goad Summary and Overview

(Heb. malmad, only in Judg. 3: 31), an instrument used by ploughmen for guiding their oxen. Shamgar slew six hundred Philistines with an ox-goad. "The goad is a formidable weapon. It is sometimes ten feet long, and has a sharp point. We could now see that the feat of Shamgar was not so very wonderful as some have been accustomed to think." In 1 Sam. 13:21, a different Hebrew word is used, "dorban", meaning something pointed. The expression (Acts 9:5, omitted in the R.V.), "It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks", i.e., against the goad, was proverbial for unavailing resistance to superior power.

#Jud 3:31; 1Sa 13:21| The Hebrew word in the latter passage probably means the point of the plough-share. The former word does probably refer to the goad, the long handle of which might be used as a formidable weapon. The instrument, as still used in countries of southern Europe and western Asia, consists of a rod about eight feet long, brought to a sharp point and sometimes cased with iron at the head.

GOAD . Jud 3:31. This was a rod or pole about 8 feet long, armed at the larger end with a piece of iron, with which the plough-share was freed from clods and earth, and at the smaller with a sharp spike, by which the oxen were urged on in their labor. In the hands of a powerful man like Shamgar, Jud 3:31, it would be a formidable instrument. The goad is used to this day in Palestine.

A pointed instrument, eight feet long, often headed with iron (1 Samuel 13:21; Ecclesiastes 12:11). To "kick against the pricks" expresses unavailing resistance, as if cattle were to kick against the goads of their driver Who has them wholly in his power, as God has the recalcitrant sinner (Acts 9:5).