After David defeated Goliath and drove the philistines away from the Valley of Elah, he and King Saul returned home. They were met by an array of celebratory women, who joyfully sang,

“Saul has slain his thousands,
And David his ten thousands.” (1 Samuel 18:7)

Saul was ticked. “They have credited David with tens of thousands, but me only with thousands,” he lamented. And from that day forward, Saul’s jealousy burned against David, eventually culminating in the king going mad and committing suicide.

But was Saul even right? Were these singing women really praising David more than Saul?

Outside of the David/Saul debacle, there are only four verses in the scriptures that compare “thousands” (Hebrew “eleph”) to “ten thousands” (Hebrew “rebaba”)—and all are poetry:

• In Deuteronomy 32, Moses sings about how “one could chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight” only through the help of the Lord.
• In Deuteronomy 33, Moses blesses Joseph, prophetically declaring that his two sons will drive their enemies “to the ends of the earth”—the older Manasseh defeating “thousands” and the younger Ephraim overcoming “tens of thousands.”
• The author of Psalm 91 sings that even if “a thousand fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand,” pestilence and destruction “shall not come near you.”
• Micah 6 warns that God will not be pleased with sacrifices of “thousands of rams” and “ten thousand rivers of oil” if His people refuse justice, mercy, and humility.

In all of these verses, it becomes evident that the escalation from “thousands” to “tens of thousands” is poetic way of elevating the point God is making. Furthermore, that escalation often results from additional people joining the cause, even someone younger.

When Manasseh—the older brother—fights against God’s enemies, he overcomes thousands; but when Ephraim—his younger brother—takes up arms at the right side of his eldest brother, their efforts increase tenfold. And how good it is when these brothers dwell together in unity (Psalm 133)!

 When the women sang that Saul had slain thousands and David ten thousands, they weren’t saying, “David is ten times better than Saul”; on the contrary, they were declaring that, because David had joined the king’s cause and because Saul had welcomed this younger man into the family, their joint efforts had increased tenfold. Saul (who himself was a descendant of Benjamin, the younger brother of Joseph), they rejoiced, had defeated their enemies by inviting the next generation to join the work of God!

But Saul couldn’t see this. His pride and his fear blinded him to what was so plain. And for the rest of Saul’s short reign, the tens of thousands of philistines that had been driven to the ends of the earth were allowed to once again invade the land while Saul aimed his spite at David—his spiritual Ephraim.