1 Samuel 14: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Jonathan and his armor-bearer secretly cross to a Philistine outpost and kill about twenty men, and God sends panic through the Philistine camp so that the Philistines turn their swords on each other. Saul and his troops join the fight, and Israel wins, but Saul has bound the army with an oath that no one may eat until evening. Jonathan, who did not hear the oath, eats honey; when lots single him out, Saul says he must die, and the troops step in and save him. The chapter closes with a list of Saul's wars, his family, and his practice of enlisting every strong man he saw.

Claim by Claim

1. 14:1
   • One day Jonathan the son of Saul spoke to the young man who carried his armor.
   • Jonathan told him to come and cross over to the Philistine garrison on the other side.
   • Jonathan did not tell his father that he was going.
2. 14:2
   • Saul was staying at the edge of Gibeah under the pomegranate tree that is in Migron.
   • The people with Saul numbered about six hundred men.
3. 14:3
   • Ahiah was carrying an ephod.
   • Ahiah was the son of Ahitub.
   • Ahitub was the brother of Ichabod.
   • Ahitub was the son of Phinehas.
   • Phinehas was the son of Eli.
   • Eli was the LORD's priest in Shiloh.
   • The people did not know that Jonathan had gone.
4. 14:4
   • Between the passes by which Jonathan sought to cross over to the Philistine garrison there was a rocky crag on one side.
   • There was another rocky crag on the other side.
   • One crag was named Bozez.
   • The other crag was named Seneh.
5. 14:5
   • One crag stood on the north, facing Michmash.
   • The other crag stood on the south, facing Geba.
6. 14:6
   • Jonathan told his armorbearer to come and cross over to the garrison of these uncircumcised men.
   • Jonathan said that perhaps the LORD would act on their behalf.
   • Jonathan said there is no restraint on the LORD to save by many or by few.
7. 14:7
   • The armorbearer told Jonathan to do all that was in his heart.
   • The armorbearer told Jonathan to turn wherever he wished.
   • The armorbearer said he was with Jonathan according to Jonathan's heart.
8. 14:8
   • Jonathan said they would cross over to the men.
   • Jonathan said they would show themselves to the men.
9. 14:9
   • Jonathan said that if the men told them to wait until they came to them, then they would stand still where they were.
   • Jonathan said that in that case they would not go up to them.
10. 14:10
    • Jonathan said that if the men told them to come up, then they would go up.
    • Jonathan said that in that case the LORD had given the Philistines into their hand.
    • Jonathan said this would be the sign for them.
11. 14:11
    • Both of them showed themselves to the Philistine garrison.
    • The Philistines said that the Hebrews were coming out of the holes where they had hidden themselves.
12. 14:12
    • The men of the garrison called out to Jonathan and his armorbearer.
    • They told them to come up to them.
    • They said they would make something known to them.
    • Jonathan told his armorbearer to come up after him.
    • Jonathan said the LORD had given them into the hand of Israel.
13. 14:13
    • Jonathan climbed up on his hands and his feet.
    • His armorbearer climbed up behind him.
    • The Philistines fell before Jonathan.
    • His armorbearer killed them behind him.
14. 14:14
    • The first slaughter that Jonathan and his armorbearer made was about twenty men.
    • The killing took place within a small area measured by an obscure term, roughly half the furrow of a yoke of oxen in a field, which the King James renders as about half an acre of land that a yoke of oxen might plow.
15. 14:15
    • There was trembling in the camp, in the field, and among all the people.
    • The garrison and the raiding parties also trembled.
    • The earth quaked.
    • It became a trembling of God, which may mean a terror sent by God or an exceedingly great terror.
16. 14:16
    • Saul's watchmen in Gibeah of Benjamin looked.
    • The crowd of Philistines was melting away.
    • The crowd was moving about in a disordered way, the wording being obscure and rendered in the King James as beating down one another.
17. 14:17
    • Saul told the people with him to muster and see who had gone from them.
    • They mustered the people.
    • Jonathan and his armorbearer were not there.
18. 14:18
    • Saul told Ahiah to bring the ark of God.
    • The ark of God was at that time with the children of Israel.
19. 14:19
    • While Saul was speaking to the priest, the uproar in the Philistine camp kept increasing.
    • Saul told the priest to withdraw his hand.
20. 14:20
    • Saul and all the people with him were called together.
    • They came to the battle.
    • Every Philistine's sword was against his fellow.
    • There was a very great confusion.
21. 14:21
    • The Hebrews who had previously been with the Philistines and had gone up with them into the camp from round about turned to be with the Israelites who were with Saul and Jonathan.
22. 14:22
    • All the men of Israel who had hidden themselves in the hill country of Ephraim heard that the Philistines were fleeing.
    • They also pursued the Philistines closely in the battle.
23. 14:23
    • The LORD saved Israel that day.
    • The battle passed on beyond Beth-aven.
24. 14:24
    • The men of Israel were hard pressed that day.
    • Saul had put the people under an oath.
    • Saul said cursed be the man who eats any food until evening.
    • Saul said this was until he was avenged on his enemies.
    • None of the people tasted any food.
25. 14:25
    • All the land came into the forest.
    • There was honey on the surface of the ground.
