最重要的是，我们称他为失败者，因为他所拥有的一切都是：歌利亚装备了所有这些现代武器，这件闪闪发光的盔甲和一把剑，一支标枪和一支长矛，所有的大卫都是这个弹弓。

Well, let's start there with the phrase "All David has is this sling," because that's the first mistake that we make. In ancient warfare, there are three kinds of warriors. There's cavalry, men on horseback and with chariots. There's heavy infantry, which are foot soldiers, armed foot soldiers with swords and shields and some kind of armor. And there's artillery, and artillery are archers, but, more importantly, slingers. And a slinger is someone who has a leather pouch with two long cords attached to it, and they put a projectile, either a rock or a lead ball, inside the pouch, and they whirl it around like this and they let one of the cords go, and the effect is to send the projectile forward towards its target. That's what David has, and it's important to understand that that sling is not a slingshot. It's not this, right? It's not a child's toy. It's in fact an incredibly devastating weapon. When David rolls it around like this, he's turning the sling around probably at six or seven revolutions per second, and that means that when the rock is released, it's going forward really fast, probably 35 meters per second. That's substantially faster than a baseball thrown by even the finest of baseball pitchers. More than that, the stones in the Valley of Elah were not normal rocks. They were barium sulphate, which are rocks twice the density of normal stones. If you do the calculations on the ballistics, on the stopping power of the rock fired from David's sling, it's roughly equal to the stopping power of a [.45 caliber] handgun. This is an incredibly devastating weapon. Accuracy, we know from historical records that slingers -- experienced slingers could hit and maim or even kill a target at distances of up to 200 yards. From medieval tapestries, we know that slingers were capable of hitting birds in flight. They were incredibly accurate. When David lines up -- and he's not 200 yards away from Goliath, he's quite close to Goliath -- when he lines up and fires that thing at Goliath, he has every intention and every expectation of being able to hit Goliath at his most vulnerable spot between his eyes. If you go back over the history of ancient warfare, you will find time and time again that slingers were the decisive factor against infantry in one kind of battle or another.

好吧，让我们从“所有大卫都是这个吊带”这个短语开始，因为这是我们犯的第一个错误。在古代战争中，有三种武士。有骑兵，骑兵和战车。那里有重步兵，他们是步兵，带着剑和盾牌的步兵，还有一些盔甲。还有火炮和弓箭，但更重要的是，弹弓。还有一个杀手是有一个有两条长绳子的皮革袋子的人，他们把一个弹片，或者一块石头或者一个铅球放在袋子里，他们像这样旋转着，让其中一条绳索离开，效果是将炮弹朝着目标前进。这就是大卫所拥有的，重要的是要明白，吊索不是弹弓。不是这个吧？这不是孩子的玩具。事实上，这是一种令人难以置信的毁灭性武器。当大卫像这样滚动时，他可能会在六点或七点左右转动弹弓.

So what's Goliath? He's heavy infantry, and his expectation when he challenges the Israelites to a duel is that he's going to be fighting another heavy infantryman. When he says, "Come to me that I might feed your flesh to the birds of the heavens and the beasts of the field," the key phrase is "Come to me." Come up to me because we're going to fight, hand to hand, like this. Saul has the same expectation. David says, "I want to fight Goliath," and Saul tries to give him his armor, because Saul is thinking, "Oh, when you say 'fight Goliath,' you mean 'fight him in hand-to-hand combat,' infantry on infantry."

