1 Samuel 6:18 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

Both of fenced cities, and of country villages: this is added for explication of that foregoing phrase, all the cities; either to show that under the name of the five cities were comprehended all the villages and territories belonging to them, in whose name and at whose charge these presents were made; or to express the difference between this and the former present, the emerods being only five, according to thee five cities mentioned 1 Samuel 6:17, because it may seem the cities only, or principally, were pestered with that disease; and the mice being many more, according to the number of all the cities, as is here expressed; the word city being taken generally so, as to include, not only fenced cities, but also the country villages, as is here added, and the fields belonging to them, these being the parts where the mice did most mischief. The great stone of Abel; which is mentioned as the utmost border of the Philistines territory to which the plague of mice did extend; the word stone being easily understood out of 1 Samuel 6:14, where this great stone is expressly mentioned, as the place on which the ark was set which is also here repeated in the following words. And this place is here called Abel, by anticipation, from the great mourning mentioned in the following verse.