26. 14:26
    • The people came into the forest.
    • The honey was flowing.
    • No one put his hand to his mouth.
    • The people feared the oath.
27. 14:27
    • Jonathan had not heard his father put the people under the oath.
    • Jonathan put out the end of the staff that was in his hand.
    • Jonathan dipped it in the honeycomb.
    • Jonathan put his hand to his mouth.
    • Jonathan's eyes brightened.
28. 14:28
    • One of the people spoke to Jonathan.
    • He said Jonathan's father had strictly bound the people with an oath.
    • He quoted the oath as cursing the man who eats food that day.
    • He said the people were faint.
29. 14:29
    • Jonathan said his father had brought trouble on the land.
    • Jonathan told them to see how his eyes had brightened.
    • Jonathan said this was because he had tasted a little of this honey.
30. 14:30
    • Jonathan said it would have been far better if the people had eaten freely that day of the spoil of their enemies which they found.
    • Jonathan said that as it was, the slaughter among the Philistines had not been great.
31. 14:31
    • They struck the Philistines that day from Michmash to Aijalon.
    • The people were very faint.
32. 14:32
    • The people rushed upon the spoil.
    • They took sheep, oxen, and calves.
    • They slaughtered them on the ground.
    • The people ate them with the blood.
33. 14:33
    • They told Saul that the people were sinning against the LORD by eating with the blood.
    • Saul said they had acted treacherously.
    • Saul told them to roll a great stone to him that day.
34. 14:34
    • Saul told them to scatter among the people.
    • Saul told them to say to the people that each man should bring his ox and his sheep to him.
    • Saul said they should slaughter them there and eat.
    • Saul said they should not sin against the LORD by eating with the blood.
    • All the people each brought his ox with him that night.
    • They slaughtered them there.
35. 14:35
    • Saul built an altar to the LORD.
    • That was the first altar he built to the LORD, the wording leaving it open whether it means this was his first altar or that he began building an altar.
36. 14:36
    • Saul said let us go down after the Philistines by night.
    • Saul said let us plunder them until the morning light.
    • Saul said let us not leave a man of them.
    • The people said to do whatever seemed good to him.
    • The priest said let us draw near to God here.
37. 14:37
    • Saul inquired of God whether he should go down after the Philistines.
    • Saul asked whether God would give them into the hand of Israel.
    • God did not answer him that day.
38. 14:38
    • Saul told all the leaders of the people to draw near there.
    • Saul told them to find out how this sin had happened that day.
39. 14:39
    • Saul swore by the life of the LORD who saves Israel.
    • Saul said that even if the guilt were in Jonathan his son, he would surely die.
    • No one among all the people answered him.
40. 14:40
    • Saul told all Israel to be on one side.
    • Saul said he and Jonathan his son would be on the other side.
    • The people told Saul to do what seemed good to him.
41. 14:41
    • Saul said to the LORD the God of Israel, Give a perfect lot.
    • Jonathan and Saul were taken.
    • The people were cleared.
42. 14:42
    • Saul said to cast lots between him and Jonathan his son.
    • Jonathan was taken.
43. 14:43
    • Saul told Jonathan to tell him what he had done.
    • Jonathan told him.
    • Jonathan said he had only tasted a little honey with the end of the staff in his hand.
    • Jonathan said that now he must die.
44. 14:44
    • Saul said may God do so and more also.
    • Saul said Jonathan would surely die.
45. 14:45
    • The people asked Saul whether Jonathan should die.
    • The people said Jonathan had accomplished this great deliverance in Israel.
    • The people said far be it.
    • The people swore by the life of the LORD that not one hair of Jonathan's head would fall to the ground.
    • The people said Jonathan had worked with God that day.
    • The people ransomed Jonathan.
    • Jonathan did not die.
46. 14:46
    • Saul went up from pursuing the Philistines.
    • The Philistines went to their own place.
47. 14:47
    • Saul took hold of the kingship over Israel.
    • Saul fought against all his enemies on every side.
    • He fought against Moab.
    • He fought against the children of Ammon.
    • He fought against Edom.
    • He fought against the kings of Zobah.
    • He fought against the Philistines.
    • Wherever he turned he dealt harshly with them, the verb being ambiguous between condemning, punishing, and prevailing.
48. 14:48
    • Saul acted with strength, which may mean he did valiantly or that he raised an army.
    • Saul struck Amalek.
    • Saul delivered Israel from the hand of those who plundered it.
49. 14:49
    • The sons of Saul were Jonathan, Ishvi, and Malchishua.
    • Saul had two daughters.
    • The name of the firstborn daughter was Merab.
    • The name of the younger daughter was Michal.
50. 14:50
    • The name of Saul's wife was Ahinoam.
    • Ahinoam was the daughter of Ahimaaz.
    • The name of the commander of Saul's army was Abner.
    • Abner was the son of Ner.
    • Ner was Saul's uncle.
51. 14:51
    • Kish was the father of Saul.
    • Ner was the father of Abner.
    • Ner was the son of Abiel, though the wording leaves it open whether Kish was also a son of Abiel.
52. 14:52
    • The war against the Philistines was fierce all the days of Saul.
    • Whenever Saul saw any mighty man or any valiant man, he took him to himself.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

