19 Now there was no smith found throughout the land of Israel; for the Philistines said, Lest the Hebrews make them swords or spears. 20 And all Israel went down to the Philistines, every man to get his ploughshare, and his hoe, and his axe, and his sickle sharpened, 21 when the edges of the sickles, and the hoes, and the forks, and the axes were blunted; and to set the goads. 22 And 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 there was found. 23 And a garrison of the Philistines went out to the passage of Michmash.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on 1 Samuel 13:19-23
Commentary on 1 Samuel 13:15-23
(Read 1 Samuel 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.