3:31 Oxgoad
After Ehud came Shamgar son of Anath, who struck down six hundred Philistines with an ox-goad.
The oxgoad was formidable when used as a weapon. It was about 8 feet long (2.4 meters) and two inches in diameter. At one end was a sharp point for pricking the ox when their movements became intolerably slow, and at the other end was a broad chisel-shaped blade, which was used to clear the plow blade of any roots and thorns that got caught on it and impeded it, or to clean off any sticky clay that adhered to it. It substituted nicely for a spear, and also made a long ax-like weapon. The pointed end of this instrument is alluded in Acts 26:14—“We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads’ ” (pricks, KJV).
Freeman, James M., and Harold J. Chadwick. Manners & Customs of the Bible. North Brunswick, NJ: Bridge-Logos Publishers, 1998. Print.
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