Therefore Saul said, “Come here, all you leaders of the troops, and let us investigate how this sin has occurred today.
Here is, I. Saul's boasting against the Philistines. He proposed, as soon as his soldiers had got their suppers, to pursue them all night, and not leave a man of them, Sa1 14:36. Here he showed much zeal, but little discretion; for his army, thus fatigued, could as ill spare a night's sleep as a meal's meat.
Commenting on 1 Samuel 14:36-46
And Saul said, draw ye near hither all the chief of the people,.... Or, the corners of the peoples (g); the princes, as Jarchi interprets it: and so the Targum, the heads of the people, in allusion to the cornerstones in buildings, which are the ornament, strength, and cement of them, see Zac 10:4, though Abarbinel thinks the tribes themselves are meant, which lay encamped...
1Sa 14:38-39 When Saul perceived, this, he directed all the heads of the people (pinnoth, as in Jdg 20:2) to draw near to learn whereby (wherein) the sin had occurred that day, and declared, “As truly as Jehovah liveth, who has brought salvation to Israel, even if it were upon Jonathan my son, he shall die.” The first כּי in 1Sa 14:39 is explanatory; the...
Commenting on 1 Samuel 14:38-39