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.
Related Commentaries of 1 Samuel 13:17
1 Samuel 13:17
17 And 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: