1 Samuelchapter 13
23 verses · Samuel, Nathan and Gad, by tradition · 10th century BC · History
So it came to pass in the day of battle, that there was neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the people that were with Saul and Jonathan: but with Saul and with Jonathan his son was there found.
Introduction
Samuel, Nathan and Gad, by tradition, History, 1 Samuel Overview.
This chapter belongs to the part of the book that tells how Israel's first king was given and then refused. It was written for readers who knew the Philistines as the power that ruled the coast and pressed into the hills. The king now has a standing army, and the prophet has set him a time to wait. Listen for the reasons Saul gives, each of them sensible on its own terms. Listen also for how the chapter counts his men and their weapons. The verdict given here shapes the rest of the book.
Context
- Who
- Israelites who knew they could not get a plough sharpened without crossing enemy lines
- What
- An account of the Philistine war at Michmash, Saul's offering at Gilgal before Samuel came, and the sentence passed on his dynasty.
- Where
- Gilgal, and Michmash and Geba on either side of a deep ravine in the hills north of Jerusalem.
- When
- About 1048 BC on the traditional reckoning; the regnal formula in verse 1 lacks a number in the Hebrew, so the year is uncertain.
- Why
- To show that Israel's king stood under the prophet's word, and that a reasonable disobedience still cost him the kingdom.
Historical context
Saul holds a standing army for the first time in this chapter, three thousand chosen men divided between himself and his son Jonathan. Samuel is still the prophet he stands under, and the appointment between them was set two chapters earlier at 10:8.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
The time is about 1048 BC, with the caution about the opening verse stated above. The ground is Michmash and Geba, which face each other across a steep gorge in the hills north of Jerusalem. The occasion is Jonathan's strike on the Philistine post at Geba and the host that came up in answer.
There was no blacksmith to be found in Israel, because the Philistines had forbidden it, so farmers went down to Philistine smiths to sharpen ploughshares, mattocks, axes and sickles. The text gives the charge as a pim, a small weight, and stone weights inscribed with that word have been recovered in Israel.
On the day of battle only Saul and Jonathan carried a sword or spear, so an army of farmers with farm implements faced chariots and a professional force. Israelites hid in caves, thickets, rocks, cellars and cisterns, and empty rock-cut cisterns in that limestone country made ready-made hiding places. Kings in the surrounding nations routinely performed sacrifice themselves, while in Israel the offices were separated and the king stood under the prophet's word.
Significance
First hearers knew what it was to be disarmed by a stronger neighbour, and they knew the temptation the chapter describes. When the situation is genuinely desperate and the prophet is genuinely late, a man does the reasonable thing.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
Saul's defence is the most human speech in the book. The people were scattering, Samuel did not come, the Philistines were massing, so he forced himself. Every reason is true, and the verdict is the same.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
How it is read
Rashi is carried here in the Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J., under CC-BY, and Metzudat David at one verse in the Sefaria Community Translation, CC0. The first verse of this chapter is the place where the Hebrew numbers have plainly been damaged in transmission. This site carries the question in its manuscripts section, with the witnesses and their dates, in src/components/book/dossier-content/1-samuel.ts. The Jewish reading takes the verse as it stands. Rashi gives the saying of the Rabbis first, that Saul was "like a one year old, who did not experience the taste of sin", citing Maseches Yoma 22b (Rashi on I Samuel 13:1:1). He offers a second reading, that the phrase marks the first year of the reign, in which Saul chose three thousand men (same ref). Metzudat David says the three thousand were kept "in order to be ready to serve in times of need" (Metzudat David on I Samuel 13:2:1). On the Philistine officer he says they had set a government official over Israel and stationed him there (Rashi on I Samuel 13:3:1). On Israel becoming hateful he gives the sense plainly, that they had come into bad odour with the Philistines (Rashi on I Samuel 13:4:1). On the places he is brief, giving the east of Beth-aven, the thorn bushes and the crossing of the Jordan into Gad (Rashi on I Samuel 13:5:1, 13:6:1 and 13:7:1). They