Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Joshua 10:12 Then spake Joshua to the LORD in the day when the LORD delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of…
Joshua 19:42 And Shaalabbin, and Ajalon, and Jethlah,
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 1 Samuel 14:24-35
We have here an account of the distress of the children of Israel, even in the day of their triumphs. Such alloys are all present joys subject to. And such obstructions does many a good cause meet with, even when it seems most prosperous, through the mismanagement of instruments.
I. Saul forbade the people, under the penalty of a curse, to taste any food that day, Sa1 14:24. Here we will suppose, 1. That as king he had power to put his soldiers under this interdict, and to bind it on with a curse; and therefore they submitted to it, and God so far owned it as to discover, by the lot, that Jonathan was the delinquent that had meddled with the accursed thing (though ignorantly), on which accou…
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…
They smote the Philistines - from Mishmash to Aijalon - The distance Calmet states to be three or four leagues.
John Gill on 1 Samuel 14:31
And they smote the Philistines that day from Michmash to Aijalon,.... Michmash was the place where the camp of the Philistines was when Jonathan first attacked them, and from whence they fled, and they were pursued by the Israelites that day as far as Aijalon. There was a city of this name in the tribe of Dan, famous for the moon standing still in a valley adjoining to it, in the time of Joshua, Joshua 10:12 and another in the tribe of Zebulun, Judges 12:12, but they both seem to be at too great a distance to be the place here meant, which rather seems to be Aijalon in the tribe of Judah, 2 Chronicles 11:10 according to Bunting (z), it was twelve miles from Michmash:
and the people were ver…
The Church Fathers
So on that day they struck down the Philistines, etc. Ajalon signifies great humility. In all the things the Church rightly does, it strikes at the Philistines; because through the good it does, it diminishes the powers of evil spirits; because they must be struck down beginning from humility, up to the breadth of perfected virtue, from the beginning of faith up to the fruitful amplitude of charity. Of which it is said: Your commandment is exceedingly broad (Psalm 119). But even the very state of the universal Church, beginning from the humility of a single Judean nation, has reached to the ends of the whole world through growth. Of which the Psalmist sings to the Lord: And your fields will be filled with abundance, the fattened edges of the desert (Psalm 65).
The people were exceedingly weary, etc. That the people were said to have eaten with blood should not be thought to mean they ate bloody and raw flesh, which is not at all human but is the nature of beasts; rather, that after slaying the animals, before the blood was fully drained, they cooked or roasted the unsanctified meat and then ate it. However, this signifies the lazy teachers, who, as we often see today, exhausted by the long labor of catechizing, hasten to incorporate some whom they had rescued from demonic errors by preaching, educating them in Gentile rites; attempting to imitate him to whom all kinds of animals destined from heaven were said: "Kill and eat" (Acts 10). But they almost kill on earth and eat with blood those whom they imperfectly detach from earthly senses and the allurements of flesh and blood, either by teaching or by their own living. They hasten to incorporate into the members of the Church those who are still accustomed to vices and not yet engaged in practicing virtues; contrary to the example of the first pastor of the Church, who, placed in the upper room, that is, in the highest place of living or teaching, is ordered to kill the offerings and eat what was purified by God. And it is noteworthy that, although the perfection of the human mind is perfect and weak, Jonathan, the perpetrator of so many great deeds and the author of such a triumph, unsuspectingly succumbed to the deception of gluttony. The entire people, after observing the appointed time for diligent continence, after laying low so many adversaries in one day, are themselves overcome by the victorious gluttony. But because the temptation of gluttony is manifold, it led one to eat before the allotted time and persuaded the other to consume less lawful things even within the allotted time.
Dictionary and topics
Aijalon, Or Ajalon — (place of gazelles).
Ajalon — And Aij’alon, place of deer. (1.) A town and valley originally assigned to the tribe of Dan, from which, however, they could not drive the Amorites (Judg. 1:35). It was one of the Levitical cities…
Jonathan — Whom Jehovah gave, the name of fifteen or more persons that are mentioned in Scripture. The chief of these are, (1.) A Levite descended from Gershom (Judg. 18:30). His history is recorded in 17:7-13…
Moabite — The designation of a tribe descended from Moab, the son of Lot (Gen. 19:37). From Zoar, the cradle of this tribe, on the south-eastern border of the Dead Sea, they gradually spread over the region on…
Philistines — (Gen. 10:14, R.V.; but in A.V., “Philistim”), a tribe allied to the Phoenicians. They were a branch of the primitive race which spread over the whole district of the Lebanon and the valley of the…
Saul — Asked for. (1.) A king of Edom (Gen. 36:37, 38); called Shaul in 1 Chr. 1:48. (2.) The son of Kish (probably his only son, and a child of prayer, “asked for”), of the tribe of Benjamin, the first…
Ajalon · .Assigned to the Levites. A city of refuge — .Assigned to the Levites. A city of refuge
Armies Of Israel, The · Strict discipline observed in — Strict discipline observed in
Michmash · Philistines killed at, by Jonathan — Philistines killed at, by Jonathan
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Result of the battle, and consequences of Saul's rashness. - Sa1 14:31. "On that day they smote the Philistines from Michmash to Ajalon," which has been preserved in the village of Ylo (see at Jos 19:42), and was about three geographical miles to the south-west of Michmash; "and the people were very faint," because Saul had forbidden them to eat before the evening (Sa1 14:24).
Sa1 14:32
They therefore "fell voraciously upon the booty" - (the Chethibh ויּעשׂ is no doubt merely an error in writing for ויּעט, imperf. Kal of עיט with Dagesh forte implic. instead of ויּעט, as we may see from Sa1 15:19, since the meaning required by the context, viz., to fall upon a thing, cannot be established in…
The day of the mind is the splendor of instruction. But those whom the arrogant teach, because they are inflamed by the ambition of temporal glory, receive a semblance of light, not the truth. When therefore that day is spoken of, what else is signified, except that often by the aim of temporal glory, mighty deeds seemed to be accomplished? For in that day, that is, by the teaching or example of the proud, they strike, because they serve in the ministry of preaching for this purpose: to obtain the splendor of temporal glory. And because they desire to become known to all, it says: From Magmas to Aion. Magmas, as has already been sufficiently stated, is interpreted as "humility," while Aion is interpreted as "my mourning brother." By the humble in this place, the little ones and simple people in the holy Church are designated. And the mourning brother—whom else does he suggest, except those whom the Lord praises in the Gospel, saying: Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted (Matt. 5:5)? For he who has already learned to despise all temporal things and to long for eternal things with great desires, while he dreads being held in the body and groans that he is not yet in that joy of eternal life, is rightly called "my mourning brother." Brother indeed, because he has already begun to be a co-heir of Christ, for whose most blessed and most joyful inheritance he groans with all his desires. He is called mourning, so that the unspeakable grief of the perfect may be designated. To mourn, moreover, is not to weep in just any manner, but to weep most deeply. For because they are filled with the grace of the Holy Spirit, they have reached that abundance of tears which the distinguished teacher affirms, saying: The Spirit himself intercedes for us with inexpressible groanings (Rom. 8:26). He is also called mourning brother because the perfect are joined to the Redeemer in great intimacy. For he whom the Redeemer loves singularly, whom he nourishes with singular dignity for the possession of the perpetual inheritance, when he is called his brother, is designated in the singular number. Whence he also says to Moses as to a singular friend: I know you by name (Exod. 33:12). Hence it is that it is said of John in the Gospel: This is that disciple whom Jesus loved (John 21:20). For he who greatly loved all his disciples, when he is said to love this one,…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
