Bible Commentaries

Jonathan's heroic act. - With strong faith and confidence in the might of theLord, that He could give the victory even through the hands of very few,Jonathan resolved to attack the outpost of the Philistines at the pass ofMukhmas, accompanied by his armour-bearer alone, and the Lord crownedhis enterprise with a marvellous victory.

1 Samuel 14:1-2

Jonathan said to his armour-bearer, “We will go over to the postof the Philistines, that is over there.” To these words, which introduce theoccurrences that followed, there are attached from וּלאביו to 1 Samuel 14:5 a series of sentences introduced to explain the situation, and the threadof the narrative is resumed in 1 Samuel 14:6 by a repetition of Jonathan's words. It isfirst of all observed that Jonathan did not disclose his intentions to hisfather, who would hardly have approved of so daring an enterprise. Thenfollows a description of the place where Saul was stationed with the sixhundred men, viz., “at the end of Gibeah (i.e., the extreme northern end),under the pomegranate-tree (Rimmon) which is by Migron.” Rimmon isnot the rock Rimmon (Judges 20:45), which was on the north-east ofMichmash, but is an appellative noun, signifying a pomegranate-tree. Migron is a locality with which we are not acquainted, upon the north sideof Gibeah, and a different place from the Migron which was on the northor north-west of Michmash (Isaiah 10:28). Gibeah (Tuleil el Phul) was anhour and a quarter from Geba, and from the pass which led across toMichmash. Consequently, when Saul was encamped with his six hundredmen on the north of Gibeah, he may have been hardly an hour's journeyfrom Geba.

1 Samuel 14:3

Along with Saul and his six hundred men, there was also Ahiah,the son of Ahitub, the (elder) brother of Ichabod, the son of Phinehas, theson of Eli, the priest at Shiloh, and therefore a great-grandson of Eli,wearing the ephod, i.e., in the high priest's robes. Ahiah is generallysupposed to be the same person as Ahimelech, the son of Ahitub (1 Samuel 22:9.), in which case Ahiah (אחיּה, brother, i.e., friend of Jehovah)would be only another form of the name Ahimelech (i.e., brother or friendof the King, viz., Jehovah). This is very probable, although Ahimelechmight have been Ahaiah's brother, who succeeded him in the office of highpriest on account of his having died without sons, since there is an intervalof at least ten years between the events related in this chapter and thosereferred to in 1 Samuel 22. Ahimelech was afterwards slain by Saul along withthe priests of Nob (1 Samuel 22:9.); the only one who escaped being his sonAbiathar, who fled to David and, according to 1 Samuel 30:7, was investedwith the ephod. It follows, therefore, that Ahiah (or Ahimelech) must have had a son atleast ten years old at the time of the war referred to here, viz., the Abiatharmentioned in 1 Samuel 30:7, and must have been thirty or thirty-five yearsold himself, since Saul had reigned at least twenty-two years, and Abiatharhad become high priest a few years before the death of Saul. Theseassumptions may be very easily reconciled with the passage before us. AsEli was ninety-eight years old when he died, his son Phinehas, who hadbeen killed in battle a short time before, might have been sixty or sixty-fiveyears old, and have left a son of forty years of age, namely Ahitub. Fortyyears later, therefore, i.e., at the beginning of Saul's reign, Ahitub's sonAhiah (Ahimelech) might have been about fifty years old; and at the deathof Ahimelech, which took place ten or twelve years after that, his sonAbiathar might have been as much as thirty years of age, and havesucceeded his father in the office of high priest. But Abiathar cannot havebeen older than this when his father died, since he was high priest duringthe whole of David's forty years' reign, until Solomon deposed him soonafter he ascended the throne (1 Kings 2:26.). Compare with this theremarks on 2 Samuel 8:17. Jonathan had also refrained from telling the peopleanything about his intentions, so that they did not know that he had gone.

