16 And Saul and Jonathan his son and the people who were present with them stayed in Geba of Benjamin, but the Philistines encamped in Michmash. 17 And raiders came out of the camp of the Philistines in three companies. One company turned toward Ophrah, to the land of Shual; 18 another company turned toward Beth-horon; and another company turned toward the border that looks down on the Valley of Zeboim toward the wilderness.
19 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.” 20 But every one of the Israelites went down to the Philistines to sharpen his plowshare, his mattock, his axe, or his sickle, 21 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. 22 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. 23 And the garrison of the Philistines went out to the pass of Michmash.
1 One day Jonathan the son of Saul said to the young man who carried his armor, “Come, let us go over to the Philistine garrison on the other side.” But he did not tell his father. 2 Saul was staying in the outskirts of Gibeah in the pomegranate cave at Migron. The people who were with him were about six hundred men, 3 including Ahijah the son of Ahitub, Ichabod's brother, son of Phinehas, son of Eli, the priest of the Lord in Shiloh, wearing an ephod. And the people did not know that Jonathan had gone. – 1 Samuel 13:16-14:3 ESV
Samuel had vacated the premises but the Philistines weren’t going anywhere. Their superior forces set up a base of operation in a place called Michmash, a Benjamite city located nine miles northeast of Jerusalem. From this central location, they sent out raiding parties to harass the poorly equipped Israelite army. While the Israelites had spent decades under Joshua’s leadership fighting the inhabitants of Canaan to gain possession of the land, they never really developed a standing, permanent army. Each tribe remained independent of the others and would send their troops only when the circumstances required it. During the period of the judges, the Israelite tribes became increasingly more isolated from one another and the Philistines controlled the iron trade within the region. This monopoly on iron prevented the Israelites from producing weapons that would allow them to compete with the Philistines. The more powerful Philistines even banned the blacksmith trade within the borders of Israel, forcing the Israelites to rely on Philistine tradesmen to sharpen their farm implements.
The whole point behind this historical aside in the narrative was to emphasize the desperate situation in which Saul and the Israelites found themselves. Things were going from bad to worse. Samuel was gone, a large portion of the Israelite army had deserted, and Saul was left to deal with the much larger and far superior forces of the Philistine army. The parenthetical statement regarding blacksmiths was meant to drive home the insurmountable odds facing Saul and the disobedient nation of Israel.
So on the day of the battle none of the people of Israel had a sword or spear, except for Saul and Jonathan. – 1 Samuel 13:20 NLT
To put it bluntly, the Israelites were outmanned and outgunned. They were facing the battle-tested Philistines with little more than picks, axes, and sickles to defend themselves, while the Philistines had iron weapons, body armor, and chariots at their disposal. Things did not look good for the people of Israel, and their new king was nowhere to be found because Saul had left camp and taken refuge in a cave somewhere near Gibeah (1 Samuel 14:2).
But in Saul’s absence, his son Jonathan became frustrated by the lack of action on the part of the Israelites. Their presence near Michmash was doing little to stop the daily raids of the Philistines. The impotence and inaction of the Israelite army emboldened the enemy, causing them to increase their forays into Israelite territory where the helpless occupants of the targeted villages and towns became increasingly more frustrated and demoralized.
Desperate to do something about the situation, Jonathan convinced his armor-bearer to join him on a covert mission to infiltrate the enemy camp. The son of the new king refused to run this plan by his father because he knew it would never get approval. After all, it was little more than a suicide mission.
While Jonathan and his aide-de-camp prepared to sneak behind enemy lines, Saul was safely ensconced in Gibeah, surrounded by his 600-man personal garrison and accompanied by Ahijah the priest. The news that Saul included a priest of God in his contingent is tempered by the fact that this man was a descendant of Eli, the high priest whom God had rejected and whose line He had promised to eliminate. Because of the wickedness of Eli’s sons and his failure to deal with their abuse of their priestly positions, the line of Eli was cursed by God.
”I promised that your branch of the tribe of Levi would always be my priests. But I will honor those who honor me, and I will despise those who think lightly of me. The time is coming when I will put an end to your family, so it will no longer serve as my priests. All the members of your family will die before their time. None will reach old age. You will watch with envy as I pour out prosperity on the people of Israel. But no members of your family will ever live out their days. The few not cut off from serving at my altar will survive, but only so their eyes can go blind and their hearts break, and their children will die a violent death. And to prove that what I have said will come true, I will cause your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, to die on the same day!” – 1 Samuel 2:30-34 NLT
The text painstakingly chronicles Ahijah’s family tree, emphasizing his association with the cursed line of Eli.
Ahijah was the son of Ichabod’s brother Ahitub, son of Phinehas, son of Eli, the priest of the Lord who had served at Shiloh. – 1 Samuel 14:2 NLT
The disobedient Saul had chosen to seek the aid of the great-grandson of the disgraced high priest, Eli. Whether he realized it or not, Saul had picked the wrong player for his team. His choice of Ahijah was going to backfire because this man had been rejected by God and was no longer qualified to serve as a priest. He may have been wearing the ephod and the sacred garments of the high priest but he no longer bore God’s seal of approval. The text makes this clear by the mention of his uncle’s name: Ichabod.
The mention of Ichabod’s name is intentional and designed to drive home the desperate nature of Saul’s predicament. Chapter 4 contains the sad fate of Hophni and Phinehas, the two wicked sons of Eli. They were killed in the very same battle in which the Ark of the Covenant was captured by the Philistines. At the same time, Phinehas’ wife died while giving birth to his son.
She died in childbirth, but before she passed away the midwives tried to encourage her. “Don’t be afraid,” they said. “You have a baby boy!” But she did not answer or pay attention to them.
She named the child Ichabod (which means “Where is the glory?”), for she said, “Israel’s glory is gone.” – 1 Samuel 4:20-21 NLT
The mention of Ichabod in the opening lines of chapter 14 is meant to stress that the glory of God had departed Saul and his camp. The king may have enjoyed the company of a priest dressed in his priestly robes, but he was missing the presence of God. Ahijah was going to be of no use when it came to seeking God’s favor or atoning for sin. He could offer up prayers and present the appropriate sacrifices but his efforts would be futile and fruitless. Ahijah was an unworthy replacement for Samuel and his presence in Saul’s camp only served to emphasize the dire nature of the circumstances.
Meanwhile, as Saul and his discredited priest hid out in Gibeah, Jonathan and his servant made their way toward the enemy camp. As his father sat in a cave far from the enemy lines, Jonathan made the decision to risk capture and death rather than allow further inaction to lead to additional humiliation at the hands of the enemy. What happens next will serve to differentiate the son from his father and set the stage for God’s plan for Saul’s future replacement.
English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
