Goad

A goad in the UPDV is the long pointed stick a plowman uses to drive an ox. Three texts pick the implement up: a Judges hero kills with one, a Saul-era Philistine monopoly forces Israel to maintain its goads in foreign forges, and Ecclesiastes turns the goad into a figure for the words of the wise.

Shamgar's Ox-Goad

The shortest of the judge-cycles introduces Shamgar between Ehud and Deborah, and the weapon is named explicitly: "And after him was Shamgar the son of Anath, who struck of the Philistines six hundred men with an ox-goad: and he also saved Israel" (Jud 3:31). The ox-goad is a farming-tool turned weapon — Shamgar's only equipment in the verse. Deborah's song looks back to him in passing as the marker of a lawless time: "In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath, In the days of Jael, the highways were unoccupied, And the travelers walked through byways" (Jud 5:6).

Sharpened in Philistine Forges

The Philistine iron-monopoly in the days of Saul forces Israel to take its tools, including its goads, to its enemies for sharpening. The wider scene: "Now there was no blacksmith found throughout all the land of Israel; for the Philistines said, Or else the Hebrews will make swords or spears: but all the Israelites went down to the Philistines, to sharpen every man his plowshare, and his coulter, and his ax, and his mattock" (1Sa 13:19-20). The goad-detail follows: "yet they had a file for the mattocks, and for the coulters, and for the three-pronged fork, and for the axes, and to set the goads" (1Sa 13:21). The goad is listed alongside the other field-tools whose iron edges Israel cannot independently maintain — the same monopoly that has stripped Saul's army of swords and spears (1Sa 13:22).

Words That Drive

Ecclesiastes turns the goad into a figure for the bite of the wise sayings on the listener: "The words of the wise are as goads; and as nails well fastened are [the words of] the masters of assemblies, [which] are given from one shepherd" (Ec 12:11). The pair — goads and well-fastened nails — sets the shape of the figure: the goad drives forward, the nail holds in place, and both come from one shepherd's hand. The implement that drives an ox is here the implement that drives the hearer.