before them the words of the curse, and theless, the pursuit wn.s continued ns far ns nrndc them shout their consent. His object the _pass o! Aijalon, and though, owing to was to prevent any delay in the pursuit ; the mcreasmg weariness of the people· but but in 11is eagerness he forgot tl1at the few of the Philistines were overtaken i{ever- strength of his men would fail if their bodily theless it would compel them to thrdw awny wants 'Were not supplied, But though worn their arms, and abandon all the booty which out and faintinr, the people faithfully keep they had collected. For very .faint the the oath put to them. Hebrew has vei-y wea1-y, as in- ver. 28. Yer. 25.-And all they of the land. Ver. 32.-The people fiew upon the spoil. Hdirew, "the whole land," or, as we should The wTitten text has, "And the people set ~my-, the whole counh-y, which had risen to to work upon the spoil, nnd took sheep," &c., join in the pursuit. Honey upon the ground. hut as the sentence is 1iot very grammatical The mid bees in Palestine fill fissures in the the kri has corrected it from eh. xv. 19. rocks (Deut. xxxii. 13 ; Ps. lxxxi. 16) and The versions have either "greedily desired," hollow trees with honey, till the cornbs, break- or "turned themselves unto." The people ing with tbe weight, let it run down upon ,vho had waited until evening, when the oath the ground. A similar abundance of honey forced upon them by Saul was over, then in was found by the early settlers in America. their hunger broke the law doubly: first in Ver. 26.-The honey dropped. More cor- killing calves ,vith their iloms on the samo rectly, " Behold, a stream (or a flowing) of day (Levit. :xxii. 28), and secondly, more seri- honey." ously, in so killing them "on the ground" Ye'r. 27.-Jonathan, who had not been that the blood remained in the carcase. The ,-resent when his father charged the people law enjoined the utmost care in this respect with the oath,-literally, "made the people (ibid. xvii. 10-14), but tlie people were too swear, "-dipped the end of his staff hastily, weary and. hungry to trouble about it. so as not to hinder the pursuit, in an honey- Vers. 33, 34. -Ye have. transgressed. comb-Hebrew, "into the honey wood,'' i. e. Better as in the margin, " dealt treacher- into the hollow branch or trunk out of ,vhich ously," i. e. faithlessly, to the covenant be- the honey was flowing (but 8ee Cant. v. 1). tween Israel and J ehovab. Boll a great His eyes were enlightened. I. e. made stone unto me this de.y. Or, as we should bright and clear, the dimness caused by ex- say, this 1ninute; but the Hebrew uses" this cessive weariness ha,ing passed away. But day" for anything to be done at once (see on this is a correction made by the Jews (kri), and eh. ii. 16)._ The purpose of this stone was the 'Written text (c'tib) has "his eyes saw," to raise up the carcases of the slaughtered which is more forcible and poetic. When animals from the ground, so that the blood the A. V. was made the kri was supposed to might drain away from them. On tidings of be authoritative, but most modern comment- this arrangement being dispersed through- ators have corne to the opposite conclusion. out the army, the people obey Saul with Ver. 28. -And the people were fe.int. the same unquestioning devotion as they There is great diversity of opinion whether had shown to his command to abstain from this be part or not of the speech of the man food. who informed Jonathan of the oath forced Ver. 35.-And Saul built an altar unto -on the people by Saul It makes, perhaps, Jehovah as a thank offering for the Divine -the better sense if regarded as the continu- favour in gaining so great •n victory. The ation of the history, and inserted to justify same was the first altar, &c. Literally, J onathan's tlisapproval of his father's hasty "As to it he began to build an altar unto, .commancl The right rendering is were Jehovah." On these words the question weary, as in the margin and Judges iv. 21. has arisen whether the meaninj? be that Saul Ver. 29.-My father hath troubled the began to build an altar, but _with character- land. I. e. hath brought disaster upon it istic impetuosity left off before he had corn-. (sec Gen. xxxiv. 30; Josh. vii. 25). This dis- pleted 1t ; or whether on that occasion he aster was the incompleteness of the victory, commenced the custom followed by David -owing to the people being too exhausted to (2 Sam. xxiv. 25) of erecting altars as the continue the pursuit. patriarchs had done in old time. The latter Ycrs. 30, 31.-For had there not been now interpretation is more in accordance with the a much gree.ter sle.ughter 1 This clause is usage of the Hebrew language, and. is 11p• really an indicative: "For now the slaughter proved by the translations of the Septuagir..., -of the Philistines is not very great." Never- and Vulgate.
HOMILETICS. Vern. 1-12.-lnspiration in Cltristwn enterprise. The facts are-1. Jonathan ,on \,is own responsibility, and without his father'-s knowledge, resolves on an attacli Cll. XIV. 1--35.] 'flIE FIHSl' BOOK OF SA).IUEL.