Episode 106: Jonathan's first slaughter and the honey curse

1 Samuel 13-14

Saul blows a trumpet throughout Israel

13 ¹ After reigning a year or two, Saul chose 3000 men.

² Two thousand went with him, and the others with his son, Jonathan.

³ Jonathan killed Philistines, while his father traveled throughout Israel blowing a trumpet and saying, "Let the Hebrews hear."

⁴ Everyone in Israel heard Saul's trumpet, and they came to Gilgal to meet Saul.

⁵ The Philistines also gathered together. 30,000 chariots, 6000 horsemen, and people as many as the sand on the seashore.

⁶ When the Israelites saw the Philistines, they were afraid and hid in caves, thickets, rocks, mountains, and pits.

Saul sacrifices some animals (and loses his kingdom for it)

⁸ Saul waited for Samuel for seven days, but Samuel didn't come.

⁹ So he sacrificed some animals to God.

¹⁰ When Samuel finally arrived, he was angry because of Saul's sacrifices. He said to Saul, "What have you done?"

^11-12 Saul said,

Since you didn't come when you said you would and the Philistines were preparing to attack, I made a burnt offering to God.

¹³ Samuel said to Saul,

You acted foolishly and broke God's commandment.

Now your kingdom will be taken from you.

¹⁴ God will find a man after his own heart to replace you.

²² When it was time to go to battle, there were only two swords in the entire Israelite army, Saul's and Jonathan's.

Jonathan's first slaughter

14 ¹ One day, Jonathan said to his armor bearer,

Let's go find some uncircumcised Philistines to kill.

⁶ Who knows? Maybe God will help us.

⁷ His armor bearer replied,

Do whatever is in your heart.

Whatever is in your heart is in my heart, too.

^8-9 So Jonathan told him his plan, saying,

We'll go over to the Philistines, and if they say, "Wait there and we'll come over to you."

Then we'll stay put.

^10-11 But if the Philistines say, "Come here, and we'll show you something."

Then we'll attack, knowing that God will help us kill them.

¹¹ So they did that.

¹² And when the Philistines saw them, they said,

Come here and we'll show you a thing or two.

When Jonathan heard that, he told his armor bearer,

God has delivered them into our hands.

¹³ So Jonathan and his armor bearer went over and began to kill Philistines.

¹⁴ They killed about twenty of them, all in an area of half an acre or so. This was Jonathan’s first slaughter.

God forces the Philistines to kill each other

¹⁵ After Jonathan's first slaughter, everyone trembled among the Philistines. They trembled so much that it caused an earthquake. So it was a very great trembling.

¹⁶ Saul's watchmen saw the Philistines melting away and beating down on one another.

²⁰ All of the Philistines were killing each other with their swords.

²³ So God saved Israel that day.

Saul's curse, God's lottery, and more killings

²⁴ Saul said to the Israelites,

Don't eat anything until I kill all of my enemies. Anyone who eats anything is cursed.

So no one ate anything.

²⁵ Then the Israelites came to a forest where there was honey on the ground.

²⁶ No one dared to eat any honey, because of Saul's curse.

²⁷ But Jonathan hadn't heard about his father's curse. So when he saw the honey, he dipped his rod in the honeycomb, ate some of the honey, and his eyes were enlightened.

³⁶ A little later, Saul said, "Let's go kill all the Philistines tonight."

³⁷ But first, he asked God,

Shall I kill the Philistines? Will you deliver them into Israel's hand?

But God didn't answer.

³⁸ Saul said,

Since God didn't answer me, someone must have sinned.

Whoever it was will die, even if it was my son Jonathan.

⁴¹ Then Saul said to God, "Select by lot who is the guilty one."

And Jonathan was taken.

⁴³ Saul said to Jonathan, "Tell me what you've done."

Jonathan said, "All I did was taste a little honey and now I must die."

⁴⁴ Saul said, "Yes, you will die. And God will do even worse to you."

⁴⁵ But all the people then said to Saul, "Don't harm a hair on his head."

So the people rescued Jonathan.

⁴⁶ Then Saul and the Philistines went home.

⁴⁷ King Saul fought against everyone: Moab, Ammon, Edom, Zobah, Philistines, and Amalekites. And wherever he went, he vexed them.

⁴⁸ And there was war between the Israelites and the Philistines during the entire reign of Saul.