crossed, he says, to escape the Philistines, who were west of the river (Rashi on I Samuel 13:7:1). On the offering Saul made he states the rule that "A non-kohein is permitted to sacrifice on a high place" (Rashi on I Samuel 13:9:1). On Samuel's question he supplies what the prophet meant, that he had said he would come down and offer it himself (Rashi on I Samuel 13:11:1). On Saul's answer he reads the verb as forcing his own will, since his heart told him to wait (Rashi on I Samuel 13:12:1). On the sentence passed he grounds it in the Torah's own rule for a king, that one who turns aside will have a short reign (Rashi on I Samuel 13:14:1). He meets the objection that the rule speaks of a commandment of the Torah rather than of a prophet, and answers it from the same passage (same ref). On the valley of Zeboim he takes the name from the animal it is named for, and gives the Targum and the Rabbis on what that animal is (Rashi on I Samuel 13:18:1). On the want of a smith he says the Philistines had removed the ironworkers from Israel, so that no weapons could be made (Rashi on I Samuel 13:19:1). Israel therefore went down to the Philistines to have mattocks, axes and tools sharpened (Rashi on I Samuel 13:20:1). On the file he describes a tool with many jagged edges, kept by those who found the going down troublesome (Rashi on I Samuel 13:21:1). On the sword and spear found with Saul and Jonathan he says it was by a miracle, and points to Vayikra Rabbah 25:8 (Rashi on I Samuel 13:22:1). On the garrison at the pass he describes the custom of soldiers, a garrison in one place and a raiding party spread out for plunder (Rashi on I Samuel 13:23:1). Radak and Metzudat David comment at four verses, and the corpus holds no English version of either, so they stand as citations. They are Radak on I Samuel 13:1:1, 13:10:1 and 13:17:1, and Metzudat David on I Samuel 13:16:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus records thirty-two rabbinic locators on this chapter, twenty-four of them Midrash and eight Talmud, each a locator without text. The damaged first verse draws eleven of them, the largest cluster in the chapter. They are Ein Yaakov, Yoma 2:3, Jerusalem Talmud Berakhot 4:1:22, Jerusalem Talmud Bikkurim 3:3:16, Jerusalem Talmud Horayot 3:2:13 and Jerusalem Talmud Horayot 3:2:2. The rest are Midrash Shmuel 17:1, Otzar Midrashim, Midrash on Hallel 'Sefer HaMa'asim' 1:12, Pesikta Rabbati, Supplement A 1:4, Seder Olam Rabbah 13:1, Seder Olam Rabbah 13:2 and Yoma 22b:17. Israel becoming hateful draws Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 34:30:3. The hiding in thorn bushes draws Sifrei Zuta; Midrashah shel Lod, Mishnayot in Sifrei Zuta 83. Samuel's question draws Midrash Tehillim 7:20, and Saul's answer draws Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Emor 4:2 and Midrash Tanchuma, Emor 2:1. The rebuke at verse 13 draws Sifrei Devarim 162:2. The sentence that the kingship would not endure draws Midrash Mishlei 20:3, Midrash Tehillim 1:2, Midrash Tehillim 25:3, Midrash Tehillim 62:4, Midrash Tehillim 62:6 and Otzar Midrashim, Midrash on Psalms, Midrash on Psalm 118 5. The valley of Zeboim draws Jerusalem Talmud Challah 4:5:1. The sharpening of the tools draws Bamidbar Rabbah 14:4, Jerusalem Talmud Bava Batra 8:3:1, Jerusalem Talmud Bava Batra 8:3:2 and Pesikta Rabbati 3:1. The sword and spear found with Saul and Jonathan draw Bamidbar Rabbah 10:1, Midrash Shmuel 17:2, Shir HaShirim Rabbah 5:15:1 and Vayikra Rabbah 25:8. The rabbis teach in these places, and this site reports them as their teaching rather than as a rule of the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on I Samuel 13:1:1, 13:3:1, 13:4:1, 13:5:1, 13:6:1, 13:7:1, 13:9:1, 13:11:1, 13:12:1, 13:14:1, 13:18:1, 13:19:1, 13:20:1, 13:21:1, 13:22:1 and 13:23:1, the Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J., CC-BY; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on I Samuel 13:2:1, the Sefaria Community Translation, CC0; Radak, Radak on I Samuel 13:1:1, 13:10:1 and 13:17:1, cited only, no English version in the corpus; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on I Samuel 13:16:1, cited only; MannaFest, the 1 Samuel dossier, src/components/book/dossier-content/1-samuel.ts, for the manuscript witnesses at 13:1, 2026.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Jonathan strikes Geba; the people hide in caves and pits
1 Samuel 13:1-2
The Hebrew of this opening verse is short, and its two numbers are thought damaged, so much that the Septuagint omits the verse. Acts 13:21 gives forty years for Saul's whole reign. Saul divides his standing force, two thousand at Michmash under himself and a thousand at Gibeah under Jonathan, the first sign of the permanent army a king like the nations was expected to keep.
