Strange Story: I Samuel 13 No Blacksmiths No Swords

I Sam 13

At the time of the occurrences recorded in I Samuel chapter13, there were no blacksmiths in Israel because of actions taken by the Philistines. For this specific battle there were no swords, except those owned by Saul, and his oldest son, Jonathan. Obviously, this is a problem. If one army has swords, spears, and even chariots, while the other army has sticks, slings, and farm tools, the outcome is predictable.

How long had Israel been without swords and without blacksmiths to make them? Thank you for asking.

When the children of Israel came out of Egypt, they plundered the Egyptians, and they must have gotten some swords as part of the plunder. We know they started out with swords because we are often told the number of men of Israel who participated in battles “armed with swords.”

If the book of Judges is written in chronological order, Judges 20:36 is the last time prior to the incident in I Samuel chapter 13 that a number is given indicating men armed with swords. This was when the rest of the Israelite tribes fought against the tribe of Benjamin. A few times in the narrative of that same battle the phrase “put to the sword” is also used. So we know they had had no shortage of swords at that time.

I Samuel 7:13-14 gives us two more pieces of the puzzle, i.e. that during the time when Samuel was leading Israel, the Philistines were subdued, and during Samuel’s lifetime the hand of God was against the Philistines. This was done in large part because the people had turned back to the Lord and had gotten rid of their idols, as described in I Sam 7:2-4. So we can assume that they had swords and other military weaponry of the day during that time when they were successful against the Philistines. Of course, God could have helped them defeat their enemies without proper weapons, but if that had been the case the biblical narrative probably would have said something to that effect.

After Saul became king, his first military endeavor was against the Ammonites, and Israel was successful. So they probably had swords at that time,

In I Sam 13:17, which just barely precedes the verses we are focusing on (vv19 & 22) we are told that “raiders,” literally “ruiners” or “spoilers,” went out from the Philistines in three detachments. These appear to have been well-organized bands which were assigned specific targets.

Now we just have to put all these pieces together – The Israelites had swords, were victorious with swords, subdued the Philistines with swords, and then raiding parties went out from the Philistines, and then Israel had no blacksmiths and no swords. It seems like a sudden change, doesn’t it? Well, these stories were often separated by a number of years, so we have to keep in mind that the timetable is much more spread out than it feels as we read it.

I interpret this set of situations to have fallen out as follows. The Philistines were subdued and beaten back consistently during the time that the prophet Samuel was leading Israel. Then Israel got a king named Saul. He was successful in his first military endeavor. So the Philistines had to do something, but they figured that a normal military attack would not bring any better results than those of the past. But someone, possibly a blacksmith, presented an idea. Instead of a large confrontation, army against army, why not first send in raiding bands that will weaken Israel by removing their weapons and eliminating their ability to replace them. This idea was very well-received, and they proceeded to carry it out. They send 3 sets of well-organized raiding bands into Israel. I think we can assume that these raiding bands had the specific commands and purpose of killing all Israelite blacksmiths and ridding Israelites of all their swords. This would be relatively easy among those who lived on farms and in small villages. They would use stealth and the element of surprise to catch a farmer or homeowner at a disadvantage, say 2 or 3 to 1, and they would either kill him and take his sword, or just take his weapons and leave. How they disarmed people of the cities would be more difficult, but they could have waited in hiding outside the city for men to leave the city to go to their fields, or on business, etc. and disarm them then. However they did it, these raids must have been extremely successful because by the time of I Samuel chapter 13 the only ones with swords were Saul and Jonathan.

However, after Jonathan and his armor bearer showed extreme courage and extraordinary faith, God routed the Philistines before the Israelites and the Philistines were defeated once again. With such a victory, the Israelites would have captured some swords.

I Sam 14:47-48 tells us that King Saul was a very successful military leader. He fought against Moab, Ammon, Edom, the kings of Zobah, and the Philistines. He “vexed them” or “created serious trouble for them” wherever he turned. It also says that he delivered Israel from those who had plundered them (the Philistines and the Ammonites had been mentioned earlier in the narrative as ones that did that).

So after I Samuel chapter 13, it appears that Israel had swords again. I Chronicles 5:18 once again uses the common language that we saw earlier and mentions Israelite fighting men who could handle the sword and shield. This confirms that the period of time in which Israel had no swords lasted a relatively short time. It may have been a total of a handful of years. The biblical text does not tell us if they had blacksmiths, but at least they had swords.

Ray VanderLaan speculates that Israel did not regain the art of blacksmithing until David and his men spent some time living in Philistine territory while David was fleeing from Saul. It is logical to think that if the Philistines had killed all the blacksmiths in Israel, the skills and knowledge for that work were not easily regained. It is also logical to assume that the Philistines would not just give that back to Israel, or knowingly leave the door open for them to take them, so David must have found a way despite the efforts of the Philistines to protect against him doing so. David could have captured some philistine blacksmiths and forced them to teach his men the trade, or he could have persuaded some to defect and come over to his side of the conflict. There are probably a few other possible methods as well.

To summarize – The Philistines appear to have been successful for a short time at stripping Israel of its weapons of war and the ability to make new ones; it also appears to have been a short-lived success.

As in many other places in the Bible, God gives us a little bit of info, but He then expects us to do some digging to figure out the rest. He never does an over-night download into our brains to give us all the knowledge and wisdom we need; rather He expects us to be highly engaged with the text of His word and do some digging on our own. Granted, there are times when spiritual truth is revealed, not discovered, and in those times, we feel a sense of awe at how God’s Spirit has opened our eyes and our hearts. But there are other times when spiritual truth is discovered by the hard work of digging and putting all the pieces together. This one is not a matter of great importance, but some other are, so keep digging.

A couple spiritual lessons from this story:

1. The enemy of our souls does not always come at us in an obvious attack; sometimes he does things that do not make sense to us until later.

2. We also need to protect the sources of good things that are important to our spiritual growth.

3. Think long-term, not just short term. Don’t focus on instant gratification the way our culture teaches us to, rather focus on the long-term accumulation of good things, not to earn salvation, but to accumulate many positive consequences rather than negative consequences.