There was neither sword nor spear

1 Samuel 13:15–23, “And Samuel arose, and gat him up from Gilgal unto Gibeah of Benjamin. And Saul numbered the people that were present with him, about six hundred men. And Saul, and Jonathan his son, and the people that were present with them, abode in Gibeah of Benjamin: but the Philistines encamped in Michmash. And the spoilers came out of the camp of the Philistines in three companies: one company turned unto the way that leadeth to Ophrah, unto the land of Shual: And another company turned the way to Bethhoron: and another company turned to the way of the border that looketh to the valley of Zeboim toward the wilderness. Now there was no smith found throughout all the land of Israel: for the Philistines said, Lest the Hebrews make them swords or spears: But all the Israelites went down to the Philistines, to sharpen every man his share, and his coulter, and his axe, and his mattock. Yet they had a file for the mattocks, and for the coulters, and for the forks, and for the axes, and to sharpen the goads. 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.  And the garrison of the Philistines went out to the passage of Michmash.”

After Samuel had told Saul that he had disqualified himself from being the head of a lasting dynasty of Israeli kings, he went away to the south because he didn’t have anything more to say to Saul. Even though Saul had previously had an army of three thousand men, he discovered that he only had six hundred men left. The Philistine armies had come up into the highlands and were encamped to the north of Saul’s small army. The Philistines divided their army into three groups and came to attack Israel from three different directions. No army like to fight on more than one front if they have inferior numbers so this, strategically, was the best battle plan. The groups were coming towards Israel form the north, east and west. The situation was even worse because the Philistines had been oppressing Israel for some time and they had made sure that Israel had no one who could make or repair any kind of military weapon. The Philistines were heavily armed but the Israelis had not military weapons, apart from Saul and Jonathan. As the king and the prince they were allowed some weapons for ceremonial purposes. This was the situation when the Philistines headed out to fight against Israel.