那歌利亚是什么？他是一个重步兵，当他挑战以色列人决斗的时候，他的期望是他将与另一个重步兵战斗。当他说：“到我这里来，我要把你的肉喂给天上的飞鸟和田野的走兽，”关键的话是“到我这里来”。到我这里来，因为我们要战斗，手拉手，像这样。索尔也有同样的期望。大卫说：“我要和歌利亚作战，”扫罗想把他的盔甲给他，因为扫罗在想：“哦，当你说‘打歌利亚’时，你的意思是‘用手打他，用手打他，’用步兵对付步兵。”

But David has absolutely no expectation. He's not going to fight him that way. Why would he? He's a shepherd. He's spent his entire career using a sling to defend his flock against lions and wolves. That's where his strength lies. So here he is, this shepherd, experienced in the use of a devastating weapon, up against this lumbering giant weighed down by a hundred pounds of armor and these incredibly heavy weapons that are useful only in short-range combat. Goliath is a sitting duck. He doesn't have a chance. So why do we keep calling David an underdog, and why do we keep referring to his victory as improbable?

但大卫完全没有期望。他不会那样跟他打。他为什么会这样？他是个牧羊人。他整个职业生涯都是用一个吊索来保护自己的羊群对抗狮子和狼。那就是他的力量所在。因此，他在这里，这个牧羊人，经历了一个毁灭性的武器的使用，对抗这个笨重的巨人的重量下降了100磅的装甲和这些令人难以置信的重型武器是有用的，只有在短程作战。歌利亚是一个坐着的鸭子。他没有机会。那么，为什么我们一直称大卫为一个失败者，为什么我们总是说他的胜利是不可能的呢？

There's a second piece of this that's important. It's not just that we misunderstand David and his choice of weaponry. It's also that we profoundly misunderstand Goliath. Goliath is not what he seems to be. There's all kinds of hints of this in the Biblical text, things that are in retrospect quite puzzling and don't square with his image as this mighty warrior. So to begin with, the Bible says that Goliath is led onto the valley floor by an attendant. Now that is weird, right? Here is this mighty warrior challenging the Israelites to one-on-one combat. Why is he being led by the hand by some young boy, presumably, to the point of combat? Secondly, the Bible story makes special note of how slowly Goliath moves, another odd thing to say when you're describing the mightiest warrior known to man at that point. And then there's this whole weird thing about how long it takes Goliath to react to the sight of David. So David's coming down the mountain, and he's clearly not preparing for hand-to-hand combat. There is nothing about him that says, "I am about to fight you like this." He's not even carrying a sword. Why does Goliath not react to that? It's as if he's oblivious to what's going on that day. And then there's that strange comment he makes to David: "Am I a dog that you should come to me with sticks?" Sticks? David only has one stick.

第二件事很重要这不仅仅是我们误解了大卫和他选择的武器。我们也深深地误解了歌利亚。歌利亚并不是他看起来的样子。在圣经经文中有各种各样的暗示，回想起来很令人困惑，也不符合他这个强大的战士的形象。首先，圣经上说歌利亚被一个随从带到了谷底。这很奇怪吧？这里是一个强大的战士挑战以色列人一对一的战斗。为什么他被一个年轻的男孩牵着手，大概，到了战斗的地步？第二，圣经故事特别说明了歌利亚移动的速度有多慢，当你描述当时人类所知道的最强大的战士时，另一件奇怪的事情就是这样说。还有一件奇怪的事情是，歌利亚要多久才能对大卫的视线作出反应。所以大卫下山了，他显然没有准备格斗。他并没有说：“我要像这样打你。”他连一把剑都没有。为什么歌利亚对此没有反应？好像他忘记了那天发生的事情。然后有一个奇怪的评论他对大卫说：“我是一只狗，你应该来找我用棍子吗？”棍子？大卫只有一根棍子。

Well, it turns out that there's been a great deal of speculation within the medical community over the years about whether there is something fundamentally wrong with Goliath, an attempt to make sense of all of those apparent anomalies. There have been many articles written. The first one was in 1960 in the Indiana Medical Journal, and it started a chain of speculation that starts with an explanation for Goliath's height. So Goliath is head and shoulders above all of his peers in that era, and usually when someone is that far out of the norm, there's an explanation for it. So the most common form of giantism is a condition called acromegaly, and acromegaly is caused by a benign tumor on your pituitary gland that causes an overproduction of human growth hormone. And throughout history, many of the most famous giants have all had acromegaly. So the tallest person of all time was a guy named Robert Wadlow who was still growing when he died at the age of 24 and he was 8 foot 11. He had acromegaly. Do you remember the wrestler André the Giant? Famous. He had acromegaly. There's even speculation that Abraham Lincoln had acromegaly. Anyone who's unusually tall, that's the first explanation we come up with. And acromegaly has a very distinct set of side effects associated with it, principally having to do with vision. The pituitary tumor, as it grows, often starts to compress the visual nerves in your brain, with the result that people with acromegaly have either double vision or they are profoundly nearsighted.

