1 Samuel 13:21

1Sa 13:21 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.

Ver. 21. Yet they had a file.] This was all the help they allowed them, "The tender mercies of the wicked are cruelties."

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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

Next: 1 Samuel Chapter 14

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 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's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(21) Yet they had a file for the mattocks . . .—This translation, the sense of which is not very clear, is supported by the Targum and by many of the great Hebrew commentators—Rashi, for instance. Gesenius and the majority of modern scholars, however, render the word in the original translated “file” (p’tsirah) by “bluntness.” The passage then would run: “And there was bluntness (or dulness) of edge to the mattocks; “or,” so that bluntness of the edges occurred to the mattocks.” “The forks” were probably an instrument with three prongs, like our trident.

And to sharpen the goads.—The words from “and there was bluntness,” &c. (English Version, “they had a file”), down to “axes,” form a parenthesis.

“This parenthesis indicates that the result of the burthensome necessity of going to the Philistines was that many tools became useless by dulness, so that even these poorer sort of arms did the Israelites not much service at the breaking out of the war.”—Bunsen.

The LXX. read this 21st verse with considerable changes: “And the vintage was ready to be gathered, and the tools were three shekels to the tooth to sharpen], and to the axe and to the scythe there was the same rate” (or, as the Greek has been rendered,” tools cost three shekels apiece [to sharpen]”).

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

21. Yet they had a file] So the Targum and some Rabbinic commentators. If the rendering is correct, the meaning will be that for the ordinary sharpening of tools they had files, but for any forging work they had to go to the Philistines. But the best rendering appears to be either, “When the edges, &c. were blunt:” or that of the Vulgate, “So the edges of the mattocks … used to be blunt.” The result of the necessity of going so far to get their tools repaired was that they got into a very unserviceable condition. The words, “and to set (i.e. sharpen or point) the goad” must be taken as depending on “the Israelites went down to the Philistines,” the intervening words being regarded as a parenthesis.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Yet they had a file for the mattocks, and for the coulters, and for the forks, and for the axes,.... Those that would not go to the Philistines, or were not able, or thought it too much trouble, these kept files by them to sharpen those several instruments with upon occasion; though the words are by some rendered in connection with the preceding, to this sense, that they went to the Philistines to sharpen them, when the mouths, or edges, of the mattocks, coulters, &c. were dull; or "blunt" (i); and so needed sharpening; and even

to sharpen the goads; with which they pricked and pushed on the oxen in ploughing, when sluggish and remiss. (The word for "file" in the verse is "pim", and occurs only here in the Hebrew scriptures. It is not used elsewhere in other Hebrew writings. Therefore the translators of the 1611 Authorised Version had only the root derivation to deduce what the word meant. Literally, it means "a file with mouths". However, recently archaeologists have found a stone inscribed with this word. Also they found a stone inscribed with the word "shekel". Hence they deduced that the word was really a weight of measure equal to about one third of a shekel. Newer translations usually translate this as "the charge was a third of a shekel ...", hence removing the obvious contradiction between this verse and the preceding one. Editor.)

(i) "retusae itaque erant acies vomerum", V. L. "quandoquidem acies cultrorum aratri", &c. "obtusae erant", Tigurine version.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Mended, by the Philistines. (Haydock) --- The Hebrew is variously translated. "Their implements were like saws; or, they had a file to sharpen the," &c. (Calmet) --- Septuagint, "and the fruits were ready to be gathered. But the vessels (instruments for labour) were three sicles for a tooth, and the same price (or station, Greek: upostasis, a word used [in] ver. 23, in the latter sense) for an axe or a scythe;" as if the Philistines required three sicles for doing the smallest thing, when the harvest was at hand. (Haydock)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

So the sense is, They allowed them some small helps to make their mattocks, and in some sort to serve their present use. But these words may be otherwise translated, and are so by some learned, both ancient and modern, translators: thus, Therefore the mouths or edges of the mattocks a coulters, &. were dull or blunt. Or rather thus, When (Heb. and put for when, as the particle and is sometimes rendered, as Mar 15:25) the mouths or edges of the mattocks, &c. were blunt. So this passage very well agrees both with the foregoing and following words; and the whole sense of the place is entirely thus, They went to the Philistines to sharpen their shares, and mattocks, and coulters, and axes, when they were blunt, and (which was more strange, they were forced to go to them even)

to sharpen their goads.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

21. A file — Or, as the margin, a file with mouths. So the Rabbins and other interpreters have understood the Hebrew words, הפצירה פים. But the words can hardly mean a sharpening tool. The root, פצר, means to notch, to indent; and פצירה, applied to the edges of instruments for cutting, most naturally means indentation in the sense of dulling. Thus this verse tells us the result of the lack of smiths in Israel: the agricultural instruments became nicked and dull. Keil supposes that the final הin פצירה should be connected with the next word as the article, and he translates the verse thus: So that bluntness of the edges occurred in the edge tools, and the plough-shares, and the trident, and the axes, and the setting of the goad.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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 also to set (so the margin rightly) the goads." The Israelites were thus in a state of complete dependence upon the Philistines, even for carrying on their agriculture, and probably retained only the hill country, while their enemies were masters of the plains.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

There was a multi-edged file that was used for the tools. For those who found it troublesome to go down to the Philistines to sharpen, had the פְּצִירָה פִים, lime in O.F., which has many mouths, i.e. many sharp and jagged surfaces to sharpen the tools and mattocks.

Three pronged pitchforks. A fork similar to a pitchfork, which is called 'forche' [in O.F.], having three prongs.

And for setting the yoke. To sharpen the tip, and to insert it and set it into the handle.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.