1 Samuel 14
Without telling his father, Jonathan and his armour-bearer climb a Philistine cliff. They kill twenty men. Then Saul nearly executes his own son.
Summary
Chapter 14 shows Jonathan at his boldest and Saul at his most erratic. Jonathan proposes to his armour-bearer a secret raid on the Philistine garrison at Michmash, reasoning that the Lord can save by many or by few. They devise a field oracle — the Philistines' response to being seen will be a sign of the Lord's intention — and receive a favourable sign. Jonathan climbs the cliff face under the garrison and attacks; he and his armour-bearer kill twenty men in a space about half an acre. Panic erupts in the Philistine camp and spreads to the outlying forces. The earth trembles. Saul's sentries see the confusion, he mobilizes, and soon all Israel is pursuing Philistines.
The chapter's second half is darker. Before the battle, Saul has bound the army with an oath: no one shall eat until I have taken vengeance on my enemies — cursed is the man who eats today. The oath is rash; the men are famished and the fighting is costly. Jonathan, not present for the oath, eats honey from a honeycomb on the ground and is revived. When he is told of the oath he says openly that his father has troubled Israel. The evening prohibition ends, the men fall on livestock and eat it with the blood — a ritual violation. Saul calls a halt and has a large stone set out for proper slaughter. He then consults the Lord about pressing the pursuit into the night; the Lord does not answer. Saul determines that someone has sinned; the lot falls on Jonathan. Saul pronounces the death sentence on his own son. The army refuses. Jonathan must not die, they say, who has wrought this great victory in Israel. The people ransom Jonathan and he does not die. But Saul's authority has been visibly bounded by his own troops.
- 1 Samuel 1Chapter 1 opens at the sanctuary at Shiloh, where Elkanah of Ephraim brings his household each year to worship.
- 1 Samuel 2Chapter 2 opens with the Song of Hannah, one of the most influential poems in the Hebrew Bible — my heart exults in the Lord, the mighty brought low, the hungry fed, the barren bearing seven.
- 1 Samuel 3Chapter 3 is one of the most carefully paced call narratives in the Hebrew Bible.
- 1 Samuel 4Chapter 4 is the disaster that the previous chapters have been building toward.
- 1 Samuel 5Chapter 5 is the ark narrative in Philistine territory, told with something close to sardonic comedy.
- 1 Samuel 6Chapter 6 is the ark's return to Israel, engineered by Philistine priests who want to know whether their afflictions are the Lord's doing or mere coincidence.
- 1 Samuel 7Chapter 7 is the closing movement of the Samuel-as-judge arc.
- 1 Samuel 8Chapter 8 is the pivot of the entire book.
- 1 Samuel 9Chapter 9 introduces Saul, and the introduction is built on irony.
- 1 Samuel 10Chapter 10 is Saul's anointing and public selection.
- 1 Samuel 11Chapter 11 is Saul's first military action and the only chapter of his reign where he functions without any reservation or failure.
- 1 Samuel 12Chapter 12 is Samuel's formal farewell as Israel's judge, a speech that occupies the whole chapter.
- 1 Samuel 13Chapter 13 begins the decline.
- 1 Samuel 14Chapter 14 is a chapter of action and its costs.
- 1 Samuel 15Chapter 15 is the final disqualification.
- 1 Samuel 16Chapter 16 is the introduction of David and one of the most carefully constructed scenes of divine election in the Hebrew Bible.
- 1 Samuel 17Chapter 17 is the book's most famous chapter.
- 1 Samuel 18Chapter 18 is where the book's two great relationships crystallize.
- 1 Samuel 19Chapter 19 is the escalation from hostility to overt murderous intent.
- 1 Samuel 20Chapter 20 is the central scene of the David-Jonathan friendship and one of the great parting scenes in ancient literature.
- 1 Samuel 21Chapter 21 is a chapter of disguise and desperation.
- 1 Samuel 22Chapter 22 is one of the darkest chapters in the book.
- 1 Samuel 23Chapter 23 is a chapter of pursuit and one extraordinary meeting.
- 1 Samuel 24Chapter 24 is the first of two episodes in which David has Saul's life in his hands and refuses to take it.
- 1 Samuel 25Chapter 25 opens with Samuel's death — mourned by all Israel — and then turns to a story of David's near loss of self-control and the woman who stops it.
- 1 Samuel 26Chapter 26 is the second episode in which David refuses to kill Saul and, like chapter 24, it is structured to make the refusal as emphatic as possible.
- 1 Samuel 27Chapter 27 is the chapter of David's double game among the Philistines.
- 1 Samuel 28Chapter 28 is one of the strangest and most debated passages in the Hebrew Bible.
- 1 Samuel 29Chapter 29 is the resolution of a problem the narrative has been building toward: David, marching with Achish and the Philistine forces to fight against Israel.
- 1 Samuel 30Chapter 30 is the crisis of David's time among the Philistines.
- 1 Samuel 31Chapter 31 is the last chapter of 1 Samuel and the end of Saul's story.