1 Samuel 14:9

9 If they say to us, 'Stay where you are until we come to you,' then we'll stay where we are and not go up to them.

1 Samuel 14:9 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 14:9

If they say thus unto us
By this and what follows he gives his man a sign by which both might know how they should conduct themselves in this expedition, and what would be the issue, whether they should succeed or not: should they say,

tarry until we come to you;
this, as it would express boldness in the men of the garrison, and show that they were ready to come out and fight, would portend evil, and then what they had to do was to be upon the defensive:

then we will stand still in our place;
wait till they came to them, and make the best defence of themselves as they could, showing as little fear as possible, and not attempting to retreat and flee:

and will not go up unto them;
neither go backwards nor forwards; not backward, which would show fear; nor forward, to expose themselves to too much danger from the garrison, they appearing to be bold and intrepid.

1 Samuel 14:9 In-Context

7 His armorbearer answered him, "Do whatever you have in mind. Go ahead! I agree with you."

8 Jonathan continued, "Listen, we'll cross over to the Philistines and show ourselves to them.

9 If they say to us, 'Stay where you are until we come to you,' then we'll stay where we are and not go up to them.

10 But if they say to us, 'Come up here,' then we'll go up, because that will be our sign that the LORD has handed them over to us."

11 So both of them showed themselves to the Philistine troops. The Philistines said, "Look, some Hebrews are coming out of the holes they were hiding in."