Commentaria in I Regum (I Samuelis)
Moreover the Hebrew word for word reads thus: And there was a trembling in the camp, in the field, and among all the people (of the Philistines); both the garrison and they that went about plundering trembled also, and the earth trembled, and it was for a trembling of Elohim, that is, great and mighty; for the things that are of God are great. Whence the cedars and the highest and greatest mountains are called of God. So Vatablus, Cajetan, Pagninus and others. Whence with the Romans it should be read: the earth was troubled, and not: the camp was troubled, as others read.
In arduous things.—Morally, learn here, when God calls to arduous things that exceed your strength, not to tremble, nor to flee, but to obey God and to take the matter in hand with courage: for God will soon be present, will smooth the difficulties, unravel what is entangled, and easily accomplish the whole matter, as here Jonathan, attacking alone with his armourbearer the whole camp of the enemy, threw it into confusion, and it fell by the enemy themselves.
We read in the Lives of the Fathers that an Angel showed a certain Anchorite a vast giant, and said to him: With this one thou must wrestle. And when he trembled: “Fear not,” he said, “only begin, I will be present presently, and will lay the giant low with thee. If God be for us, who is against us?” Rom. 8. For “the Thunderer helps him who strives.”
18. AND SAUL SAID TO ACHIAS: BRING HITHER THE ARK OF GOD,—that is, bring near, or bring hither to me the ark, that thou mayest take and put on, as High Priest, the priestly robe, says Josephus and Theodoret, that is the Ephod, which was placed near the ark, and by it, by the Urim and Thummim which are in the Ephod, before the ark thou mayest consult God sitting upon the ark in the propitiatory, that He may reveal to us through thee what we ought to do in so doubtful a matter, and in this tumult.
Mystically, in dangers let Christians flee to the ark, that is, to the Eucharist: likewise to the Blessed Virgin, who contained and bore Christ, as manna, in the ark, for the food and salvation of the world. Hear Blessed Peter Damian, in his sermon On the Nativity of the Virgin: “Hast thou, because thou art so deified, therefore forgotten our humanity? By no means, Lady. Thou knowest in what danger thou hast left us, how thy servants lie, how much they offend. For it befits not so great a mercy to forget so great a misery: because, though glory withdraws thee, nature recalls thee; nor art thou so impassible as to be uncompassionate.”
FOR THE ARK OF GOD WAS THERE AT THAT DAY,—because it had been brought thither from Cariathiarim, at the request of Saul and the Hebrews, on account of the danger of the war, that they might consult God sitting upon the ark, and have Him as companion, nay as leader of the war.
19. AND SAUL SAID TO THE PRIEST: WITHDRAW THY HAND,—cease to unfold the Ephod; nay, draw it back with thy hand, and lay it in the ark. For, this tumult pressing, I have no leisure to consult the Lord; but we must fly at once upon the enemy. For Saul thought that his son Jonathan was surrounded and being overpowered by the Philistines: wherefore he ran to them, to rescue him. So Lyranus, Abulensis, Vatablus, although the Chaldee renders, Bring the Ephod, as if to say: Make haste to put on the Ephod, and consult the Lord.
Whence also Josephus asserts that God, being consulted, answered, and promised the Hebrews victory and slaughter of the enemy.
20. AND BEHOLD EVERY MAN’S SWORD WAS TURNED UPON HIS NEIGHBOUR,—as if to say: Blinded and confused, they cut one another down with mutual slaughter, thinking their allies to be enemies.
AND THERE WAS A VERY GREAT SLAUGHTER.—Josephus, book 6, chap. 7, says that sixty thousand of the Philistines were slain.
