1 Samuel 13:22

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.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(22) There was neither sword nor spear.—These words must not be pressed too literally. The general result of the raids alluded to in 1Samuel 13:16-17 was that in the open valleys of Southern Canaan, especially in the Benjamite territory, the districts whence Saul and Jonathan could most easily recruit their thinned and dispirited forces, there was an absence of arms. This fact is especially dwelt upon, for the Philistines appear to have armed their fighting men to the teeth. (Compare the description of their champion, Goliath, who is described as “clad in armour.”)

But with Saul.—These words probably signify that the companies of regulars, who throughout this disastrous period were always with the king and prince, were—in contrast to the country people around—fully armed. (See allusion, for instance, to Jonathan and his armour-bearer in the next chapter.)

Benson Commentary

1 Samuel 13:22. There was neither sword nor spear — This, it seems, must be restrained to the six hundred that were with Saul and Jonathan; for there were, no doubt, a considerable number of swords and spears among the Israelites, but they generally hid them, as now they did their persons, from the Philistines. And the Philistines had not yet attained to so great a power over them as wholly to disarm them, but thought it sufficient to prevent the making of new arms, knowing that the old ones would shortly be decayed and useless. There were likewise other arms more common in those times and places than swords and spears; to wit, bows and arrows, and slings and stones. And besides these, people anciently often used clubs, wherewith to beat down their enemies; and, before the invention of spears with iron points, they had sharp stakes hardened in the fire, as many authors inform us.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

13:15-23 See how politic the Philistines were when they had power; they not only prevented the people of Israel from making weapons of war, but obliged them to depend upon their enemies, even for instruments of husbandry. How impolitic Saul was, who did not, in the beginning of his reign, set himself to redress this. Want of true sense always accompanies want of grace. Sins which appear to us very little, have dangerous consequences. Miserable is a guilty, defenceless nation; much more those who are destitute of the whole armour of God.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

This seems to be mentioned here, in anticipation of the narrative in the next chapter, to enhance the victory gained, through God's help 1 Samuel 14:23, by the comparatively unarmed Israelites over their enemies. What with occasional skirmishes with the Philistines, the necessity of using their arms for domestic purposes, accidental losses, and the ordinary wear and tear, coupled with the impossibility of renewing their arms from the want of smiths and forges, the people that were with Saul and Jonathan came to be very imperfectly armed. It has been observed, moreover, that the Benjamites were more famous for the use of the sling than for any other weapon Judges 20:16, and this would be an additional cause of the paucity of swords and spears.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

21. Yet they had a file—as a kind of privilege, for the purpose of sharpening sundry smaller utensils of husbandry.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Quest. How could the Israelites smite either the garrison of the Philistines, above, 1 Samuel 13:3, or the host of the Ammonites, 1 Samuel 11:11, without arms? And when they had conquered them, why did they not take away their arms, and reserve them to their own use?

Answ. 1. This want of swords and spears is not affirmed concerning all Israel, but is restrained unto those six hundred who were with Saul and Jonathan, whom God by his providence might suffer to be without those arms, that the glory of the following victory might be wholly ascribed to God; as for the very same reason God would have but three hundred men left with Gideon, and those armed only with trumpets, and pitchers, and lamps Jud 7. There were no doubt a considerable number of swords and spears among the Israelites, but they generally hid them, as now they did their persons, from the Philistines. And the Philistines had not yet attained to so great a power over them, as wholly to disarm them, but thought it sufficient to prevent the making of new arms, knowing that the old ones would shortly be decayed and useless.

2. There were other arms more common in those times and places than swords and spears, to wit, bows and arrows, and slings and stones; as appears from Judges 20:16 2 Samuel 1:18,22 2 Kings 3:25 1 Chronicles 12:1,2; besides clubs, and instruments of agriculture, which might easily be turned into weapons of war.

3. God so governed the affairs of the Israelites, that they had no great number of swords or spears, Judges 5:8, that so they might be kept in more dependence upon and subjection unto God, wherein their safety and happiness consisted. And therefore that famous victory obtained against the Philistines in Samuel’s days, was not got by the sword of men, but only by thunder from heaven, 1 Samuel 7:10.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

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. In what manner some preceding battles were fought with the Philistines and Ammonites, notwithstanding, have been accounted for on 1 Samuel 13:19, but it is strange that the Israelites did not furnish themselves with the arms of the Philistines at the defeat of them in Ebenezer, 1 Samuel 7:10 and with the arms of the Ammonites at Jabeshgilead, 1 Samuel 11:11 and that such a warlike prince as Saul appeared at his first setting out to be should not in the first place take care to provide armour for his men by some means or another; for that those that left him should have arms, and not those that abode with him, does not seem reasonable. It may be the Benjamites, being expert in slinging, were indifferent to and neglected the use of any other weapon, or method of fighting:

but with Saul and with Jonathan his son was there found; swords and spears, and with them only.

Geneva Study Bible

So it came to pass in the day of battle, that there was neither {n} 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.

(n) To declare that the victory only came from God, and not by their force.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 22. - There was neither sword, etc. Armed only with clubs and their farming implements, it is no wonder that the people were afraid of fighting the Philistines, who, as we gather from the description of Goliath's armour, were clad in mail; nor is it surprising that they despised and neglected Saul and his few men, whom probably they regarded as an unarmed mob of rustics. The Ammonites probably were far less efficiently armed than the Philistines, who, as commanding the sea coast, could import weapons from Greece. 1 Samuel 13:22

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

On the day of battle, therefore, the people with Saul and Jonathan were without either sword or spear; Saul and Jonathan were the only persons provided with them. The account of the expedition of the Israelites, and their victory over the Ammonites, given in 1 Samuel 13:11, is apparently at variance with this description of the situation of the Israelites, since the war in question not only presupposes the possession of weapons by the Israelites, but must also have resulted in their capturing a considerable quantity. The discrepancy is very easily removed, however, when we look carefully at all the circumstances. For instance, we can hardly picture the Israelites to ourselves as amply provided with ordinary weapons in this expedition against the Ammonites. Moreover, the disarming of the Israelites by the Philistines took place for the most part if not entirely after this expedition, viz., at the time when the Philistines swept over the land with an innumerable army after Jonathan had smitten their garrison at Geba (1 Samuel 13:3, 1 Samuel 13:5), so that the fighting men who gathered round Saul and Jonathan after that could hardly bring many arms with them. Lastly, the words "there was neither sword nor spear found in the hands of all the people with Saul and Jonathan" must not be too closely pressed, but simply affirm that the 600 fighting men of Saul and Jonathan were not provided with the necessary arms, because the Philistines had prevented the possibility of their arming themselves in the ordinary way by depriving the people of all their smiths.