Gregory the Great, on 1Sam 13:21

“So that their shares, and their spades, and their forks, and their axes were blunt, even to the goad, which was to be mended.”

“32. The edges are not said to be bent back or worn down, but blunted. For if they were bent back or worn down, they would cut nothing at all. But a blunted edge, even if it does not quickly cut through everything, does cut certain things placed before it with the delay of labor. So indeed are the hearts of the simple, which, if they do not subtly understand spiritual things, yet because they slowly understand certain things, possess a sharpness of mind that is not keen but blunted. For often they wish to examine obscure matters; but while they scarcely arrive, even at those things which are plain, by long thinking, they cut as if with a blunted edge by lingering. This is certainly shown not only in the hidden mysteries of the Scriptures, but also in the concealed suggestions of demons. For they cannot drive the enemy from themselves whom they cannot quickly recognize. Therefore, while with great delay of thought they expel the snares of evil suggestion, they cut as if with a blunted edge what they could have severed more swiftly through keenness of mind. But what does it mean when it says: "To the sharpening of the goad"? The goad is called the rebuke of prelates. Whence it is also written: "The words of the wise are as goads" (Eccl. 12:11). The goad is indeed called a rebuke, because while it reproves faults, it pricks the mind. But the goad is blunted when the understanding of the prelate is weak, so that he neither discovers the faults of his subjects by recognizing them nor rebukes them upon finding them. Rightly therefore is the rebuke of a ruler declared to be a goad, because it cannot prevail to prick the swellings of vices if his mind, educated through knowledge, does not see what ought to be pricked. Whence also, in the type of learned prelates, it is fittingly added...”

Imported from an open dataset — not yet checked against the printed edition.