14:1

The Philistines were a people settled in five cities on the coastal plain southwest of Israel; through this period they dominated the hill country and controlled the working of iron. A "garrison" or outpost was a small forward post of soldiers holding a strategic point, here, one side of a steep pass.

14:2

Gibeah was Saul's home town and his base as king. The six hundred men are what is left of his army: chapter 13 describes most of his troops slipping away in fear. Migron's location is unknown; the pomegranate tree is named as a landmark, the way a place might be called "the big oak."

14:3

An ephod was a priestly garment. In passages like this one it goes with the priest's role in getting answers from God, since the sacred lots (see verse 41) were carried in it. Ahiah's family line is traced back to Eli, the priest at Shiloh, where Israel's tent-shrine and the ark stood until the Philistines captured the ark a generation earlier. Ichabod was Ahiah's uncle, born as that disaster broke; his name means roughly "no glory" or "the glory has gone."

14:4

The pass is the deep ravine between Michmash and Geba, with cliffs on either side. Bozez and Seneh are the local names of the two crags; their meanings are uncertain, possibly "shining" and "thorny."

14:5

Geba is a town distinct from Saul's Gibeah, and the King James prints Gibeah here. The two names are easily confused and old copies vary between them.

14:6

Circumcision marked Israelite men; the Philistines did not practice it, and "the uncircumcised" was a contemptuous nickname for them, roughly "these outsiders."

14:10

Agreeing in advance that a particular event will count as an answer was a recognized way of putting a decision to God. Jonathan lets the Philistines' own words decide whether he attacks.

14:11

Chapter 13 describes Israelites hiding from Philistine raiding parties in caves, thickets and pits. The taunt assumes these two men are frightened stragglers creeping out of hiding.

14:12

"We will show you a thing" is a taunt, we'll teach you a lesson. It is also a challenge to climb the cliff, which is exactly what Jonathan wanted to hear.

14:13

Climbing on hands and feet tells you how steep the cliff was: this was scrambling, not walking, which is why the Philistines above felt safe. "They fell before Jonathan" means they were struck down, not that they bowed.

14:14

The Hebrew measure is obscure: literally something like "half a furrow of a yoke of field," that is, the strip of ground a pair of oxen would plow. It describes a small patch of fighting ground rather than an exact area.

14:15

The Hebrew says "a trembling of God." That can mean a panic sent by God, or simply an enormous panic, since "of God" was also used as an intensifier. The wording leaves both open.

14:16

"Melted away" is a standard Hebrew image for an army losing its nerve and dissolving as a fighting force. Watchmen were lookouts posted on high ground to report movement.

14:18

The ark was the gilded chest holding the tablets of the covenant, treated as the sign of God's presence and sometimes carried out with the army. The ancient Greek translation reads "ephod" here instead of "ark", the priestly item used for consulting God, which fits Saul's words to the priest in the next verse.