1 Samuel 14:4-5

In 1 Samuel 14:4, 1 Samuel 14:5, the locality is more minutely described. Between thepasses, through which Jonathan endeavoured to cross over to go up to thepost of the Philistines, there was a sharp rock on this side, and also oneupon the other. One of these was called Bozez, the other Seneh; one(formed) a pillar (מצוּק), i.e., a steep height towards the northopposite to Michmash, the other towards the south opposite to Geba. The expression “between the passes” may be explained from the remark ofRobinson quoted above, viz., that at the point where he passed the WadySuweinit, side wadys enter it from the south-west and north-west. Theseside wadys supply so many different crossings. Between them, however,on the north and south walls of the deep valley, were the jagged rocksBozez and Seneh, which rose up like pillars to a great height. These wereprobably the “hills” which Robinson saw to the left of the pass by whichhe crossed: “Two hills of a conical or rather spherical form, having steeprocky sides, with small wadys running up behind so as almost to isolatethem. One is on the side towards Jeba, and the other towards Mukhmas”(Pal. ii. p. 116).

1 Samuel 14:6

And Jonathan said to his armour-bearer, “Come, we will go overto the post of these uncircumcised; it may be that Jehovah will work forus; for (there is) no hindrance for Jehovah to work salvation by many orfew.” Jonathan's resolution arose from the strong conviction that Israelwas the nation of God, and possessed in Jehovah an omnipotent God,who would not refuse His help to His people in their conflict with thefoes of His kingdom, if they would only put their whole trust in Him.

1 Samuel 14:7

As the armour-bearer approved of Jonathan's resolution (לך נטה, turn hither), and was ready to follow him,Jonathan fixed upon a sign by which he would ascertain whether the Lordwould prosper his undertaking.

1 Samuel 14:8-10

“Behold, we go over to the people and show ourselves to them. If they say to us, Wait(דּמּוּ, keep quiet) till we come to you, we will stand still in our place, and not go up to them; but if they say thus, Come up unto us, then we will go up, for Jehovah hath(in that case)delivered them into our hand.” The sign was well chosen. If the Philistinessaid, “Wait till we come,” they would show some courage; but if they said,“Come up to us,” it would be a sign that they were cowardly, and had notcourage enough to leave their position and attack the Hebrews. It was nottempting God for Jonathan to fix upon such a sign by which to determinethe success of his enterprise; for he did it in the exercise of his calling,when fighting not for personal objects, but for the kingdom of God, whichthe uncircumcised were threatening to annihilate, and in the most confidentbelief that the Lord would deliver and preserve His people. Such faith asthis God would not put to shame.

1 Samuel 14:11-13

When the two showed themselves to the garrison of thePhilistines, they said, “Behold, Hebrews come forth out of the holes inwhich they have hidden themselves.” And the men of the garrison criedout to Jonathan and his armour-bearer, “Come up to us, and we will tellyou a word,” i.e., we will communicate something to you. This wasridicule at the daring of the two men, whilst for all that they had notcourage enough to meet them bravely and drive them back. In thisJonathan received the desired sign that the Lord had given the Philistinesinto the hand of the Israelites: he therefore clambered up the rock on hishands and feet, and his armour-bearer after him; and “they (the Philistines)fell before Jonathan,” i.e., were smitten down by him, “and his armour-bearer was slaying behind him.”

1 Samuel 14:14

The first stroke that Jonathan and his armour-bearer struck was(amounted to) about twenty men “on about half a furrow of an acre offield.” מענה, a furrow, as in Psalm 129:3, is in the absolute stateinstead of the construct, because several nouns follow in the constructstate (cf. Ewald, §291, a.). צמד, lit. things bound together, then apair; here it signifies a pair or yoke of oxen, but in the transferred sense ofa piece of land that could be ploughed in one morning with a yoke of oxen,like the Latin jugum, jugerum. It is called the furrow of an acre of land,because the length only of half an acre of land was to be given, and not thebreadth or the entire circumference. The Philistines, that is to say, took toflight in alarm as soon as the brave heroes really ascended, so that thetwenty men were smitten one after another in the distance of half a rood ofland. Their terror and flight are perfectly conceivable, if we consider thatthe outpost of the Philistines was so stationed upon the top of the ridge ofthe steep mountain wall, that they would not see how many werefollowing, and the Philistines could not imagine it possible that twoHebrews would have ventured to climb the rock alone and make an attackupon them. Sallust relates a similar occurrence in connection with thescaling of a castle in the Numidian war (Bell. Jugurth. c. 89, 90).

