; and he
was strengthened. Then said one of the people, "Thy father straitly
charged the people with an oath, saying, "Cursed be the man that
eateth food this day."

And the people were faint. Then said Jonathan, "My father hath
troubled the land: see, I pray you, how I have been strengthened,
because I tasted a little of this honey. How much more, if the people
had eaten freely to-day of the spoil of their enemies which they
found? for now hath there been no great slaughter among the
Philistines."

{368}

And they smote of the Philistines that day from Michmash to Aijalon:
and the people were very faint. And the people flew upon the spoil,
and took sheep, and oxen, and calves, and slew them on the ground: and
the people did eat them with the blood. Then they told Saul, saying,
"Behold, the people sin against the Lord, in that they eat with the
blood." And he said, "Ye have dealt treacherously: roll a great stone
to me this day."

And Saul said, "Disperse yourselves among the people, and say to them,
'Bring me hither every man his ox, and every man his sheep, and slay
them here, and eat; and sin not against the Lord in eating with the
blood.'"

And all the people brought every man his ox with him that night, and
slew them there. And Saul built an altar unto the Lord: the same was
the first altar that he built to the Lord.

And Saul said, "Let us go down after the Philistines by night, and
fight them until the morning light, and let us not leave a man of
them."

And they said, "Do whatsoever seemeth good unto thee." Then said the
priest, "Let us draw near hither to God."

And Saul asked counsel of God, "Shall I go down after the Philistines?
wilt thou deliver them into the hand of Israel?"

But he answered him not that day. And Saul said, "Draw nigh hither,
all ye chiefs of the people: and know and see wherein this sin hath
been this day. For as the Lord liveth, who saveth Israel, though it be
in Jonathan {369} my son, he shall surely die." But there was not a
man among all the people that answered him.

Then said he unto all Israel, "Be ye on one side, and I and Jonathan
my son will be on the other side."

And the people said to Saul, "Do what seemeth good to thee."

Therefore Saul said to the Lord, the God of Israel, "Show the right."

And Jonathan and Saul were chosen by lot: but the people escaped.

And Saul said, "Cast lots between me and Jonathan my son." And
Jonathan was chosen.

Then Saul sa