Then answered one of the people, and said
To Jonathan, who might direct and encourage the people to do as he had done, at least so he did by his example, if not by words; the latter is not improbable: and therefore one of the men that came along with Saul, and had now joined Jonathan, and who heard what Saul had said, replied,
thy father straitly charged the people with an oath;
gave them a strict charge, with an oath or imprecation annexed to it:
saying, cursed be the man that eateth any food this day;
that is, until the evening, as in ( 1 Samuel 14:24 )
and the people were faint;
which is either the observation of the writer of the book; or it may be the words of the man, imputing the faintness of the people to this adjuration of Saul restraining them from food; or as taking notice how strictly the people observed it, though they were hungry, faint, and weary.