What is an oxgoad, and why is it mentioned in the Bible?
An oxgoad is a farm tool to prod or poke working animals (such as oxen) in their tasks, which may include plowing or moving into a corral. A modern version of an oxgoad that may be more familiar is a “cattle prod.”
There are variations in this tool’s design, but essentially, it’s a long stick with a pointy end. Either the wood forming the shaft of the goad is sharpened to a point, or the point may be fashioned from iron or another strong metal. This description fits goads or prods of any kind.
Specifically, an oxgoad used by farmers for plowing would have a flattened, curved piece of metal or iron beneath the pointy end. Plowmen used this piece for scraping clumps of dirt that might slow the process. In an agricultural society, these would have been familiar implements that everyone used or saw their neighbors using.
The term “goad” has been adopted for using words or physical prods to provoke a person to take a desired action. If we’re speaking to incite someone to do what we believe is right, people say we’re “goading” them on.
We also hear this term used to describe a playground fight where a bully or their companions try to goad (or taunt their victim) into throwing a first punch. We hear it used in politics when an opponent tries to bait or goad the other candidate into losing their focus or temper. Like the farm tool, goading can be useful or dangerous, depending on the user’s intent. If a brother or sister in Christ tries goading you on to good works, the words are useful tools. If someone antagonistic to the faith tries goading you into an argument, the words are used as a weapon.
It’s easy to understand how the term for a farm tool that motivates or moves oxen along might be appropriated for words that provoke someone to action.
Throughout the ages, citizens called to defend their homelands have used farm tools as weapons. For centuries, only the noble or the wealthy could afford classical weapons such as metal swords. So when ordinary citizens (farmers, business owners, etc.) had to defend their families, they would use farm equipment. The oxgoad or goad would be one of the first likely tools for that task.
According to Easton’s Bible Dictionary, “The ploughman still carries his goad, a weapon apparently more fitted for the hand of the soldier than the peaceful husbandman. The one I saw was of the ‘oak of Bashan,’ and measured upwards of ten feet in length. At one end was an iron spear, and at the other a piece of the same metal flattened. One can well understand how a warrior might use such a weapon with effect in the battle-field.”
Nobles and wealthy leaders might seek to prevent common citizens from owning more advanced weaponry to discourage uprisings. Therefore, when rulers needed to raise an army, they either supplied weapons or settled for townspeople armed with goads, pikes, and pitchforks.
What does an oxgoad have to do with God? Why are there verses that mention it in the Bible?
Let’s look at where it’s mentioned.
The only specific mention of “oxgoad” is in Judges 3:31: “After him was Shamgar the son of Anath, who killed 600 of the Philistines with an oxgoad, and he also saved Israel.” (ESV). We’ll return to Shamgar in a moment.
1 Samuel 13:19-23 verifies that the Israelites sometimes struggled to defend themselves because weapons weren’t available. In the passage, Samuel recalls when the Israelites were threatened by their enemies but didn’t even have enough farm tools because their enemies were the only ones with a blacksmith.
Here’s what the passage says:
“Now there was no blacksmith to be found throughout all the land of Israel, for the Philistines said, “Lest the Hebrews make themselves swords or spears.” But every one of the Israelites went down to the Philistines to sharpen his plowshare, his mattock, his axe, or his sickle, and the charge was two-thirds of a shekel for the plowshares and for the mattocks, and a third of a shekel for sharpening the axes and for setting the goads. So on the day of the battle there was neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the people with Saul and Jonathan, but Saul and Jonathan his son had them. And the garrison of the Philistines went out to the pass of Michmash.”
Despite having fewer weapons than their enemies, the Lord delivered Israel that day.
As was mentioned, the Bible references words as goads. Ecclesiastes 12:11 compares wise words to goads saying, “The words of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings; they are given by one Shepherd” (ESV).
