Attributed commentary excerpt
Keil & Delitzsch on 1 Samuel 14:24
A historical reference excerpt for this verse. Read it alongside the biblical text and other available sources.
Commentary on the Old Testament
C. F. Keil & F. Delitzsch · 19th-century historical commentary
Source: BibleWord.ai's local reference edition of this named work.
Saul's precipitate haste. - Sa1 14:24. The men of Israel were pressed (i.e., fatigued) on that day, sc., through the military service and fighting. Then Saul adjured the people, saying, "Cursed be the man that eateth bread until the 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 oath by saying "amen" to what Saul had uttered. This command of Saul did not proceed from a proper attitude towards the Lord, but was an act of false zeal, in which Saul had more regard to himself and his own kingly power than to the cause of the kingdom of Jehovah, as we may see at once from the expression וגו נקּמתּי, "till I have avenged myself upon mine enemies." It was a despotic measure which not only failed to accomplish its object (see Sa1 14:30, Sa1 14:31), but brought Saul into the unfortunate position of being unable to carry out the oath (see Sa1 14:45). All the people kept the command. "They tasted no bread." ולא־טעם is not to be connected with ונקּמתּי as an apodosis. Sa1 14:25 "And all the land (i.e., all the people of the land who had gathered round Saul: vid., Sa1 14:29) came into the woody country; there was honey upon the field." יער signifies here a woody district, in which forests alternated with tracts of arable land and meadows. Sa1 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 of the honey), because they feared the oath." Sa1 14:27 But Jonathan, who had not heard his father's oath, dipped (in the heat of pursuit, that he might not have to stop) the point of his staff in the new honey, and put it to his mouth, "and his eyes became bright;" his lost strength, which is reflected in the eye, having been brought back by this invigorating taste. The Chethibh תראנה is probably to be read תּראנה, the eyes became seeing, received their power of vision again. The Masoretes have substituted as the Keri תּארנה, from אור, to become bright, according to Sa1 14:29; and this is probably the correct reading, as the letters might easily be transposed. Sa1 14:28-30 When one of the people told him thereupon of his father's oath, in consequence of which the people were exhausted (העם ויּעף belongs to the man's words; and ויּעף is the same as in Jdg 4:21), Jonathan condemned the prohibition. "My father has brought the land (i.e., the people of the land, as in Sa1 14:25) into trouble (עכר, see at Gen 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 Gen 31:42; Gen 43:10, and other passages, and the apodosis itself is to be taken as a question. 1 Kings (1 Samuel) 14:31
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