1 Samuel 13:1
“Saul was the son of one year (so the first words are in the original), a phrase which we make to signify the date of his reign, but ordinarily it signifies the date of one's birth, and therefore some understand it figuratively--he was as innocent and good as a child of a year old; so the Chaldee paraphrase: he was without fault, like the son of a year.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Adam Clarke reads the three thousand as a force picked to strike the Philistine garrisons one by one. He thought Saul hoped to take swords and spears from them, the arms verse 22 says Israel lacked. The rest went home.
1 Samuel 13:2
“Two thousand were with Saul - Saul, no doubt, meditated the redemption of his country from the Philistines; and having chosen three thousand men, he thought best to divide them into companies, and send one against the Philistine garrison at Michmash, another against that at Beth-el, and the third against that at Gibeah: he perhaps hoped, by surprising these garrisons, to get swords and spears for his men, of which we find, (1Sa 13:22), they were entirely destitute.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Samuel 13:3-4
Jonathan’s strike on the outpost at Geba is the spark, and Saul’s ram’s horn spreads the news, a relay the older commentators trace town to town. Israel’s report is blunt, "Israel has become a stench to the Philistines," the words of a small people that has provoked an empire. The army gathers at Gilgal, where the kingship was renewed at 11:15, the ground of Saul’s own coronation.
1 Samuel 13:3
“Saul blew the trumpet throughout all the land--This, a well-known sound, was the usual Hebrew war-summons; the first blast was answered by the beacon fire in the neighboring places. A second blast was blown--then answered by a fire in a more distant locality, whence the proclamation was speedily diffused over the whole country.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
1 Samuel 13:3
“Jonathan smote - He appears to have taken this garrison by surprise, for his men had no arms for a regular battle, or taking the place by storm. This is the first place in which this brave and excellent man appears; a man who bears one of the most amiable characters in the Bible.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The report names Saul for the attack Jonathan made at verse 3. Matthew Henry laid the charge on Saul as the prince and father who ordered it. Henry added that nothing makes Israel's name hateful to outsiders so much as fraud among those who bear it.
1 Samuel 13:4
“If it was so, we will lay the blame, not on Jonathan who did it, but on Saul, his prince and father, who ordered him to do it, and perhaps kept him in ignorance of the truth of the matter. Nothing makes the name of Israel odious to those that are without so much as the fraud and dishonesty of those that are called by that worthy name.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Samuel 13:5-7
The Philistine host is "as numerous as the sand on the seashore," and Israel answers by disappearing into caves, thickets, rocks, cellars and cisterns, some crossing the Jordan outright. Saul is left at Gilgal with a shrinking remnant, "all his troops were quaking in fear." That pressure drives his decision two verses later.
1 Samuel 13:5
“Thirty thousand chariots - Probably a copyist’s mistake for 300. (Compare, for a similar numerical variation, 1Ch 18:4 with 2Sa 8:4.) Eastward from Bethaven - Or more simply “to the east of Bethaven,” which Jos 7:2 lay “on the east side of Bethel.” Bethaven (thought to be the same as Deir Diwan) lay between Bethel and Michmash, which had been evacuated by Saul.”
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown describe the hill country near Michmash as full of caves, rocks and dry cisterns, ready hiding places for troops in fear. John Wesley saw in the panic a lesson for a people who had asked for a king. They needed God as much as ever.
