1 Samuel 14:29

14:24-35 Saul's severe order was very unwise; if it gained time, it lost strength for the pursuit. Such is the nature of our bodies, that daily work cannot be done without daily bread, which therefore our Father in heaven graciously gives. Saul was turning aside from God, and now he begins to build altars, being then most zealous, as many are, for the form of godliness when he was denying the power of it.

Then said Jonathan, my father hath troubled the land,.... The people of the land, as the Targum, the soldiers in his army; afflicted and distressed them, and made them uneasy in their minds, like troubled waters; the Arabic version is,"my father hath sinned against the people;''hath done them injury by forbidding them to eat. This was not wisely said by Jonathan; how much soever his father was to be blamed, it did not become him as a son thus to reflect upon him, and it might have tended to mutiny and sedition: see, I pray you, how mine eyes have been enlightened, because I tasted a little of this honey; the benefit he received by it was very visible; it might easily be discerned that he was greatly refreshed with it, and his spirits invigorated by it; it was to be seen in the cheerfulness of his countenance, and the briskness of his eyes: and he suggests it would have had the same effect upon the people, had they eaten of it, as he had done.

(29) My father hath troubled the land. —In other words, “My father’s ill-considered vow has done-grave harm to us in Israel. Had he not weakened the people, by hindering them from taking the needful refreshment, our victory would have been far more complete. Utter exhaustion has prevented us from following up our victory.”

25. all they of the land came to a wood; and there was honey—The honey is described as "upon the ground," "dropping" from the trees, and in honeycombs—indicating it to be bees' honey. "Bees in the East are not, as in England, kept in hives; they are all in a wild state. The forests literally flow with honey; large combs may be seen hanging on the trees as you pass along, full of honey" [Roberts].

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 Judges 4:21 ), Jonathan condemned the prohibition. "My father has 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 equals 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.

Verse 29. - And the king sware [see on ver., 51] and said, As the Lord liveth [or "by the life of Jehovah." Cf. "by the life of Pharaoh" ( Genesis 42:15 ). This was the common form of oath. See, e.g. , 1 Kings 2:24 ; Judges 8:19 ; Ruth 3:13 ; 1 Samuel 14:39 ; 1 Samuel 19:6 ; 1 Samuel 20:24 ; 1 Samuel 29:6 ; and especially Jeremiah 4:2 ; Jeremiah 5:2 ; Hosea 4:15 . It is characteristic of David to introduce into the formula some such clause as the following], that hath redeemed my soul [ i.e. , life] out of all distress. Same expression as in 2 Samuel 4:9 . Similar expressions are found in Psalm 25:22 , and Psalm 34:22. The repeated deliverance out of straits and danger - "out of the hand of all his enemies, and out of the hand of Saul" - was one of the most remarkable features of David's life, and it is no wonder that he repeatedly commemorates it, converting every adjuration into an act of thanksgiving. Similarly, Jacob ( Genesis 48:16 .) 1 Kings 1:29