What was the shepherd’s bag or pouch?
Then he took his staff in his hand and chose five smooth stones from the brook and put them in his shepherd's pouch. His sling was in his hand, and he approached the Philistine. 1 Samuel 17:40
There seems to be some question as to what it was exactly that David put the five stones into. This is primarily because the Hebrew word used here is only used this one time in the entire Bible. That said, there really isn’t any other reference point that tells us for certain what it was, what it looked like and what it was used for. So, let’s look at what we do know about it.
What We Know
We know David was a shepherd.
We know he had a bag, a pouch, a container of some sort that he carried with him.
We know that David picked up 5 smooth stones from the river bed.
We know that this “bag” was at least large enough to hold those 5 rocks.
We know that the rocks were likely between the size of a golf ball and a tennis ball.
What We Don’t Know
We don’t know what it was made out of.
We don’t know what size it was.
We don’t know if it could have held more than 5 rocks.
We don’t know what else David might have had in it.
We don’t know what David used it for other than carrying rocks.
So where does that leave us? The door is wide open. There is a lot of room for “creative license”. But here is what we have come up with.
The bag that David put the five stones into was most likely a “man purse”. Tunics weren’t known for their pockets. It was used to carry the things that David would have needed daily as he took care of the sheep. He likely got up in the morning, packed his lunch, stuck in some snacks, a little bit of money, maybe a piece of rope that he knew he was going to need to fix something and of course his cellphone. Well, maybe not the cellphone. But it would have had things that he needed for a fairly short trip. It was at least a small version of a travelers bag which would have been used for long trips.
It was likely made out of leather. It had a strap long enough to go over the shoulder and would have been quick and easy to access.
For our exhibit, we went with the one pictured above. Why? Because we know for sure that it was handmade by David himself. Yes, David the Shepherd. We had it custom made to meet the requirements mentioned above. David also made the sling that we have on display. Needless to say, the bag and sling that David used in the Bible are long gone. They would have deteriorated long ago.
Bags of different kinds and their use are mentioned in several passages of the Bible. Here is a list of passages that refer to bags.