Now Eliab his eldest brother heard when he spoke to the men. And Eliab’s anger was kindled against David, and he said, “Why have you come down? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your presumption and the evil of your heart, for you have come down to see the battle.”
Forty days the two armies lay encamped facing one another, each advantageously posted, but neither forward to engage. Either they were parleying and treating of an accommodation or they were waiting for recruits; and perhaps there were frequent skirmishes between small detached parties.
Commenting on 1 Samuel 17:12-30
And Eliab his eldest brother heard when he spake unto the men,.... Heard the questions he put to them, by which he perceived his inclination: and Eliab's anger was kindled against David; because what he had said carried in it a tacit reproach of him, and others, that they had not the courage, and did not attempt to encounter with the Philistine; or the displeasure...
1Sa 17:28 David’s eldest brother was greatly enraged at his talking thus with the men, and reproved David: “Why hast thou come down (from Bethlehem, which stood upon high ground, to the scene of the war), and with whom hast thou left those few sheep in the desert?” “Those few sheep,” the loss of only one of which would be a very great loss to our family.