1 Samuel 14:38

14:36-46 If God turns away our prayer, we have reason to suspect it is for some sin harboured in our hearts, which we should find out, that we may put it away, and put it to death. We should always first suspect and examine ourselves; but an unhumbled heart suspects every other person, and looks every where but at home for the sinful cause of calamity. Jonathan was discovered to be the offender. Those most indulgent to their own sins are most severe upon others; those who most disregard God's authority, are most impatient when their own commands are slighted. Such as cast abroad curses, endanger themselves and their families. What do we observe in the whole of Saul's behaviour on this occasion, but an impetuous, proud, malignant, impious disposition? And do we not in every instance perceive that man, left to himself, betrays the depravity of his nature, and is enslaved to the basest tempers.

And Saul said, draw ye near hither all the chief of the people,.... Or, the corners of the peoples (g); the princes, as Jarchi interprets it: and so the Targum, the heads of the people, in allusion to the cornerstones in buildings, which are the ornament, strength, and cement of them, see Zechariah 10:4 , though Abarbinel thinks the tribes themselves are meant, which lay encamped everyone in a corner by themselves, separated from one another; and these he would have brought together; not the heads only, but everyone, small and great, that it might be seen and known where the sin lay; but he should have observed, that the tribes of Israel were not now present with Saul, but a small number of them: and know and see wherein this sin hath been this day; he concluded, from having no answer from the Lord, that sin had been committed, which was the cause of it; but never thought of his own rash oath, which was the cause of the people's sinning, and had brought his son into danger; nor the sin of the people in eating the flesh with the blood; nothing ran in his mind but the breach of the oath with which he had adjured the people, and this he was determined to find out, if possible. (g) "anguli populi", Pagninus, Montanus, &c.

38 . the chief of the people ] Lit. “the corner-stones of the people,” as in Jdg 20:2 , probably the elders or heads of houses. wherein this sin hath been ] Saul assumes that some undiscovered sin must have caused God to refuse an answer, as Achan’s trespass led Him to withdraw His Presence and abandon Israel to defeat ( Joshua 7:11-12 ). At a later time Saul’s own sin made God desert Him in the same way (ch. 1 Samuel 28:6 ; 1 Samuel 28:15 ). Jonathan’s transgression of the oath, although unintentional, was an offence against the Majesty of the Divine Name which could not be left unnoticed. 1 Samuel 14:38

(38) Draw ye near hither. —Round that rough unfinished altar, in the dark night, King Saul hastily summoned his leading officers and the prominent chiefs of the Israelites who had joined him in the late battle. The word rendered “chief of the people” ( pinnoth ) is literally, corner stones (as in Judges 20:2 ). He would ask God’s help in the casting of lots, to discover who of these was the transgressor, whose sin made dumb the Divine Oracle.

Were distressed, with hunger, and weakness, and faintness, thence arising; and all by reason of the following oath. As Saul’s intention was good, namely, to execute vengeance upon God’s and his enemies; so the matter of the obligation was not simply and in itself unlawful, if it had not been so rigorous in excluding all food, without any exception of cases of necessity; and in obliging the people to it under pain of a curse, and an accursed death, 1 Samuel 14:38,39,44 , which was a punishment far exceeding the fault. None of the people tasted any food; partly in obedience to the king’s command; and partly for fear of the curse.

31-34. the people were very faint. And the people flew upon the spoil—at evening, when the time fixed by Saul had expired. Faint and famishing, the pursuers fell voraciously upon the cattle they had taken, and threw them on the ground to cut off their flesh and eat them raw, so that the army, by Saul's rashness, were defiled by eating blood, or living animals; probably, as the Abyssinians do, who cut a part of the animal's rump, but close the hide upon it, and nothing mortal follows from that wound. They were painfully conscientious in keeping the king's order for fear of the curse, but had no scruple in transgressing God's command. To prevent this violation of the law, Saul ordered a large stone to be rolled, and those that slaughtered the oxen to cut their throats on that stone. By laying the animal's head on the high stone, the blood oozed out on the ground, and sufficient evidence was afforded that the ox or sheep was dead before it was attempted to eat it.

When Saul perceived, this, he directed all the heads of the people (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 and third serve to introduce the words, like ὅτι, quod; and the repetition serves to give emphasis, lit., "that even if it were upon my son, that he shall die." "And of all the people no one answered him," from terror at the king's word.

Verses 37, 38. - He answered him not. From this silence Saul concludes that some sin has been committed, and therefore calls together all the chief of the people - literally, "the corner stones" ( Judges 20:2 ) - to inquire who was the guilty person, and wherein he had sinned. 1 Samuel 14:37

Verse 13. - Seven years of famine. In 1 Chronicles 21:12 and here in the Septuagint we find "three years." This is probably right as being in harmony with the rest. Three years of famine, three months of defeat, or three days of pestilence. In Ezekiel 14:21 famine, pestilence, and the sword are mentioned as three of God's four sore judgments. But a fourth judgment is there enumerated, namely, that of the increase of wild beasts, and Joshua the Stylite says that in Mesopotamia, as a result of the desolating war between the Romans and Persians, about A.D. , beasts of prey had become so numerous that they entered the villages and carried off the children from the streets, and were so bold and ferocious that even the men scarcely dared go about their labours in the fields (Jos. Styl., edit. Ur., chap. 85). Now advise, and see; Hebrew, now know, and see. The phrase is common in the historical books (see 1 Samuel 12:17 ; 1 Samuel 14:38 ; 1 Samuel 23:22 ; 1 Samuel 24:11 ; 1 Samuel 25:17 , etc.). Our translators render the phrase in a multitude of ways without greatly improving it. 2 Samuel 24:13