1 Samuel 14:29

29 Jonathan said, "My father has made trouble for the country. See how I gained new life after I tasted a little of this honey.

1 Samuel 14:29 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 14:29

Then said Jonathan, my father hath troubled the land
The people of the land, as the Targum, the soldiers in his army; afflicted and distressed them, and made them uneasy in their minds, like troubled waters; the Arabic version is,

``my father hath sinned against the people;''

hath done them injury by forbidding them to eat. This was not wisely said by Jonathan; how much soever his father was to be blamed, it did not become him as a son thus to reflect upon him, and it might have tended to mutiny and sedition:

see, I pray you, how mine eyes have been enlightened, because I tasted
a little of this honey;
the benefit he received by it was very visible; it might easily be discerned that he was greatly refreshed with it, and his spirits invigorated by it; it was to be seen in the cheerfulness of his countenance, and the briskness of his eyes: and he suggests it would have had the same effect upon the people, had they eaten of it, as he had done.

1 Samuel 14:29 In-Context

27 But Jonathan hadn't heard that his father had put the army under an oath. Jonathan had a long stick in his hand. He reached out and dipped the end of it into the honeycomb. He put some honey in his mouth. It gave him new life.
28 Then one of the soldiers told him, "Your father put the army under a strong oath. He said, 'None of you must eat any food today. If you do, may you be under a curse!' That's why the men are weak and ready to faint."
29 Jonathan said, "My father has made trouble for the country. See how I gained new life after I tasted a little of this honey.
30 Our soldiers took food from their enemies today. Suppose they had eaten some of it. How much better off they would have been! Even more Philistines would have been killed."
31 That day the men of Israel struck the Philistines down. They killed them from Micmash to Aijalon. By that time they were tired and worn out.
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