The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Samuel — Section 243

EXPOSITION. (JOOd; why should he not call another son , CHAPTER XIV. Ahimelech, the brother is king? lehovah's ·JONATHAN SMITES THE PHILISTINE GAR· priest in Shiloh. This refers to Eli, the RISON (vers. 1-15). Ver. 1.-Now it came regular rule in Heb1·ew being that all such to PBl!B upon e. day. Literally, "And there statements belong, not to the son, but to was a day, and Jonathan," &c.; or, as we the father. Wearing e.n ephod. Literally, should say,, And it happened one nay th~t ephod-bearing. The ephod, as we have seen Jonathan. The phrase means that Jonathan s on eh. ii. 18, was the usual ministerial brave feat took place not many days after garment; but what is meant here is not an the garrison had occupied the cliff, probably ordinary ephod of linen, but that described only two' or three, but without definitely in Levit. viii. 7, 8, wherein was the breastplate, stating bow many. He told not his father. by which Jehovah's will was made known to Not only because-Saul would have forbidden his people, until prophecy took its place. so' rash -an enterprise, but because secrecy All this, the former part of the verse, must was essential to any chance of success : pro- be regarded as a parenthesis. bably too the purpose came upon him as an Ver. 4.-Between the pa.see.gee. I. e. the inspiration from above. passes. A sharp rock. Literally, "a tooth Ver. 2.--,-Saul tarried in the uttermost of rock." Conder (' Tent Work,' ii 112) says, part of Gibeali. I. e. the part nearest Geb.a. "The site of the Philistine camp at Mich- Under,: not a, but the pomegranate tree, mash, which Jonathan and his armour- the well-known tree at Migron. Saul evi- bearer attacked, is very minutely described dently shared to tbo full in the love of trees by Josephus. It was, he says, a precipice common among the Israelites (see eh. xxii. with three tops, ending in a long, sharp 6). The Hebrew word for pomegranate is tongue, and protected by surrounding cliffs. Rimmon, but there is no doubt that the tree Exactly such a natural fortress exists imme- is here meant, and not the .rock Rimmon diately east of the village of Michmash, o.nd (Judges xx. 45, 47), so called probably from is still called 'the fort' by the peasantry. It a fancied resemblanGe to the fruit. Migron, is a ridge rising in three rounded knolls above said to mean a cli,ff, was apparently a com- a perpendicular crag, ending in a n!lrrow mon name for loc111ities in this mountainous tongu~ to the east, with cliffs below, and hav- disti'ict, as in Isa. x. 28 we read of one lying ing an open valley behind it, and a saddle to- to the north of Michmash, whereas this is to wards the west, on which Michmash itself is the south. situate. Opposite this fortress, on the south, Ver. 8.-Ahiah, the son of Ahitub. (See there is a crag of equal height, and seem- on eh. xiii. 9.) It is interesting to find the ingly impassable. Thus the description of house of Eli recovering nt Inst from its the Old Testament is fully borne out-' et disaster, and one of its members duly minis- sharp rock on one side, nnd et sharp rock on tering in his office bcforo tho king. It has the other.' The southern cliff was called been debated whether he was the same per- Seneh, or 'the acacia,' and the same name son as Ahimelech, mentioned in eh. xxi. 1, still applies to the modern valley, due to &c., the supposition being grounded on the the acacia-trees which dot its course. The fact that Ahiah is never spoken of again. northern cliff was cetlled :Bozez, or' shining,' But he may have died ; and with regard to and the true explanation of the name only tlie argument drnwn from the similarity of presents itself on the spot." Conder then the names, we must notice that names com- describes how, "treading perhaps almost in pounded with Ah (or Ach), brother, were the steps of Jonathan," after arriving on the common in Ell's family, while compounds brink of the chasm, or defile of ?tlichmash, with Ab, father, were most in use among Saul's they were able to clescend Seneh, even with relatives. Ahiah or Ahijah means Jah is horses aml mules. "I noticed," he rnv·,, l,roth..."1·; his father is Ahitub, the b,·other is '' that the ,lip of tho stratet clown enstw,,nl R2 244 111E FIRST BOOK OF SAMUEL. [CH. XlV. 1-35.