1 Samuel 14:24-46
The Voice
24 But Saul did a foolish thing: he placed all of his troops under an oath that caused added pressure.
Saul: A curse on anyone who stops to eat before evening comes and I have my revenge on my enemies!
So none of the army ate anything, 25 [although they passed through a forest and by a honeycomb][a] with honey on the ground. 26 The people passed and the honey was dripping out, but none of them reached out for a taste because they were afraid of Saul’s curse. 27 But Jonathan had not heard Saul’s words, so when he passed the honeycomb, he reached out with the staff he was carrying, took some honey, put it in his mouth, and immediately felt refreshed.
Soldier: 28 Your father strictly charged us not to eat anything! He said we would be cursed if we did; that is why we are so weak with hunger.
Jonathan: 29 Then my father has troubled our people for no reason. See how much stronger I am after tasting the honey? 30 Wouldn’t it have been better if our soldiers had been free to eat some of the food they had taken from the enemy? Our slaughter of the Philistines is not as great as it could be because we are too weak to pursue it!
31 So after this victory, after the Israelites had crushed the Philistines from Michmash to Aijalon, they were faint. 32 When evening came and they were permitted to eat, they seized the spoils of battle, took sheep and oxen and calves, slaughtered them on the ground, and ate them with their blood, which is strictly forbidden by the law of Moses. 33 This was reported to Saul.
Soldier: Look, our soldiers are sinning against the Eternal One by eating the meat together with the blood of those animals!
Saul: You should not have done this. Roll a large stone before me here so I can prepare an altar. 34 Go among the people and tell them, “Bring your oxen or sheep; kill them here, and eat, but do not sin against the Eternal by eating the meat together with the blood.”
So all the soldiers brought their own animals that night and slaughtered them at the stone altar. 35 This was the first altar Saul built to the Eternal One.
Saul: 36 Let us go down against the Philistine forces tonight and attack them until morning, until not one of them is left alive.
His followers encouraged him to do as he wished, everyone that is, except for the priest.
Priest (protesting): Let us consult the True God.
So Saul and his priest come before the Lord and perform the appropriate rituals so that he can know the will of God.
Saul (to God): 37 Do You want me to go after the Philistines tonight? If we go, will You give Israel victory?
But God did not answer him that day. 38 So he gathered the people together.
Saul: Come now, all you leaders of the land. Let us determine where we have sinned today. 39 For as the Eternal One—the God who delivers Israel—lives, wherever the sin lies, even in my son Jonathan, that person will surely die!
No one among the people answered him. 40 So Saul separated himself and Jonathan from the others, ordering the people to stand on one side and he and Jonathan on the other.
People: Do as you please.
41 Then Saul asked the Eternal One, the God of Israel, to reveal the truth. [The priest consulted the stones of the divine oracle to determine whether the sin was committed by the common people of Israel or by someone in his royal family.][b] The oracle indicated that the family of Saul, not the people of Israel, was at fault.
Saul (to the priest): 42 Cast again to see whether it is me or my son Jonathan.
The results indicated Jonathan.
Saul (to Jonathan): 43 What have you done?
Jonathan: I certainly tasted a little honey with the tip of the staff I carried. I am ready to die.
Saul: 44 May the True God do the same and more to me, my son. Jonathan, you must die.
But the people step in to protect Jonathan.
People (to Saul): 45 Would you execute Jonathan, the one who won Israel’s great victory? Of course not! As the Eternal One lives, not a hair of his head should be harmed because he worked with the True God today to give us victory!
So the people ransomed Jonathan, and he was not killed. 46 Saul, now humiliated, stopped pursuing the Philistines, and the Philistines who were left returned to their own land.
Read full chapterThe Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
