And the charge was a third of a shekel for the plowshares, and for the mattocks, and for the forks, and for the axes, and to sharpen the goads.
All Commentaries on 1 Samuel 13:21 Go To 1 Samuel 13
Bede
AD 735
The reason for this is rather obvious. It clearly offers the enemy an opportunity to devastate the land, that is to say, to corrupt the virtues of the church, if there is no teacher and smithy of the spiritual arms which the apostle teaches we must employ against the fiery darts of the evil one. For the wicked tempters take care with all their might to keep us from putting on the armor of God so that the two-edged sword might not appear in our hands and exact vengeance upon them.
