And the people were faint - Read, "are faint," the words are part of the man's complaint.

Then answered one of the people, and said,.... To Jonathan, who might direct and encourage the people to do as he had done, at least so he did by his example, if not by words; the latter is not improbable: and therefore one of the men that came along with Saul, and had now joined Jonathan, and who heard what Saul had said, replied:

thy father straitly charged the people with an oath; gave them a strict charge, with an oath or imprecation annexed to it:

saying, cursed be the man that eateth any food this day; that is, until the evening, as in 1 Samuel 14:24.

and the people were faint; which is either the observation of the writer of the book; or it may be the words of the man, imputing the faintness of the people to this adjuration of Saul restraining them from food; or as taking notice how strictly the people observed it, though they were hungry, faint, and weary.

When one of the people told him thereupon of his father's oath, in consequence of which the people were exhausted (העם ויּעף belongs to the man's words; and ויּעף is the same as in Judges 4:21), Jonathan condemned the prohibition. "My father has brought the land (i.e., the people of the land, as in 1 Samuel 14:25) into trouble (עכר, see at Genesis 34:30): see how bright mine eyes have become because I tasted a little of this honey. How much more if the people had eaten to-day of the booty of its enemies, would not the overthrow among the Philistines truly have then become great?" כּי אף, lit. to this (there comes) also that equals not to mention how much more; and עתּה כּי is an emphatic introduction of the apodosis, as in Genesis 31:42; Genesis 43:10, and other passages, and the apodosis itself is to be taken as a question.

Then answered one of the people, and said, Thy father straitly charged the people with an oath, saying, Cursed be the man that eateth any food this day. And the people were faint.

14:28 People - They that came with Saul, whose forces were now united with Jonathan's.

faint: or, weary

14:24-35 Saul's severe order was very unwise; if it gained time, it lost strength for the pursuit. Such is the nature of our bodies, that daily work cannot be done without daily bread, which therefore our Father in heaven graciously gives. Saul was turning aside from God, and now he begins to build altars, being then most zealous, as many are, for the form of godliness when he was denying the power of it.