That makes sense. Wise words from God can incite us to obedience and direct us where He wants us to head, just as a farmer might use a goad or prod to move their cattle to safety or better grazing grounds.
The final mention of goads appears in Acts 9:5, a scene mentioned again in Acts 26:14:
“Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.”
Both verses quote something Jesus said to Saul. Many translations leave mention of the goads out of Acts 9:5.
Saul was a Pharisee persecuting new followers of Jesus, sending even women and children to prison. When Jesus appeared to him on the Damascus road, he accused Saul (later known as the Apostle Paul) of “kicking against the goads.”
When animals “kick against the goads” and resist the farmer’s direction, they risk needing harsher redirection or falling prey to whatever danger the farmer is prodding them to avoid. So, essentially, God was telling Paul that by resisting the truth that Jesus was Messiah and persecuting His followers, Paul was hurting himself, putting himself in danger.
This is a good message to remember when we resist God’s Word or “kick against the goad” of His redirection. God loves and values us. His prodding is for our good.
When Israel entered the promised land, and before they had kings, they were ruled by a series of judges. Shamgar, mentioned in Judges 3:31, was one of them. Besides settling disputes and dispensing wisdom, they also served as leaders during this unsettled time in Israel’s life.
In Shamgar’s time, there was much danger for the average Israelite. Their enemies would stalk them and assault travelers on the roads. Judges 5:6-7 records, “In the days of Shamgar, son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were abandoned, and travelers kept to the byways. The villagers ceased in Israel; they ceased to be until I arose; I, Deborah, arose as a mother in Israel” (NIV).
Shamgar was a brave and resourceful deliverer for his people. Even without the benefit of a sword, he utilized an oxgoad and defeated 600 Philistines.
The book of Judges tells the stories of Shamgar, Ehud, Gideon, Samson, Deborah, and other untraditional leaders of Israel. It describes interesting times for God’s people. God used Moses, Aaron, and Miriam to lead the people out of Egypt, but that entire generation (except Caleb and Joshua) died in the wilderness because of their sin.
This left Joshua and Caleb to lead Israel’s armies to battle their way into Canaan, the Promised Land. This took much time to conquer all the lands so that each tribe would have its own area. Many of the warriors grew old or died.
Judges 3:1 says, “Now these are the nations that the Lord left, to test Israel by them, that is, all in Israel who had not experienced all the wars in Canaan” (NIV). God knew the children of Israel, even now safely placed in the Promised Land, still lived during brutal times. He left some enemies so this generation would learn how to wage battle and defend their people.
It wasn’t always pretty. Ehud, a left-handed judge, strapped his sword to the opposite thigh of most warriors so he could come armed and undetected into an enemy king’s presence. King Eglon was very fat. Ehud told him he had a secret message for him and met him in the “cool chamber” on his roof. When Ehud stabbed Eglon, the sword sunk into the king’s fat. Ehud had time to escape because the king’s attendants assumed he was relieving himself, giving the king time to be alone. Time enough to die.
Samson tore a charging lion apart with his own hands, struck down 1000 men with a donkey’s jawbone, and once tied pairs of foxes together by their tails and used them to set fire to Philistine fields.
God confounded Gideon by continually telling him his army was too large! God whittled Gideon’s forces down to 300, so He would get the glory for their victory.
Deborah told the army commander, Barak, that God would give him victory in battle, but Barak wouldn’t go without Deborah, so she agreed to go with him to war. The battle concluded with a bystander, a woman named Jael, killing the enemy commander with a hammer and a tent.
These were wild and disorderly times for Israel. The times continued until the Israelites united under the leadership of the last judge, Samuel, and the line of kings.
An oxgoad may seem an unlikely tool for a Bible verse, but it speaks to two concepts.
First, God’s people will find anything in their grasp useful when they follow God’s direction.
Second, God gives direction to His people, and when we resist His goading, we only hurt ourselves.
Photo Credit: Getty Images/NSA Digital Archive
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