1 Samuel 13:18-21

Contemporary English Version

¹⁸ Another patrol would go west along the road to Beth-Horon. A third patrol would go east toward the desert on the road to the ridge that overlooks Zeboim Valley.

¹⁹ The Philistines would not allow any Israelites to learn how to make iron tools. “If we allowed that,” they said, “those worthless Israelites would make swords and spears.”

^20-21 Whenever the Israelites wanted to get an iron point put on a cattle prod,^[a] they had to go to the Philistines. Even if they wanted to sharpen plow-blades, picks, axes, sickles,^[b] and pitchforks^[c] they still had to go to them. And the Philistines charged high prices.