Paul Kretzmann Commentary - 1 Samuel 13:17 - 13:23

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Paul Kretzmann Commentary - 1 Samuel 13:17 - 13:23


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The Oppression of the Philistines

v. 17. And the spoilers,
soldiers to whom was assigned the task of plundering and devastating the land of Israel, came out of the camp of the Philistines in three companies. One company turned unto the way that leadeth to Ophrah, unto the land of Shual, toward the northeast, through the territory of Benjamin and Ephraim;

v. 18. and another company turned the way to Beth-horon,
toward the west; and another company turned to the way of the border that looketh to the Valley of Zeboim toward the wilderness, in a southeasterly direction.

v. 19. Now, there was no smith found throughout all the land of Israel; for the Philistines said, Lest the Hebrews make them swords or spears;
so the Philistines had removed all smiths out of the whole country;

v. 20. but all the Israelites went down to the Philistines to sharpen every man his share, and his coulter, and his ax, and his mattock.
So all the agricultural implements which the Israelites used, plowshares, hoes, axes, were sharpened by Philistine smiths, upon whom the subject people were altogether dependent.

v. 21. Yet they had a file for the mattocks, and for the coulters, and for the forks, and for the axes, and to sharpen the goads.
The verses have lately been rendered: "But all the Israelites went down to the Philistines to sharpen every man his plowshare, and his ax, and his adze, and his hoe, and the price was a pim for the plowshares, and for the axes, and for the three-tined forks, and for the adzes, and for the setting of the goads. " Whenever the implements became dull and needed sharpening, and whenever the ox-goads needed new setting, it was necessary to make the trip to the lowlands occupied by the Philistines, who permitted the Hebrews to carry on the tillage only of the highlands and of the valley of the Jordan, and incidentally charged the Israelites a high price for all the work done by them. 3)

v. 22. So it came to pass in the day of battle,
which is described in the next chapter, that there was neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the people that were with Saul and Jonathan, they were unprovided with real weapons of war, being dependent upon their farm implements for arms against the enemy; but with Saul and with Jonathan, his son, was there found, they were the only ones that had real weapons.

v. 23. And the garrison of the Philistines,
a post or vanguard from the main army, went out to the passage, or pass, of Michmash, as a protection against the Israelites, who might otherwise have slipped up through some of the valleys converging at this point and surprised the Philistine camp. The invariable result of forsaking the Lord is distress and tribulation, the object of such visitations being to cause the backsliders to repent of their sins and to place their full reliance upon the Lord.