1 Samuel 13:6
“Some, in their panic, left the country (1Sa 13:7), but most took refuge in the hiding-places which the broken ridges of the neighborhood abundantly afford. The rocks are perforated in every direction with "caves," and "holes," and "pits"--crevices and fissures sunk deep in the rocky soil, subterranean granaries or dry wells in the adjoining fields.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
1 Samuel 13:6
“And hereby God intended to teach them the vanity of confidence in men; and that they did not one jot less need the help of God now, than they did when they had no king. And probably they were the more discouraged, because they did not find Samuel with Saul. Sooner or later men will be made to see, that God and his prophets are their best friends.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Albert Barnes notes that the text sets these Hebrews apart from the men of Israel who hid at verse 6. Gregory the Dialogist linked them with 14:21, where Hebrews who had gone over to the Philistines return to Saul and Jonathan. Saul kept his post at Gilgal.
1 Samuel 13:7
“The words “some of,” which are the emphatic words in the King James Version, as distinguishing those who crossed the Jordan from those who hid themselves, are not in the Hebrew at all. The “Hebrews” seem to be distinguished from the “men of Israel” in 1Sa 13:6. (Compare 1Sa 14:21.)”
Saul offers what was not his; the kingdom shall not continue
1 Samuel 13:8-9
The appointed time is 10:8, where Samuel told Saul to wait seven days for him at Gilgal. Saul waits out the seven days while his army deserts, and breaks at the edge of the appointed hour, offering the burnt offering himself, a king performing a priest's act. The chapter turns on the space between waiting almost long enough and waiting long enough.
1 Samuel 13:8
“And he tarried seven days, according to the set time that Samuel had appointed,.... He tarried to the seventh day, but not to the end of it, or towards the close of it, as he should have done: but Samuel came not to Gilgal; so soon as Saul expected: and the people were scattered from him; many deserted him, the Philistines drawing nigh, and Samuel not coming, as Saul expected, and had given the people reason to expect.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Samuel 13:8
“He tarried seven days according to the set time - Samuel in the beginning had told Saul to wait seven days, and he would come to him, and show him what to do, 1Sa 10:8. What is here said cannot be understood of that appointment, but of a different one.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Albert Barnes weighed whether Saul offered with his own hand or had the priests offer, as Solomon did. He judged the second more likely, as Samuel's rebuke raises no charge of taking the priest's office, the charge made against Uzziah at 2 Chronicles 26:18. On that reading the sin was disobedience alone.
1 Samuel 13:9
“Saul said, Bring hither a burnt offering to me, and peace offerings--Saul, though patriotic enough in his own way, was more ambitious of gaining the glory of a triumph to himself than ascribing it to God.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
1 Samuel 13:9
“There is a difference of opinion among commentators whether Saul himself offered the sacrifices prepared for Samuel, thus entrenching upon the priest’s office; or whether he ordered the priests to sacrifice, as Solomon did. In the latter case his sin consisted in disobeying the word of God, who had bidden him wait until Samuel came. And this is, on the whole, the more probable; since Samuel’s rebuke says nothing of any assumption of priesthood, such as we read in the case of Uzziah 2Ch 26:18.”
1 Samuel 13:10-12
Samuel arrives just as the offering ends, so the text measures the wait Saul could not finish. Saul's answer stacks three complaints before he names his act: the troops deserting, Samuel's lateness, and the Philistines gathering at Michmash. His own words, "I felt compelled to offer the burnt offering," are those of a man who knew the act was not his to perform.
Samuel knows what Saul has done, and Gregory the Dialogist heard the question as a rebuke in the form of an inquiry. He set it beside the LORD's call to Adam at Genesis 3:9, asked of a man who had just disobeyed. Adam's answer at Genesis 3:12 also laid the fault elsewhere.
1 Samuel 13:11
“He charges him with being an enemy to himself and his interest-- Thou hast done foolishly, and a rebel to God and his government--" Thou hast not kept the commandment of the Lord thy God, that commandment wherewith he intended to try thy obedience." Note, Those that disobey the commandments of God do foolishly for themselves. Sin is folly, and sinners are the greatest fools.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
John Wesley took the phrase as a word for supplication, and drew from it that sacrifice went with solemn prayer. Samuel had done the same before the battle at Mizpah, offering a lamb and crying out to the LORD at 7:9. Saul copied the act without the prophet.