1 Samuel 14:15

And there arose a terror in the camp upon the field (i.e., in theprincipal camp) as well as among all the people (of the advanced outpostof the Philistines); the garrison (i.e., the army that was encamped atMichmash), and the spoilers, they also trembled, and the earth quaked, sc.,with the noise and tumult of the frightened foe; “and it grew into atrembling of God,” i.e., a supernatural terror miraculously infused by Godinto the Philistines. The subject to the last ותּהי is eitherחרדה, the alarm in the camp, or all that has been mentionedbefore, i.e., the alarm with the noise and tumult that sprang out of it.

Flight and defeat of the Philistines. - 1 Samuel 14:16. The spies of Saul at Gibeah sawhow the multitude (in the camp of the Philistines) melted away and wasbeaten more and more. The words והלם ויּלך areobscure. The Rabbins are unanimous in adopting the explanation magis magisque frangebatur, and have therefore probably taken הלם asan inf. absol. הלום, and interpreted הלם according toJudges 5:26. This was also the case with the Chaldee; and Gesenius (Thes. p. 383) has adopted the same rendering, except that he has taken הלם in the sense of dissolutus, dissipatus est. Others take הלום as adverbial (“and thither”), and supply the correlate הלם (hither), so as to bring out the meaning “hither and thither.” Thus the lxxrender it ἔνθεν καὶ ἔνθεν , but theyhave not translated ויּלך at all.

1 Samuel 14:17

Saul conjectured at once that the excitement in the camp of thePhilistines was occasioned by an attack made by Israelitish warriors, andtherefore commanded the people: פּקדוּ־נא, “Muster (number) now,and see who has gone away from us;” and “Jonathan and his armour-bearerwere not there,” i.e., they were missing.

1 Samuel 14:18

Saul therefore resolved to ask God, through the priest Ahiah,what he should do; whether he should go out with his army against thePhilistines or no. But whilst he was talking with the priest, the tumult inthe camp of the Philistines became greater and greater, so that he saw fromthat what ought to be done under the circumstances, and stopped thepriest's inquiring of God, and set out with his people without delay. Weare struck, however, with the expression in 1 Samuel 14:18, “Bring hither the ark ofGod,” and the explanation which follows, “for the ark of God was at thattime with the children of Israel,” inasmuch as the ark was then depositedat Kirjath-jearim, and it is a very improbable thing that it should have beenin the little camp of Saul. Moreover, in other cases where the high priest isspoken of as inquiring the will of God, there is no mention made of theark, but only of the ephod, the high priest's shoulder-dress, upon whichthere were fastened the Urim and Thummim, through which inquiry wasmade of God. And in addition to this, the verb הגּישׁה is notreally applicable to the ark, which was not an object that could be carriedabout at will; whereas this verb is the current expression used to signifythe fetching of the ephod (vid., 1 Samuel 23:9; 1 Samuel 30:7). All these circumstances render the correctness of the Masoretic textextremely doubtful, notwithstanding the fact that the Chaldee, the Syriac,and Arabic, and the Vulgate support it, and recommend rather the readingadopted by the lxx, προσάγαγε τὸ Ἐφούδ· ὅτι αὐτὸς ἦρεν τὸ Ἐφοὺδ ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἐκείνῃ ἐνώπιον Ἰσραήλ , which would give as the Hebrewtext, ישׂראל לפני ההוּא בּיּום האפוד נשׂא הוּא כּי האפוד הגּישׁה. In any case, וב'ני ישׂראל at the end of the verse should be read ישׂ לבני or לפני, since וּ gives no sense at all.

1 Samuel 14:19

“It increased more and more;” lit. increasing and becominggreater. The subject וגו וההמון is placed absolutely at thehead, so that the verb ויּלך brev eh is appended in the form of anapodosis. ידך אסף, “draw thy hand in” (back); i.e.,leave off now.

1 Samuel 14:20

“And (i.e., in consequence of the increasing tumult in theenemy's camp) Saul had himself, and all the people with him, called,” i.e.,called together for battle; and when they came to the war, i.e., to the placeof conflict, “behold, there was the sword of the one against the other, avery great confusion,” in consequence partly of terror, and partly of thecircumstance alluded to in 1 Samuel 14:21.

