Kings I 14:23

23 And the battle extended itself to every city in the mount Ephraim.

Kings I 14:23 Meaning and Commentary

1 Kings 14:23

For they also built them high places
Which, though allowed of, or at least connived at, before the temple was built, and when the tabernacle was unfixed, yet afterwards unlawful; and the tribe of Judah could have no excuse for them, who had the temple in their tribe:

and images;
contrary to the express command of God, ( Exodus 20:4 ) ,

and groves on every high hill, and under every green tree;
that is, set up idols, and temples for idols, amidst groves of trees, and under all green trees; as was the custom of the Heathens, who sacrificed on the heights of hills and tops of mountains, as was particularly the custom of the Persians, as both Herodotus ^F13 and Xenophon ^F14 relate; and with the Getae, a people in Thrace, was a mountain they reckoned sacred {o}.

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FOOTNOTES:

F13 Clio, sive, l. 1. c. 131.
F14 Cyropaedia, l. 8. c. 45.
F15 Strabo Geograph. l. 7. p. 206.

Kings I 14:23 In-Context

21 And the servants who had been before with the Philistines, who had gone up to the army, turned themselves also to be with the Israelites who were with Saul and Jonathan.

22 And all the Israelites who were hidden in mount Ephraim heard also that the Philistines fled; and they also gather themselves after them to battle: and the Lord saved Israel in that day; and the war passed through Bamoth; and all the people with Saul were about ten thousand men.

23 And the battle extended itself to every city in the mount Ephraim.

24 And Saul committed a great trespass of ignorance in that day, and he lays a curse on the people, saying, Cursed the man who shall eat bread before the evening; so I will avenge myself on my enemy: and none of the people tasted bread, though all the land was dining.

25 And Jaal was a wood abounding in swarms of bees on the face of the ground.

Footnotes

• [a]. the war was dispersed.