1 Samuel 13:12
“Supplication - Thence it appears, that sacrifices were accompanied with solemn prayers.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 Samuel 13:13-14
Samuel’s verdict, "You have acted foolishly," is the first of two failures the book records against Saul, the second over Amalek in chapter 15. The man "after His own heart" is not yet named, and Acts 13:22 applies the clause to David. The older writers read the lasting kingdom of verse 13 as a real dynasty forfeited or as a long duration, and either way Saul’s line loses it.
1 Samuel 13:13
“Thou hast done foolishly ... - Motives of worldly expediency were not to be weighed against the express commandment of God. All the circumstances and all the dangers were as well known to God as they were to Saul, and God had bidden him wait until Samuel came. Here was exactly the same sin of willful disobedience which broke out again, and was so severely reproved 1Sa 15:17-23.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Samuel 13:13
“For ever - The phrase, forever, in scripture often signifies only a long time. So this had been abundantly verified, if the kingdom had been enjoyed by Saul, and by his son, and by his son's son; after whom the kingdom might have come to Judah.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
a man after his own heart: Adam Clarke read the man after His own heart as a king who kept God's command and ruled Israel as God's deputy. John Wesley answered the charge of a harsh sentence by saying that no sin is little against a great God. Tertullian noted that David too fell later.
1 Samuel 13:14
“The Lord hath sought him a man after his own heart - That this man was David is sufficiently clear from the sequel. But in what sense was he a man after God’s own heart? Answer: 1. In his strict attention to the law and worship of God. 2. In his admitting, in the whole of his conduct, that God was King in Israel, and that he himself was but his vicegerent. 3. In never attempting to alter any of those laws, or in the least change the Israelitish constitution.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
1 Samuel 13:14
“And is it surprising that a person previously of good repute should afterwards fall? Saul, though good beyond all others, was afterwards overthrown by jealousy. David, a good man after the Lord's heart, was afterwards guilty of murder and adultery. Solomon, whom the Lord had endowed with all grace and wisdom, was led by women into idolatry. To remain without sin was reserved for the Son of God alone.”
Tertullian · written before 220 · PRESCRIPTIONS AGAINST HERETICS 3patristic
1 Samuel 13:14
"But was it not hard, to punish so little a sin so severely?" It was not little: disobedience to an express command, tho' in a small matter, is a great provocation. And indeed, there is no little sin, because there is no little God to sin against.
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 Samuel 13:15-16
about six hundred men: Saul counts about six hundred men, a remnant of the three thousand of verse 2 and a fraction of the 300,000 mustered at 11:8. The numbers carry the argument without comment: a king who summoned a nation in chapter 11 now holds a garrison, and the cause named is disobedience, not the enemy’s size. Saul’s camp stands in Benjamin while the Philistines hold Michmash across the pass.
1 Samuel 13:15
Samuel arose - Saul could not return to his own station at Michmash, seeing it was occupied by the Philistines; so, perhaps by Samuel’s advice (since, according to the text, he preceded him there), he effected a junction with Jonathan at Gibeah. Some would read “Saul” instead of “Samuel.”
No smith in Israel: the Philistine hold on iron
Saul, and Jonathan his son: John Gill notes that the Philistines now camp at Michmash, the very ground Saul held at verse 2. At 14:5 the two cliffs of the pass face Michmash and Geba, so the two camps stood on opposite sides of one gorge. The six hundred wait in sight of the enemy.
1 Samuel 13:16
“And Saul, and Jonathan his son,.... Who were now joined to their men, on Saul's coming to Gibeah: and the people that were present with them; the six hundred men before numbered: abode in Gibeah of Benjamin; being perhaps a strong fortified place, not choosing to go forth to meet the army of the Philistines, so vastly superior to them: but the Philistines encamped at Michmash; the old quarters of Saul before he went to Gilgal, 1Sa 13:2.”
1 Samuel 13:17-18
Three raiding companies fan out from the Philistine camp, north to Ophrah, west to Beth-horon, and east toward the Valley of Zeboim, working over the whole hill country at once. Raiders this thorough would sweep up the tools of iron working with the grain, which explains why the next verses find no blacksmith in the land. Michmash sits at the center, the pass the garrison holds into the next chapter.
