Why did David take the severed head of Goliath to Jerusalem (1 Sam.17:54)? ......This is a real WHY? teaser.
I had found this answer to your question on the internet, and the answer was that David showed the head to King Saul, but it did not give me a scriptural reference and so I figured that answer had to be near the reference you had given, and it was.
Why did David take Goliath's head to Jerusalem
1 Samuel 17:[SUP]
54 [/SUP]
And David took the head of the Philistine, and brought it to Jerusalem; but he put his armour in his tent. [SUP]
55 [/SUP]And when Saul saw David go forth against the Philistine, he said unto Abner, the captain of the host, Abner, whose son is this youth? And Abner said, As thy soul liveth, O king, I cannot tell. [SUP]
56 [/SUP]And the king said, Enquire thou whose son the stripling is. [SUP]
57[/SUP]
And as David returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, Abner took him, and brought him before Saul with the head of the Philistine in his hand. [SUP]
58 [/SUP]And Saul said to him, Whose son art thou, thou young man? And David answered, I am the son of thy servant Jesse the Bethlehemite.
Reads to me that verse 54 tells us that David took the head of the Philistine to Jerusalem and the following verses gave the background as to why, since David brought that same head of the Philistine to King Saul.
The Jebusites inhabited Jerusalem at that time. David's first act as king was to take the city from the Jebusites (2 Sam. 5). But why did he take the head there a decade before he became king? He wouldn't have taken it into the city.
2 Samuel 5:[SUP]
4 [/SUP]David was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years. [SUP]
5 [/SUP]In Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months: and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty and three years over all Israel and Judah.
[SUP]6 [/SUP]And the king and his men went to Jerusalem unto the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land: which spake unto David, saying, Except thou take away the blind and the lame, thou shalt not come in hither: thinking, David cannot come in hither. [SUP]
7 [/SUP]Nevertheless David took the strong hold of Zion: the same is the city of David. [SUP]
8 [/SUP]And David said on that day, Whosoever getteth up to the gutter, and smiteth the Jebusites, and the lame and the blind that are hated of David's soul, he shall be chief and captain. Wherefore they said, The blind and the lame shall not come into the house. [SUP]
9 [/SUP]
So David dwelt in the fort, and called it the city of David. And David built round about from Millo and inward.
It is possible that King Saul was there at Jerusalem at the time but not as reigning from there. From what I gather, King Saul had seen David go up against the Philistine from there from which King Saul had made his inquiry from far away.
The Jebusites inhabited the land of Jerusalem where King David conquered & inhabited the fort on that land which he continued to build from that fort on that land the city of David which I reckon, in and of itself became the city of Jerusalem from what was originally the land of Jerusalem. So when I apply 1 Samuel 17:54, I have to read it as David taking it to the land of Jerusalem; not the city of Jerusalem, in order to see King Saul. When King David took that fort in the land of Jerusalem, it became the city of David and he continued to build the walls making that fortress city bigger from which I gathered that it became the city of Jerusalem.
It is mere speculation on my part from what has been written, but it seems to be the reason why which was to bring the head of the Philistine to King Saul whom had requested to see him which placed King Saul in the land of Jerusalem at the time. The head was proof to King Saul that David was the one he was inquiring about.