14:19

"Withdraw your hand" means stop the consultation. The priest was in the middle of the procedure for seeking an answer from God; Saul breaks it off to attack at once.

14:20

"Discomfiture" has weakened since 1611. Then it meant a total rout, an army collapsing into chaos; it did not mean embarrassment.

14:21

"Hebrew" is the term outsiders use for Israelites in these chapters. These men were Israelites who had been serving with the Philistine forces, whether as hired soldiers or as subjects of Philistine control, and who now switch sides.

14:22

Ephraim was a hilly part of the land of Israel. It had many caves and woods to hide in.

14:23

Bethaven was a place near Bethel, in the hills west of Michmash; the fighting is being driven back down the ridge away from Saul's territory.

14:24

An oath of this kind was a formal curse laid on the whole army: whoever broke it called destruction down on himself. Going without food was a recognized way of setting troops apart for a battle understood as sacred, but here it costs the men the strength to pursue.

14:25

Wild bees nested in rock crevices and hollow trees; honeycomb could break loose and drip on the ground, free for the taking.

14:27

"His eyes brightened" is a Hebrew way of saying his strength came back. Exhaustion was described as the eyes growing dim.

14:28

"Straitly charged" means bound them strictly and tightly. It has nothing to do with the modern sense of straight or narrow.

14:29

"Troubled the land" is stronger in Hebrew than it sounds in English. The verb means to bring ruin or disaster on something, the word used of a person whose action wrecks everyone around him.

14:30

"If haply" means if only, or perhaps. The "spoil" is everything captured from the enemy, which in a raiding war meant food and livestock above all: the army was starving while walking past its own captured supplies.

14:31

Aijalon lies roughly fifteen to twenty miles west of Michmash, down out of the hills toward the plain, a long day's running fight.

14:32

Israelite law forbade eating meat with the blood still in it: the blood was held to be the life of the animal and belonged to God, so it had to be drained out at slaughter. Killing animals on the bare ground in haste left the blood in the meat.

14:33

The stone gives a raised surface to butcher on, so the blood runs off and drains away instead of collecting under the carcass, a way of making a hasty field slaughter meet the requirement.

14:35

An altar was a platform of stone for killing and burning offerings. The narrator's remark that this was Saul's first is a plain fact about the king, dropped in without comment.

14:36

The priest is proposing that they put the question to God before marching, through the formal procedure of inquiry rather than acting on Saul's word alone.

14:37

Inquiry of this kind was a yes-or-no question put through the priest, most likely answered by the sacred lots. No answer at all was itself read as a signal that something was wrong.

14:39

"As the LORD lives" was the strongest form of oath, staking the speaker's own standing on carrying out what he swears.

14:41

The Hebrew text here is very short, literally something like "give a flawless answer." The ancient Greek and Latin versions preserve a longer sentence: "If this guilt is in me or in my son Jonathan, give Urim; if it is in your people Israel, give Thummim." Urim and Thummim were the two sacred lots carried by the priest, used to get one of two answers to a question. The rendering follows the short Hebrew.

14:42

Casting lots meant drawing or throwing marked objects to settle a question; the result was taken as God's answer, not chance.

14:43

Jonathan's last words can be read as a flat statement or as a question, "and now am I to die?" The Hebrew allows both, and translators have to pick one.

14:44

Literally "God do so to me, and more also", a set formula in which the speaker calls down punishment on himself if he fails to do what he has just sworn.

14:45

"Not one hair of his head will fall" is an idiom for complete safety. The word translated "rescued" is one normally used for buying someone back or paying a ransom; the text does not say whether anything was actually given in Jonathan's place.

14:47

Moab, Ammon and Edom were neighboring kingdoms east and southeast of the Jordan; Zobah was an Aramean kingdom well to the north. The list sketches fighting on every frontier at once.

14:48

The Amalekites were nomadic raiders of the southern desert margins, remembered as long-standing enemies who attacked Israel on the way out of Egypt.

14:49

Other lists of Saul's sons give different names (Abinadab, and Ishbosheth or Esh-baal) and ancient copies vary. Men of this period often bore more than one name form.

14:50

The Hebrew leaves it open whether "Saul's uncle" describes Abner or his father Ner. The next verse, making Kish and Ner both sons of Abiel, points to Ner as the uncle and Abner as Saul's cousin.

14:52

Saul is building a permanent royal force, drafting promising fighters into his own service rather than calling up farmers only when war came, a new thing in Israel.