And Saul declared, “May God punish me, and ever so severely, if you, Jonathan, do not surely die!”
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 answered, God do so and more also,.... A form of an oath imprecating evils upon him more and greater than he chose to mention, see the like form in Rut 1:17, though Abarbinel thinks this is not the form of an oath, but an asseveration of a curse that would befall him; as that God would not answer him when he inquired of...
And Saul answered - thou shalt surely die, Jonathan - To save thy rash oath! So must John Baptist's head be taken off at the desire of an impure woman, because a Herod had sworn to give her whatever she might request! Unfeeling brute! However, the king was Judge. But what said the people, who were the Jury?