Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - 1 Samuel 13:19
There was no smith - This was the result of the fierce inroads described in the preceding verses, and the method adopted to make the Philistine conquests permanent. read more
There was no smith - This was the result of the fierce inroads described in the preceding verses, and the method adopted to make the Philistine conquests permanent. read more
The best rendering of the passage is perhaps as follows: “But all the Israelites went down to the Philistines to sharpen etc. 1 Samuel 13:21, whenever there was bluntness of edge to their shares and coulters and prong-forks and axes, and to point their goads.” Coulters and mattocks were cutting instruments of the type of the share. read more
1 Samuel 13:19. There was no smith found throughout all the land of Israel To this miserable condition the Philistines had reduced them during the forty years’ tyranny which they exercised over them, as we read Judges 13:1. But after Samuel had put an end to that tyranny, by the great overthrow which he gave the Philistines at Eben-ezer, it seems something strange they had not restored their artificers. But the sloth of the Israelites appears in their whole story: and it was not easy, in so... read more
1 Samuel 13:20-21 . The Israelites went down to the Philistines Not to the country of the Philistines, for that was too far from many parts of the land of Israel; but to their garrisons, which they held among them even after Samuel had driven the main body of them out of the country. In these, it seems, the Philistines kept all the smiths, and there they allowed them to exercise their art for the uses following. Yet they had a file, &c. They were allowed some proper instruments and... read more
War against the Philistines (13:15-14:46)After Samuel left Gilgal, Saul took his troops and joined with the other section of the Israelite army, which was under Jonathan. Together they prepared for the battle against the Philistines (15-18). The Philistines were confident of victory, partly because for many years they had so controlled metal-working activities in the area that the Israelites owned hardly any weapons. This enabled the Philistines to raid throughout Israel without fear of strong... read more
no smith . This explains why Ehud had to make his own dagger (Judges 3:16 ); why Shamgar had only an ox-goad (Judges 3:31 ); why Samson "had nothingin his hand" (Judges 14:5-6 ); and why "not a shield or spear among 40,000 in Israel" (Judges 5:9 ). In other days we read of how many "drew sword". land. Some codices read "bounds". read more
coulter . Anglo-Saxon = a cutter; hence, a plough-share. mattock = a kind of pickaxe, with broad instead of pointed ends. read more
CONFISCATING THE WEAPONS OF ISRAEL"Now there was no smith to be found throughout all the land of Israel; for the Philistines said, "Lest the Hebrews make for themselves swords or spears"; but every one of the Israelites went down to the Philistines to sharpen his plowshare, his mattock, his axe, or his sickle; and the charge was a pym for the plowshares and for the mattocks, and a third of a shekel for sharpening the axes and for setting the goads. So on the day of the battle, there was neither... read more
1 Samuel 13:20. All the Israelites went down to the Philistines— That is, all the men of Israel went to such garrisons of the Philistines as were placed in their land; for we are not to suppose, that the Israelites went, for this purpose, into the country of the Philistines. This particular appears to have been mentioned to shew the interposition of God, and to magnify the greatness of the victory in consequence. See Judges 5:8; Judges 20:15-16. read more
The Pulpit Commentary - 1 Samuel 13:21
A file. Margin, a file with mouths. The word only occurs here, and is translated a file on the authority of Rashi. Almost all modern commentators agree that it means bluntness, and that this verse should be joined on to the preceding, and the two be translated, "But all the Israelites went down to the Philistines to sharpen his sickle, and his ploughshare, and his axe, and his mattock, whenever the edges of the mattocks, and the ploughshares, and the forks, and the axes were blunt, and... read more