1 Samuel 14:21-22

“And the Hebrews were with the Philistines as before(yesterday and the day before yesterday), who had come along with themin the camp round about; they also came over to Israel, which was withSaul and Jonathan.” סביב means distributed round about amongthe Philistines. Those Israelites whom the Philistines had incorporatedinto their army are called Hebrews, according to the name which wascurrent among foreigners, whilst those who were with Saul are calledIsrael, according to the sacred name of the nation. The difficulty whichmany expositors have found in the word להיות has been verycorrectly solved, so far as the sense is concerned, by the earlier translators,by the interpolation of “they returned:” תבוּ (Chald.), ἐπεστράφησαν (lxx), reversi sunt (Vulg.), and similarly the Syriac and Arabic. We arenot at liberty, however, to amend the Hebrew text in this manner, asnothing more is omitted than the finite verb היוּ before theinfinitive להיות (for this construction, see Gesenius, Gramm. §132, 3, Anm. 1), and this might easily be left out here, since it stands atthe beginning of the verse in the main clause. The literal rendering wouldbe, they were to be with Israel, i.e., they came over to Israel. The fact thatthe Hebrews who were serving in the army of the Philistines came over toSaul and his host, and turned their weapons against their oppressors,naturally heightened the confusion in the camp of the Philistines, andaccelerated their defeat; and this was still further increased by the fact thatthe Israelites who had concealed themselves on the mountains of Ephraimalso joined the Israelitish army, as soon as they heard of the flight of thePhilistines (1 Samuel 14:22).

1 Samuel 14:23

“Thus the Lord helped Israel that day, and the conflict went outbeyond Bethaven.” Bethaven was on the east of Michmash, and, accordingto 1 Samuel 14:31, the Philistines fled westwards from Michmash to Ajalon. But ifwe bear in mind that the camp of the Philistines was on the eastern side ofMichmash before Bethaven, according to 1 Samuel 13:5, and that theIsraelites forced their way into it from the south, we shall see that thebattle might easily have spread out beyond Bethaven, and that eventuallythe main body of the enemy might have fled as far as Ajalon, and havebeen pursued to that point by the victorious Israelites.

Saul's precipitate haste. - 1 Samuel 14:24. The men of Israel were pressed (i.e.,fatigued) on that day, sc., through the military service and fighting. ThenSaul adjured the people, saying, “Cursed be the man that eateth bread untilthe evening, and (till) I have avenged myself upon mine enemies.” יאל, fut. apoc. of יאלה for יאלה, from אלה, to swear,Hiphil to adjure or require an oath of a person. The people took the oathby saying “amen” to what Saul had uttered. This command of Saul did notproceed from a proper attitude towards the Lord, but was an act of falsezeal, in which Saul had more regard to himself and his own kingly powerthan to the cause of the kingdom of Jehovah, as we may see at once fromthe expression וגו נקּמתּי, “till I have avenged myself uponmine enemies.” It was a despotic measure which not only failed toaccomplish its object (see 1 Samuel 14:30, 1 Samuel 14:31), but brought Saul into theunfortunate position of being unable to carry out the oath (see 1 Samuel 14:45). Allthe people kept the command. “They tasted no bread.” ולא־טעם is notto be connected with ונקּמתּי as an apodosis.

1 Samuel 14:25

“And all the land (i.e., all the people of the land who hadgathered round Saul: vid., 1 Samuel 14:29) came into the woody country; there washoney upon the field.” יער signifies here a woody district, inwhich forests alternated with tracts of arable land and meadows.

1 Samuel 14:26

When the people came into the wood and saw a stream of honey(or wild or wood bees), “no one put his hand to his mouth (sc., to eat ofthe honey), because they feared the oath.”

1 Samuel 14:27

But Jonathan, who had not heard his father's oath, dipped (inthe heat of pursuit, that he might not have to stop) the point of his staff inthe new honey, and put it to his mouth, “and his eyes became bright;” hislost strength, which is reflected in the eye, having been brought back bythis invigorating taste. The Chethibh תראנה is probably to be read תּראנה,the eyes became seeing, received their power of vision again. TheMasoretes have substituted as the Keri תּארנה, from אור, to become bright, according to 1 Samuel 14:29; and this is probably thecorrect reading, as the letters might easily be transposed.

