19 And an artificer is not found in all the land of Israel, for the Philistines said, 'Lest the Hebrews make sword or spear;' 20 and all Israel go down to the Philistines, to sharpen each his ploughshare, and his coulter, and his axe, and his mattock; 21 and there hath been the file for mattocks, and for coulters, and for three-pronged rakes, and for the axes, and to set up the goads. 22 And it hath been, in the day of battle, that there hath not been found sword and spear in the hand of any of the people who 'are' with Saul and with Jonathan—and there is found to Saul and to Jonathan his son. 23 And the station of the Philistines goeth out unto 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.