事实上，在过去的几年里，医学界一直有大量的猜测，关于歌利亚是否存在根本性的错误，试图使所有这些明显的反常现象变得有意义。已经写了很多文章。第一个是1960年在印第安纳医学杂志，它开始了一系列的猜测，开始对歌利亚的高度的解释。因此，在那个时代，歌利亚比他所有的同龄人都要长得高，而且通常当有人远离标准时，就有一种解释。因此，最常见的Giantism形式是一种称为肢端肥大症的疾病，肢端肥大症是由脑下垂体的良性肿瘤引起的，导致人类生长激素分泌过多。纵观历史，许多著名的巨人都有过肢端肥大症。因此，所有时间里最高的人是一个名叫罗伯特·瓦德洛的人，他在24岁时去世，享年8英尺11岁。他有ACR欧米茄。你还记得那个摔跤手和巨人吗？很有名。他有肢端肥大症。甚至有人猜测亚伯拉罕林肯有肢端肥大症。任何一个异常高的人，这是我们提出的第一个解释。肢端肥大症有一套非常明显的副作用，主要与视觉有关。垂体瘤，随着它的生长，常常开始压迫你的大脑中的视觉神经，结果是肢端肥大症的人要么有双重视力，要么是极度近视。

So when people have started to speculate about what might have been wrong with Goliath, they've said, "Wait a minute, he looks and sounds an awful lot like someone who has acromegaly." And that would also explain so much of what was strange about his behavior that day. Why does he move so slowly and have to be escorted down into the valley floor by an attendant? Because he can't make his way on his own. Why is he so strangely oblivious to David that he doesn't understand that David's not going to fight him until the very last moment? Because he can't see him. When he says, "Come to me that I might feed your flesh to the birds of the heavens and the beasts of the field," the phrase "come to me" is a hint also of his vulnerability. Come to me because I can't see you. And then there's, "Am I a dog that you should come to me with sticks?" He sees two sticks when David has only one.

因此，当人们开始猜测歌利亚可能出了什么问题时，他们说：“等一下，他看起来很像一个有肢端肥大症的人。”这也解释了他那天的行为有多奇怪。为什么他走得那么慢，还得由一个服务员护送下到谷底？因为他不能自己走自己的路。为什么他如此奇怪地忘记了大卫，以至于他不知道大卫不会和他战斗到最后一刻？因为他看不见他。当他说：“到我这里来，我可以把你的肉喂给天上的飞鸟和田野的走兽，”“到我这里来”这句话也暗示了他的脆弱。来找我，因为我看不见你。然后，“我是一只狗，你应该用棍子来找我吗？”他看见大卫只有一根棍子。

So the Israelites up on the mountain ridge looking down on him thought he was this extraordinarily powerful foe. What they didn't understand was that the very thing that was the source of his apparent strength was also the source of his greatest weakness.

于是，以色列人在山脊上俯视着他，以为他是一个非常强大的敌人。他们不明白的是，他明显的力量来源，也是他最大弱点的根源。

And there is, I think, in that, a very important lesson for all of us. Giants are not as strong and powerful as they seem. And sometimes the shepherd boy has a sling in his pocket.

我认为，在这一点上，对我们大家来说是一个非常重要的教训。巨人并不像看起来那么强大和强大。有时那个牧童的口袋里有一个吊带。

Thank you.

谢谢。

(Applause)

（掌声）