1 Samuel 13:17
“The spoilers - “The devastator:” the same word is used of the destroying Angel Exo 12:23. The verse describes the system adopted by the Philistines by which for a time they subjugated the Israelites. From their central camp at Michmash they sent out three bands to kill and lay waste and destroy.”
the valley of Zeboim: Albert Barnes notes that the Hebrew word for these raiders is the one used of the destroyer at Exodus 12:23. Matthew Henry saw the raids on every road as Israel's own sin coming home, and he cited Isaiah 42. The raids left the land poor and afraid.
1 Samuel 13:19-21
The Philistine fear is stated as policy, "The Hebrews must not be allowed to make swords or spears," and the older commentators read it as a deliberate embargo. Every plowshare, mattock and axe had to go down to a Philistine smith to be sharpened, at a price verse 21 records. The same disarmed nation stands behind Jonathan’s exploit in chapter 14 and David’s answer to Goliath.
1 Samuel 13:19
“They put down all the smiths' shops, transplanted the smiths into their own country, and forbade any Israelite, under severe penalties, to exercise the trade or mystery of working in brass or iron, though they had rich mines of both ( Deut. viii. 9 ) in such plenty that it was said of Asher, his shoes shall be iron and brass, Deut. xxxiii.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Adam Clarke set this beside the Etruscan king Porsenna, who allowed the Romans to make their own farm tools. The Philistines allowed Israel less. Every plowshare went down to a Philistine smith, who was paid by the price list of verse 21.
1 Samuel 13:20
“But all the Israelites went down to the Philistines - We find from this that they did not grant them as much as Porsenna did to the Romans; he permitted the people to manufacture the implements of husbandry.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Adam Clarke read the Hebrew word here as a file or grindstone, and he noted how widely the versions differ over it. The Berean reads pim, a unit of weight, so the verse sets the charge for each tool the Philistines would sharpen. Israel paid for every edge.
1 Samuel 13:21
“Yet they had a file - The Hebrew פצירה petsirah, from פצר patsar, to rub hard, is translated very differently by the versions and by critics. Our translation may be as likely as any: they permitted them the use of files, (I believe the word means grindstone), to restore the blunted edges of their tridents, axes, and goads.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The verse counts the camp's weapons down to those of Saul and Jonathan, against a Philistine host of thousands. The bow and the sling needed no smith, but on the day of battle only the king and his son carried the sword and spear that close combat required. David will face Goliath with no sword in his hand four chapters later, a chosen weakness where this one is enforced.
1 Samuel 13:22
“So it came to pass in the day of battle,.... When that drew near, and they were called to it, and obliged to fight or flee, or surrender: that there were neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the people that were with Saul and Jonathan: which was not owing to their leaving them behind in the camp, or casting them away from them through fear, as they followed Saul with trembling, but to the cause now mentioned.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Samuel 13:22
“In the day of battle - these was neither sword nor spear - But if the Israelites enjoyed such profound peace and undisturbed dominion under Samuel, how is it that they were totally destitute of arms, a state which argues the lowest circumstances of oppression and vassalage? In answer to this we may observe, that the bow and the sling were the principal arms of the Israelites; for these they needed no smith: the most barbarous nations, who have never seen iron, have nevertheless bows and arrows; the arrow heads generally made of flint.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The verse is a single geographic notice, but it names the exact ground chapter fourteen will use: Jonathan's crossing toward the Philistine post begins at this same passage, between the two sharp rocks the next chapter will name Bozez and Seneh. The garrison holding this pass is the one Jonathan and his armourbearer, the only other blade left in Israel besides Saul's own, will climb up alone to face.
1 Samuel 13:23
“The passage of Michmash - The steep and precipitous path from Michmash to Geba, over the valley of Suweinit. The same term is used in Isa 10:28-29, where the march of the Assyrian army is described.”
