1 Samuel 14:40 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
1 Samuel 14:40
Then said he unto all Israel, Be ye on one side, and I and Jonathan my son will be on the other side. And the people said unto Saul, Do what seemeth good unto thee.
to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Israel
יִשְׂרָאֵ֗לYis.ra.'El
H3478
Jisrael · proper noun, a place name
one
אֶחָ֔ד'e.Chad
H259
properly · noun, common feminine singular absolute
side
לְעֵ֣בֶרle.'E.ver
H5676
properly · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
Jonathan
וְיוֹנָתָ֣ןve.yo.na.Tan
H3129
Jonathan · conjunction + proper noun, a man's name
son
בְּנִ֔יbe.Ni
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix
other
אֶחָ֑ד'e.Chad
H259
properly · noun, common feminine singular absolute
side
לְעֵ֣בֶרle.'E.ver
H5676
properly · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
people
הָעָם֙ha.'Am
H5971
a people (as a congregated unit) · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
said
וַיֹּאמְר֤וּvai.yo.me.Ru
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
Saul
שָׁא֔וּלsha.'Ul
H7586
Shaul · proper noun, a man's name
Do
עֲשֵֽׂה'a.Seh
H6213
to do or make · verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine singular
seemeth
בְּעֵינֶ֖יךָbe.'ei.Nei.kha
H5869
an eye (literally or figuratively) · preposition + noun, common feminine dual construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
good
הַטּ֥וֹבha.Tov
H2896
good (as an adjective) in the widest sense · definite article + adjective, masculine singular absolute
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
1 Samuel 14:7 And his armourbearer said unto him, Do all that is in thine heart: turn thee; behold, I am with thee according to thy heart.
1 Samuel 14:36 And Saul said, Let us go down after the Philistines by night, and spoil them until the morning light, and let us not leave a man of them. An…
2 Samuel 15:15 And the king’s servants said unto the king, Behold, thy servants are ready to do whatsoever my lord the king shall appoint.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 1 Samuel 14:36-46
Here is, I. Saul's boasting against the Philistines. He proposed, as soon as his soldiers had got their suppers, to pursue them all night, and not leave a man of them, Sa1 14:36. Here he showed much zeal, but little discretion; for his army, thus fatigued, could as ill spare a night's sleep as a meal's meat. But it is common for rash and foolish men to consider nobody but themselves, and, so that they might but have their humour, not to care what hardships they put upon those that are under them. However, the people were so obsequious to their king that they would by no means oppose the motion, but resolved to make the best of it, and, if he will go on, they will follow him: Do whatsoever se…
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…
He answered him not that day - Why was this answer delayed? Surely Jonathan's eating the honey was no sin. This could not have excited God's displeasure. And yet the lot found out Jonathan! But did this argue that he had incurred guilt in the sight of God? I answer: It did not; for Jonathan was delivered, by the authority of the people, from his father's rash curse; no propitiation is offered for his supposed transgression to induce God to pardon it; nor do we find any displeasure of God manifested on the occasion. See below.
The Church Fathers
What does it mean that by the king's command the people are separated from the king and his son, except that when a hidden and suspected fault is sought, both the higher and lower persons must be examined? Indeed, often the people sin, and often their ruler sins; and sometimes the very fault of the subjects is ascribed to the prelate, by whose negligence it is said to be brought about. Therefore, when, after the signs shown above, it is recognized that a fault lies hidden among the people, and it is not known in whom it is concealed, let the king join himself in, so that the pastor may know whether the fault is his own or the people's. Indeed, King Saul was not conscious of the fault, which he had committed neither by consent nor by deed, and yet he is mixed in to be examined, so that if the fault also lies hidden in him, it may be found. For he was, as it were, searching himself as one unaware of sin, who said: "For I am not conscious of anything against myself, but I am not justified by this; the one who judges me is the Lord" (1 Cor. 4:4). As if to say: I do not cease to search myself and to find myself, because if I am hidden from myself, I will not be hidden from him to whom all things are naked. Therefore let the king, not conscious of that sin which was being investigated, say: "I with my son Jonathan will be on one side"; because chosen teachers, when they rage against others through zeal for righteousness, by no means spare themselves and their own close associates. For they, as it were, separate the people on one side and do not separate themselves, who examine the faults of their subjects but do not care to investigate so as to find themselves. Great indeed is the ocean of human ignorance. For if we can scarcely or never search ourselves and find what we are, when can we search others? For what is it that the Prophet laments, saying: "My heart has forsaken me" (Ps. 39:13)? What is it that Sacred Scripture declares: "Man does not know whether he is worthy of love or hatred" (Eccl. 9:2)? Likewise, the Prophet declares the fruit of his searching, saying: "Your servant has found his heart" (2 Kings 7:27). If the saints can scarcely find their heart, with what recklessness do we cease from searching ourselves? But perhaps not even the Prophet could, because he added: "That he may fear you." He would surely have found his heart if he had fully known…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
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…
Armies Of Israel, The · Strict discipline observed in — Strict discipline observed in
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).
John Gill on 1 Samuel 14:40
Then said he unto all Israel,.... As many of them as were present; not the principal men only, but the common people; not the officers only, but the common soldiers in the army:
be ye on one side, and I and Jonathan my son will be on the other side: so they divided to the right and left, one went one way, and the other the other; there were two boxes or urns, as Kimchi says, in one of which were the names of Saul and Jonathan, and in the other Israel; though Abarbinel observes, that such a partition of them on one side, and the other, is not according to the manner of lots; and he suspects that Saul knew that Jonathan had tasted of honey, being told it by the man that saw him eat it; and wh…
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…