1 Samuel 14:28-30

When one of the people told him thereupon of his father'soath, in consequence of which the people were exhausted (העם ויּעף belongs to the man's words; and ויּעף is thesame as in Judges 4:21), Jonathan condemned the prohibition. “My fatherhas brought the land (i.e., the people of the land, as in 1 Samuel 14:25) into trouble(עכר, see at Genesis 34:30): see how bright mine eyes have become because I tasted a little of this honey. How much more if the people had eaten to-day of the booty of its enemies, would not the overthrow among the Philistines truly have then become great?” כּי אף, lit. to this (there comes) also that = not to mention how much more; and עתּה כּי is an emphatic introduction of the apodosis, as in Genesis 31:42; Genesis 43:10, and other passages, and the apodosis itself is to be taken as a question.

Result of the battle, and consequences of Saul's rashness. - 1 Samuel 14:31. “On thatday they smote the Philistines from Michmash to Ajalon,” which has beenpreserved in the village of Yâlo (see at Joshua 19:42), and was about threegeographical miles to the south-west of Michmash; “and the people werevery faint,” because Saul had forbidden them to eat before the evening (1 Samuel 14:24).

1 Samuel 14:32

They therefore “fell voraciously upon the booty” - (the Chethibhויּעשׂ is no doubt merely an error in writing for ויּעט,imperf. Kal of עיט with Dagesh forte implic. instead of ויּעט, as we may see from 1 Samuel 15:19, since the meaning required bythe context, viz., to fall upon a thing, cannot be established in the case ofעשׂה with על. On the other hand, there does not appear tobe any necessity to supply the article before שׁלל, and this Keriseems only to have been taken from the parallel passage in 1 Samuel 15:19), - “and took sheep, and oxen, and calves, and slew them on the ground(ארצה, lit. to the earth, so that when they were slaughtered theanimal fell upon the ground, and remained lying in its blood, and was cut inpieces), and ate upon the blood” (הדּם על, with which הדּם אל,“lying to the blood,” is interchanged in 1 Samuel 14:34),i.e., the flesh along with the blood which adhered to it, by doing whichthey sinned against the law in Leviticus 19:26. This sin had been occasioned bySaul himself through the prohibition which he issued.

1 Samuel 14:33-34

When this was told to Saul, he said, “Ye act faithlesslytowards Jehovah” by transgressing the laws of the covenant; “roll me now(lit. this day) a large stone. Scatter yourselves among the people, and sayto them, Let every one bring his ox and his sheep to me, and slay here”(upon the stone that has been rolled up), viz., so that the blood could runoff properly upon the ground, and the flesh be separated from the blood. This the people also did.

1 Samuel 14:35

As a thanksgiving for this victory, Saul built an altar to the Lord. לבנות החל אתו, “he began to build it,” i.e., hebuilt this altar at the beginning, or as the first altar. This altar wasprobably not intended to serve as a place of sacrifice, but simply to be amemorial of the presence of God, or the revelation of God which Saul hadreceived in the marvellous victory.

1 Samuel 14:36

After the people had strengthened themselves in the eveningwith food, Saul wanted to pursue the Philistines still farther during thenight, and to plunder among them until the light (i.e., till break of day), andutterly destroy them. The people assented to this proposal, but the priest(Ahiah) wished first of all to obtain the decision of God upon the matter. “We will draw near to God here” (before the altar which has just beenbuilt).

1 Samuel 14:37

But when Saul inquired of God (through the Urim andThummim of the high priest), “Shall I go down after the Philistines? wiltThou deliver them into the hand of Israel?” God did not answer him. Saulwas to perceive from this, that the guilt of some sin was resting upon thepeople, on account of which the Lord had turned away His countenance,and was withdrawing His help.

1 Samuel 14:38-39

When Saul perceived, this, he directed all the heads of thepeople ((pinnoth), as in Judges 20:2) to draw near to learn whereby (wherein)the sin had occurred that day, and declared, “As truly as Jehovah liveth,who has brought salvation to Israel, even if it were upon Jonathan my son,he shall die.” The first כּי in 1 Samuel 14:39 is explanatory; the second andthird serve to introduce the words, like ὅτι , quod; and the repetitionserves to give emphasis, lit., “that even if it were upon my son, that heshall die.” “And of all the people no one answered him,” from terror at theking's word.

1 Samuel 14:40-41