1 Samuel 14:28

28 Then one of the soldiers told him, “Your father bound the troops with a solemn oath, saying, ‘Cursed is the man who eats food today.’ That is why the people are faint.”

1 Samuel 14:28 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 14:28

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.

1 Samuel 14:28 In-Context

26 And when they entered the forest and saw the flowing honey, not one of them put his hand to his mouth, because they feared the oath.

27 Jonathan, however, had not heard that his father had bound the people with the oath. So he reached out the end of the staff in his hand, dipped it into the honeycomb, and put his hand to his mouth, and his eyes brightened.

28 Then one of the soldiers told him, “Your father bound the troops with a solemn oath, saying, ‘Cursed is the man who eats food today.’ That is why the people are faint.”

29 “My father has brought trouble to the land,” Jonathan replied. “Just look at how my eyes have brightened because I tasted a little of this honey.

30 How much better it would have been if the troops had eaten freely today from the plunder they took from their enemies! Would not the slaughter of the Philistines have been much greater?”