Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
1 Samuel 13:21 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 21. 21Yet they had a file for the mattocks, and for the coulters, and for the forks, and for the axes, and to sharpen the goads.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
Lists the sharpening work and its cost through difficult older tool names.
Read It With
- 1 Samuel 13:19–13:23
The line at 1 Samuel 13:21 lists the sharpening work and its cost through difficult older tool names. Its place in 1 Samuel 13:19–13:23 matters because Philistine control of metalwork makes Israelites dependent for tool sharpening and leaves only Saul and Jonathan armed as the garrison moves to the pass.
Why This Verse Appears Here
At verse 13:21, the scene lists the sharpening work and its cost through difficult older tool names. That movement matters to “Philistine control leaves Israel without weapons” while the unit's uncertainty and ethical boundary continue to govern application.
Follow the Context
- The compressed scene presents one movement: Philistine control of metalwork makes Israelites dependent for tool sharpening and leaves only Saul and Jonathan armed as the garrison moves to the pass.
What This Verse Is Not Saying
First Samuel 13:21 does not stand alone from 1 Samuel 13:19–13:23: it lists the sharpening work and its cost through difficult older tool names. The technological imbalance does not imply ethnic inferiority, romanticize weapons, or reduce farmers' tools and labor to military props.
What Remains True
Lists the sharpening work and its cost through difficult older tool names. Within 1 Samuel 13:19–13:23, this contribution supports the unit's enduring claim: This unit calls for truthfulness about what happened, humility about what remains uncertain, and refusal of the misuse it names: The technological imbalance does not imply ethnic inferiority, romanticize weapons, or reduce farmers' tools and labor to military props.
How It Can Shape Life
- Lists the sharpening work and its cost through difficult older tool names. The proportionate response is therefore the one traced from the complete unit: In situations that resemble “Philistine control leaves Israel without weapons,” act truthfully, attend to the people affected, and choose accountable care rather than copying an ancient actor or forcing the scene into a modern slogan. The technological imbalance does not imply ethnic inferiority, romanticize weapons, or reduce farmers' tools and labor to military props.
Teach It Back
Explain 1 Samuel 13:21's precise role in 1 Samuel 13:19–13:23. Include the first historical horizon, material uncertainty, one person or cost a leader-centered reading could obscure, and one conclusion this verse does not authorize.
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Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read 1 Samuel 13:19–13:23 — Philistine control leaves Israel without weaponsSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? probable
Where care is needed
The older tool names and verse 21's Hebrew are difficult, but the strategic dependence and weapons shortage are clear.
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 13:19–13:23, 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 13:19–13:23; 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 13:19–13:23
Open source ↗peer reviewed open access scholarly article
The Book of Samuel: Its Composition, Structure and Significance as a Historiographical Source
Moshe Garsiel
The Journal of Hebrew Scriptures 10.5, 2010
Supports: One relatively early integrated/two-edition account of composition, structure, and historiographic value, retained as a contested model.
Exact location: Garsiel, JHS 10.5 (2010), pp. 1–42, named structural or composition discussion covering the movement that includes 1 Samuel 13:19–13:23
Open source ↗scholarly monograph frontmatter and table of contents
The Theology of the Book of Samuel
John Goldingay
Cambridge University Press, 2024
Supports: Only the publisher-visible book architecture and theological scope; the paywalled body is not treated as inspected.
Exact location: Goldingay, The Theology of the Book of Samuel (2024), official frontmatter and TOC: 1 Samuel 13:1–20:42[21:1], pp. 77–110
Open source ↗scholarly handbook chapter abstract and metadata
Israelite State Formation and Early Monarchy in History and Biblical Historiography
Walter Dietrich
The Oxford Handbook of the Historical Books of the Hebrew Bible, 2020
Supports: Publisher-visible alternative framing of Israelite state formation, early monarchy, history, and biblical historiography; paywalled detail is not attributed.
Exact location: Dietrich, Oxford Handbook of the Historical Books (2020), pp. 94–108, official abstract and page range
Open source ↗