1 Samuel 14:35

_AND SAUL SAID, DISPERSE YOURSELVES AMONG THE PEOPLE, AND SAY UNTO THEM, BRING ME HITHER EVERY MAN HIS OX, AND EVERY MAN HIS SHEEP, AND SLAY THEM HERE, AND EAT; AND SIN NOT AGAINST THE LORD IN EATING WITH THE BLOOD. AND ALL THE PEOPLE BROUGHT EVERY MAN HIS OX WITH HIM THAT NIGHT, AND SLEW THEM THERE._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

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....

Verse 1 Samuel 14:35. _SAUL BUILT AN ALTAR_] And this we are informed was _the_ _first_ he had built; Samuel, as prophet had hitherto erected the altars, and Saul thought he had sufficient authority to erect one himself without the prophet, as he once offered sacrifice without him....

AND SAUL BUILT ... - i. e., of the great stone which they had rolled to kill the oxen and sheep upon, he began to build an altar to Yahweh (see the margin); but he did not finish it (compare 1 Chronicles 27:24), in his haste to pursue the Philistines that night....

EXPOSITION JONATHAN SMITES THE PHILISTINE GAR-BISON (1 Samuel 14:1). 1 SAMUEL 14:1 NOW IT CAME TO PASS UPON A DAY. Literally, "And there was a day, and Jonathan," etc.; or, as we should say, And it happened one day that Jonathan. The phrase means that Jonathan's brave feat took place not many days after the garrison had occupied the cliff, probably only two or three, but without definitely stating how many. HE TOLD NOT HIS FATHER. Not only because Saul would have forbidden so rash an enterprise, but because secrecy was essential to any chance of success: probably too the purpose came upon him as an inspiration from above....

AND SAUL BUILT AN ALTAR UNTO THE LORD,.... To offer peace offerings upon, in thankfulness for the victory obtained over his enemies, or sin offerings to make atonement for the sin of the people, perhaps both, however the former: THE SAME WAS THE FIRST ALTAR THAT HE BUILT UNTO THE LORD; for though he had offered sacrifice at Gilgal, there was an altar ready built for him: or "he began to build"; he laid the first stone of it, and the builders built upon it; so some others say, that he was the first of the kings that built an altar to the Lord d; others, the first of the judges that built one; though Gideon built one, it was for his own private use, not for all Israel, as this, so R. Isaiah; but Ben Gersom, and so Abarbinel, refer this to the great stone Saul ordered to be rolled to him, and take the sense to be, that that began to be built an altar to the Lord; that was the beginning of...

7. JONATHAN'S HEROIC DEED OF FAITH CHAPTER 14 _ 1. Jonathan's victory (1 Samuel 14:1)_ 2. Saul's adjuration and Jonathan's deed (1 Samuel 14:24) 3. Saul's first altar and unanswered inquiry (1 Samuel 14:33) 4. Jonathan condemned and saved (1 Samuel 14:38) 5. Saul's battle and success (1 Samuel 14:46) 6. Saul's family (1 Samuel 14:49) Jonathan, one of the most beautiful characters

The pursuit continued as far as Aijalon. When it stopped, the exhausted people flew upon the cattle and sheep and ate them with the blood, a ritual sin (Genesis 9:4 *, Leviticus 17:10 *), at which Saul was greatly distressed; he was evidently punctilious as to religious observances. He had a great stone set up as an altar, and had the animals for food slain in proper sacrificial fashion....

The sin of the people 31. _from Michmash to Aijalon_ See note on 1 Samuel 14:23....

THE SAME WAS THE FIRST ALTAR THAT HE BUILT UNTO THE LORD— In the Margin of our Bibles, _that altar he began to build unto the Lord; i.e_. he laid the first stone himself. Houbigant after the Arabic reads, _and when he had begun to build an altar unto the Lord,_ 1 Samuel 14:36. _He said, Let us,_ &c....