How this psalm is built
The form: Narrative prose in one campaign, opened by a regnal formula, turning on a broken appointment, and closed by a report of the arms trade that explains the whole war, as Keil and Delitzsch classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| Michmash held at the opening and held against them at the close | Verse 2 puts two thousand of Saul's men at Michmash and in the hill country of Bethel. Verse 23 ends the chapter with a Philistine garrison gone out to the pass at Michmash. The same ground opens and closes the chapter in the other side's hands, and the reversal is the chapter's whole argument stated as geography.Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Books of Samuel, 1864, on 1 Samuel 13:23. | 1 Samuel 13:2, 1 Samuel 13:23 |
| Where Israel hid | Verse 6 names the hiding places one after another, caves and thickets, among the rocks, and in cellars and cisterns. Verse 7 adds the men who crossed the Jordan out of the country altogether. The list measures the fear rather than the enemy, and it stands immediately before Saul's decision at Gilgal.John Gill, Exposition of the Old and New Testament, 1748 to 1763, on 1 Samuel 13:6 and 7. | 1 Samuel 13:6, 1 Samuel 13:7 |
| The tools carried down to the Philistine smith | Verse 20 lists what an Israelite had to take across the border to have sharpened, plowshares, mattocks, axes and sickles. Verse 21 adds the charge for each job, a pim for the plowshare and the mattock and a third of a shekel for the rest. The list is farm equipment throughout, and the point of it is stated at verse 22, where two swords stand in the whole camp.Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1708 to 1710, on 1 Samuel 13:19 to 21. | 1 Samuel 13:19, 1 Samuel 13:20, 1 Samuel 13:21, 1 Samuel 13:22 |
| The narrator's account and Saul's account of the same days | Verses 5 to 8 report the Philistine host, the scattering of the people and the seven days of waiting. Verses 11 and 12 have Saul report the same three facts back to Samuel in his own defence. Every item in his account is true, and the verdict at verse 13 falls on him anyway, which is how the chapter separates a reason from an excuse.Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1708 to 1710, on 1 Samuel 13:11 and 12. | 1 Samuel 13:5, 1 Samuel 13:8, 1 Samuel 13:11, 1 Samuel 13:12 |
The structure
9 more paragraphs on the patterns
Six units. The regnal formula and the standing army, verses 1 and 2. Jonathan's strike at Geba and the muster at Gilgal, verses 3 and 4. The Philistine host and Israel in hiding, verses 5 to 7. The broken appointment and the verdict, verses 8 to 15. The raiding companies from Michmash, verses 16 to 18. The arms embargo and the two swords, verses 19 to 23.
The army counted down
The chapter's argument is carried by its numbers without a word of comment on them. Saul chooses three thousand men at verse 2. After Gilgal he numbers about six hundred at verse 15. Two chapters earlier he had summoned three hundred and thirty thousand for Jabesh-gilead at 11:8. Keil and Delitzsch and John Gill both read the fall as the text's own verdict, and the cause the chapter names is the disobedience rather than the size of the enemy.
The three companies
Verses 17 and 18 send the raiders out to three points, toward Ophrah in the land of Shual, toward Beth-horon, and toward the border overlooking the Valley of Zeboim. Adam Clarke and Albert Barnes read the arc as a working over of the whole hill country at once, with Michmash at its centre.
The New Testament's use
Samuel tells Saul at verse 14 that the LORD has sought a man after His own heart. Paul quotes the clause of David in the synagogue at Antioch, joining it to Psalms 89:20, at Acts 13:22, and then names Jesus as the promised offspring of that David. The dossier carries the link under its Christ section, and the same speech at Acts 13:21 supplies the forty years this chapter's first verse does not state.
What the chapter hands forward
Verse 22 leaves two blades in Israel, Saul's and Jonathan's. Chapter 14 sends one of those two up a cliff against a garrison. Chapter 17 puts a man with no blade at all in front of a Philistine champion, and the same disarmed nation stands behind both scenes.
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament, 1834 to 1885, on 1 Samuel 13:19 to 22; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Books of Samuel, 1864, on 1 Samuel 13 and the book page's own guide, src/components/book/guides/1-samuel/Book1SamuelGuide.tsx, the act entry for 8:1 to 15:35.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Gregory the Dialogist, Commentary on 1 Kings, Book 5, Chapter 3; Jamieson Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Books of Samuel; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Tertullian, Prescriptions Against Heretics, chapter 3 and W. G. Blaikie, The First Book of Samuel (Expositor's Bible).