1 Samuel 13:18

And another company turned the way to Bethhoron: and another company turned to the way of the border that looketh to the valley of Zeboim toward the wilderness.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

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.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The spoilers - "The devastator:" the same word is used of the destroying Angel Exodus 12:23. The verse describes the system adopted by the Philistines by which for a time they subjugated the Israelites. From their central camp at Michmash they sent out three bands to kill and lay waste and destroy. One took a northerly direction toward Ophrah - five miles east of Bethel, identified with "Ephrain" 2 Chronicles 13:19 and the modern "Taiyibeh," - and toward the land of Shual, possibly the same as Shalim 1 Samuel 9:4; the second westward to Beth-horon; and the third eastward, by the unknown valley of Zeboim, toward the wilderness, i. e., the Jordan valley, toward Jericho.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

17, 18. the spoilers came out of the camp of the Philistines in three companies—ravaging through the three valleys which radiate from the uplands of Michmash to Ophrah on the north, through the pass of Beth-horon on the west, and down the ravines of Zeboim ("the hyænas"), towards the Ghor or Jordan valley on the east.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Beth-boron; a city of Ephraim, Joshua 16:3. north-west from Michmash.

The wilderness, i.e. the wilderness of Jordan, eastward.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And another company turned the way to Bethhoron,.... Of which name there were two cities, the upper and nether, and both in the tribe of Ephraim, of which see Joshua 16:3 this lay northwest from the camp of the Philistines at Michmash; eight miles from it, according to Bunting (d):

and another company turned to the way of the border, that looketh towards the valley of Zeboim, toward the wilderness; some take this to be the Zeboim which was destroyed with Sodom and Gomorrah; and the wilderness, the wilderness of Jordan; but as that, so the valley in which it stood, was turned into a bituminous lake; this seems to be a city in the land of Benjamin, Nehemiah 11:34 near to which was a valley, and this towards the wilderness of Jericho, and so lay eastward; the Targum calls it the valley of vipers, perhaps from its being infested with many; and so David de Pomis (e) says it is the name of a place where plenty of serpents were found, and which he says were called so because of the variety of colours in them; with which agrees Kimchi's note on the place; they seem to mean serpents spotted (f), as if they were painted and dyed of various colours, as the Hebrew word which is thus paraphrased signifies: according to Bunting (g), it was eight miles from Michmash.

(d) Travels of the Patriarchs, &c. p. 133. (e) Tzemach David, fol. 13. 2. & 153. 1.((f) , Homer. Iliad. 12. ver. 208. "notis maculosus grandibus", Virgil. Georgic. l. 3. v. 427. (g) Ut supra. (Travels of the Patriarchs, &c. p. 133.)

Geneva Study Bible

And another company turned the way to Bethhoron: and {m} another company turned to the way of the border that looketh to the valley of Zeboim toward the wilderness.

(m) So that to man's judgment these three armies would have overrun the whole country.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

1 Samuel 13:18

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Then the spoiler went out of the camp of the Philistines in three companies. ראשׁים שׁלשׁה is made subject to the verb to define the mode of action (see Ewald, 279, c.); and rashim is used here, as in 1 Samuel 11:11. המּשׁחית, according to the context, is a hostile band that went out to devastate the land. The definite article points it out as well known. One company took the road to Ophrah into the land of Shual, i.e., went in a north-easterly direction, as, according to the Onom., Ophrah of Benjamin was five Roman miles to the east of Bethel (see at Joshua 18:23). Robinson supposes it to have been on the site of Tayibeh. The land of Shual (fox-land) is unknown; it may possibly have been identical with the land of Saalim (1 Samuel 9:5). The other company turned on the road to Beth-horon (Beit-ur: see at Joshua 10:11), that is to say, towards the west; the third, "the way to the territory that rises above the valley of Zeboim towards the desert." These descriptions are obscure; and the valley of Zeboim altogether unknown. There is a town of this name (צבעים, different from צביים, Deuteronomy 29:22; Genesis 14:2, Genesis 14:8; or צבאים, Hosea 11:8, in the vale of Siddim) mentioned in Nehemiah 11:34, which was inhabited by Benjaminites, and was apparently situated in the south-eastern portion of the land of Benjamin, to the north-east of Jerusalem, from which it follows that the third company pursued its devastating course in a south-easterly direction from Michmash towards Jericho. "The wilderness" is probably the desert of Judah. The intention of the Philistines in carrying out these devastating expeditions, was no doubt to entice the men who were gathered round Saul and Jonathan out of their secure positions at Gibeah and Geba, and force them to fight.