24. AND SAUL ADJURED THE PEOPLE, SAYING: CURSED BE THE MAN THAT SHALL EAT FOOD TILL EVENING, TILL I BE REVENGED OF MY ENEMIES,—“bread,” that is, any food; for this the Hebrews call bread. Whence Jonathan, eating not bread but honey, was judged to have violated this command of his father. Now Saul imposed this law of fasting on his men out of right fervour and zeal, that they might pursue the fleeing enemy without interruption: lest, if his soldiers should turn aside to food, and be wanting at the table, the enemy might slip away by flight; and that by this fast he might give thanks to God for so miraculous a victory, and move Him to complete it fully and entirely: for he judged that one must deal liberally with God, who was so liberal to him and his. So Abulensis, Serarius, Salianus, and St. Ambrose and Jerome, soon to be cited. And he laid down this law with an execration, saying: “Cursed be the man,” as if to say: May God do evil to him, and I will do evil to him, that is, I will punish and kill him.
But Lyranus thinks that Saul ordained this badly, and swore badly, and fulfilled it worse: because there was not so great a necessity of pursuing the enemy, and in this law he ought to have excepted the case of necessity, such as was in Jonathan and many others failing for want of food; who certainly would have inflicted a greater slaughter on the enemy, if in pursuing them they had at the same time taken some food in haste, for example the honey they met in the wood, as Jonathan did, that they might become stronger to march and to fight.
Finally, that this law gave occasion for killing Jonathan, and for the people’s eating blood forbidden by the law, verse 33. Lyranus is favoured by Josephus, St. Gregory here, and Sanchez, who condemn this precept of Saul as too severe and foolish.
But granted that this ordinance of Saul was rather military and hard, and that something of discretion is wanting in it: yet in itself it was just and holy, for the causes already stated. Whence the whole people approved and accepted it; to which add: if Saul had sinned, the lot, verse 44, ought to have pointed him out, or at least been silent: but there the lot did not point out Saul commanding, but Jonathan transgressing the command. Whence Tertullian highly praises Saul, in his book On Fasting, chap. 10, where, of Saul’s fast, he says that authority was given it by God; and St. Ambrose, sermon 36 (in another edition 25), after the first Sunday of Lent: “A good king indeed, who conquered his enemies not so much with arms as with devotion; and fought more with religion than with darts.
When, therefore, Saul had enjoined abstinence for that day upon all his men, and Jonathan his son, ignorant of the command, going victorious through the midst of the enemy’s lines, tasted a honeycomb with the tip of his sceptre dipped in it, so great an indignation was suddenly aroused that the victory was delayed and the Divinity was offended.”
Hence Jonathan also confesses his fault, verse 43:
“I did but taste,” he says, “a little honey, and behold I must die.” The Chaldee: I am liable to death. And St. Jerome, book 2 Against Jovinian, after the middle: “In Exodus,” he says, “the battle against Amalec was fought by the prayer of Moses, and of all the people, with fasting until evening. Jesus the son of Nave obtained the standing of the sun and moon, and the victorious army prolonged its fast beyond one day. Saul, as is written in the first book of Kings: Cursed, he says, be the man that eateth bread until evening, till I be revenged of my enemies; and all his people tasted nothing, and the whole land was at dinner. And so great was the authority of a station once appointed to the Lord, that Jonathan, who had been the cause of the victory, was caught by lot, and, being ignorant, could not escape the charge, and stirred up his father’s hand against himself, and was scarcely saved by the prayers of the people.” “Station” means a fast. For “stations” are called by Tertullian, Cassian and St. Ambrose “fixed days of prayer and fasting,” because standing and abiding in them we repel our enemies; and as the Hebrews came into the promised land through 40 stations, or encampments, so Christians come through the 40 days of Lent to Pasch and the resurrection of Christ. So Baronius, in the year of Christ 57, chap. 155, and Pamelius on Tertullian, at the end of the book On Prayer: indeed St. Ambrose himself, at the beginning of the sermon 36 already cited.
Morally, learn here that fasting begets victory over bodily enemies as well as spiritual.
You will say: The Septuagint here add: and Saul was guilty of great ignorance. Therefore he sinned. I answer, they understand the ignorance by which Saul did not know that from this ordinance Jonathan would incur peril of his head, but this ignorance in Saul was invincible and blameless: for how could he know that Jonathan would eat honey?