Then the spoiler went out of the camp of the Philistines in three companies. ראשׁים שׁלשׁה is made subject to the verb to define the mode of action (see Ewald, 279, c.); and rashim is used here, as in 1 Samuel 11:11. המּשׁחית, according to the context, is a hostile band that went out to devastate the land. The definite article points it out as well known. One company took the road to Ophrah into the land of Shual, i.e., went in a north-easterly direction, as, according to the Onom., Ophrah of Benjamin was five Roman miles to the east of Bethel (see at Joshua 18:23). Robinson supposes it to have been on the site of Tayibeh. The land of Shual (fox-land) is unknown; it may possibly have been identical with the land of Saalim (1 Samuel 9:5). The other company turned on the road to Beth-horon (Beit-ur: see at Joshua 10:11), that is to say, towards the west; the third, "the way to the territory that rises above the valley of Zeboim towards the desert." These descriptions are obscure; and the valley of Zeboim altogether unknown. There is a town of this name (צבעים, different from צביים, Deuteronomy 29:22; Genesis 14:2, Genesis 14:8; or צבאים, Hosea 11:8, in the vale of Siddim) mentioned in Nehemiah 11:34, which was inhabited by Benjaminites, and was apparently situated in the south-eastern portion of the land of Benjamin, to the north-east of Jerusalem, from which it follows that the third company pursued its devastating course in a south-easterly direction from Michmash towards Jericho. "The wilderness" is probably the desert of Judah. The intention of the Philistines in carrying out these devastating expeditions, was no doubt to entice the men who were gathered round Saul and Jonathan out of their secure positions at Gibeah and Geba, and force them to fight.

1 Samuel 13:23 Parallel Commentaries

garrison. or, standing camp

1 Samuel 13:3 And Jonathan smote the garrison of the Philistines that was in Geba, and the Philistines heard of it...

1 Samuel 14:4 And between the passages, by which Jonathan sought to go over to the Philistines' garrison, there was a sharp rock on the one side...

passage

1 Samuel 13:2,5 Saul chose him three thousand men of Israel; whereof two thousand were with Saul in Michmash and in mount Bethel...

1 Samuel 14:1,4,5 Now it came to pass on a day, that Jonathan the son of Saul said to the young man that bore his armor, Come...

Isaiah 10:28 He is come to Aiath, he is passed to Migron; at Michmash he has laid up his carriages: