Matthew Henry on 1 Samuel 14:1-15
We must here take notice,
I. Of the goodness of God in restraining the Philistines, who had a vast army of valiant men in the field, from falling upon that little handful of timorous trembling people that Saul had with him, whom they would easily have swallowed up at once. It is an invisible power that sets bounds to the malice of the church's enemies, and suffers them not to do that which we should think there is nothing to hinder them from.
II. Of the weakness of Saul, who seems here to have been quite at a loss, and unable to help himself. 1. He pitched his tent under a tree, and had but 600 men with him, Sa1 14:2. Where were now the 3000 men he had chosen, and put such a confidence in? S…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on 1 Samuel 14:6
it may be that the Lord will work for us--This expression did not imply a doubt; it signified simply that the object he aimed at was not in his own power--but it depended upon God--and that he expected success neither from his own strength nor his own merit.
Adam Clarke on 1 Samuel 14:7
Behold, I am with thee - I shall accompany thee whithersoever thou goest, and share all thy dangers.
John Gill on 1 Samuel 14:8
Then said Jonathan, behold, we will pass over to these men,.... Over the precipices to them, as steep and as cragged as they are:
and we will discover ourselves to them; present themselves to them at daylight, and let them know plainly who they were, that they were Hebrews.
Keil & Delitzsch on 1 Samuel 14:1-15
Jonathan's heroic act. - With strong faith and confidence in the might of the Lord, that He could give the victory even through the hands of very few, Jonathan resolved to attack the outpost of the Philistines at the pass of Mukhmas, accompanied by his armour-bearer alone, and the Lord crowned his enterprise with a marvellous victory.
Sa1 14:1-2
Jonathan said to his armour-bearer, "We will go over to the post of the Philistines, that is over there." To these words, which introduce the occurrences that followed, there are attached from וּלאביו to Sa1 14:5 a series of sentences introduced to explain the situation, and the thread of the narrative is resumed in Sa1 14:6 by a repetition of Jonath…
