So it came to pass in the day of battle, that there was neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the people that were with Saul and Jonathan: but with Saul and with Jonathan his son was there found.
In the day of battle, х bªyowm (H3117) milchemet (H4421)] (a verbal noun) - in the day of fighting. [The Septuagint: kai egeneethee en tais heemerais tou polemou Machmas, 'and it happened in the time of the war of Michmash'-a meaning quite different from that of the Hebrew text.]
There was neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the people. They had no weapons of offence but their rude implements of husbandry. But by means of these a bold, energetic militia could do great execution; and in the well-known instances of the royalist peasantry of La Vendee, or the Hays of Cramond, in Scotland, we have examples of the alert and effective manner in which a pastoral or agricultural people can arm themselves at a moment's notice. Saul and Jonathan alone were furnished with proper military weapons; but the Israelites, on this as on former occasions (see the note at Judges 3:31; Judges 5:8) found that "the Lord saveth not with sword and appear: for the battle is the Lord's" (1 Samuel 17:47).