And the men of Israel said, “Have you seen this man who is coming up? Surely he is coming up to reproach Israel. And it will be that the king will enrich the man who strikes him down with great riches and will give him his daughter and make his father’s house free in Israel.”
1 Samuel 17:23 As he was speaking with them, behold, the champion, the Philistine from Gath named Goliath, was coming up from the battle lines of the Philistines, and he spoke these same words; and David heard them.
1 Samuel 17:24 Now all the men of Israel saw the man, and they fled from him and were greatly afraid.
1 Samuel 17:25 And the men of Israel said, “Have you seen this man who is coming up? Surely he is coming up to reproach Israel. And it will be that the king will enrich the man who strikes him down with great riches and will give him his daughter and make his father’s house free in Israel.”
1 Samuel 17:26 Then David spoke to the men who were standing by him, saying, “What will be done for the man who strikes down this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should reproach the battle lines of the living God?”
1 Samuel 17:27 And the people spoke to him in accord with this word, saying, “Thus it will be done for the man who strikes him down.”
The verse centers on "israel", "said", "seen", "coming", "surely", and "reproach". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "israel" and "said", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.
The nearby context moves from verse 24's "Now all the men of Israel saw..." into verse 26's "Then David spoke to the men who...", so "israel" and "said" belong inside that flow. In 1 Samuel context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.
A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "israel" and "said" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.