Verse Lens · Concise explanation
1 Samuel 13:17 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 17. 17And the spoilers came out of the camp of the Philistines in three companies: one company turned unto the way that leadeth to Ophrah, unto the land of Shual:
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
Sends the first Philistine raiding company toward Ophrah and Shual.
Read It With
- 1 Samuel 13:15–13:18
Follow the scene from 1 Samuel 13:15–13:18, not verse 13:17 alone. This line sends the first Philistine raiding company toward Ophrah and Shual, and the surrounding movement is Samuel leaves, Saul counts about six hundred, and three Philistine raiding companies move toward surrounding regions.
Why This Verse Appears Here
1 Samuel 13:17 belongs here because it sends the first Philistine raiding company toward Ophrah and Shual. Without that detail, the transition traced in 1 Samuel 13:15–13:18 would lose a stated action, speech, or consequence.
What Remains True
The contribution of 1 Samuel 13:17 is precise: it sends the first Philistine raiding company toward Ophrah and Shual. Its surrounding movement is Samuel leaves, Saul counts about six hundred, and three Philistine raiding companies move toward surrounding regions.
How It Can Shape Life
- Do not detach 1 Samuel 13:17, where the verse sends the first Philistine raiding company toward Ophrah and Shual, from “Six hundred remain as raiders spread out.” Present application requires this boundary: The brief military movements do not reduce threatened communities to map points or make raiding an admirable measure of strength.
Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read 1 Samuel 13:15–13:18 — Six hundred remain as raiders spread outSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? strong
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV words, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete unit coverage.
Exact location: 1 Samuel 13:15–13:18, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: 1 Samuel
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology, with the two KJV-Hebrew versification shifts stated rather than silently offset.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/1Sam.xml, OSIS 13:15–13:18; KJV 20:42 spans Hebrew 20:42–21:1, KJV 21:1–15 maps to Hebrew 21:2–16, KJV 23:29 maps to Hebrew 24:1, and KJV 24:1–22 maps to Hebrew 24:2–23
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible First Edition Notes: 1 Samuel
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Only the translator notes actually printed for these verses, used for lexical, grammatical, textual, historical, and older-English controls.
Exact location: NET Bible First Edition Notes, 1 Samuel PDF, printed pp. 504–543, exact tc/tn/sn entries attached to 13:15–13:18
Open source ↗