1 Samuel 14 is the fourteenth chapter of the First Book of Samuel in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible or the first part of the Books of Samuel in the Hebrew Bible. According to Jewish tradition the book was attributed to the prophet Samuel, with additions by the prophets Gad and Nathan, but modern scholars view it as a composition of a number of independent texts of various ages from c. 630–540 BCE. This chapter contains Saul's actions against the Philistines. This is within a section comprising 1 Samuel 7–15 which records the rise of the monarchy in Israel and the account of the first years of King Saul.
Text
This chapter was originally written in the Hebrew language. It is divided into 52 verses.
Textual witnesses
Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text tradition, which includes the Codex Cairensis (895), Aleppo Codex (10th century), and Codex Leningradensis (1008). Fragments containing parts of this chapter in Hebrew were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls including 4Q51 (4QSam; 100–50 BCE) with extant verses 24–25, 28–34, 47–51 and 4Q52 (4QSam; 250 BCE) with extant verses 41–42.
Extant ancient manuscripts of a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint (originally was made in the last few centuries BCE) include Codex Vaticanus (B; B; 4th century) and Codex Alexandrinus (A; A; 5th century; only extant verses 10–52).
Places
Gibeah
Michmash
Shiloh
Analysis
This chapter gives some detailed narratives on the actions of Saul, 'oscillating between a favorable view and a negative, unfavorable verdict', which in the end 'reinforce the conviction that Saul was not a man after God's heart'. There is a contrast between Saul and his first son, Jonathan, where Saul is depicted as reckless, acting foolishly on one occasion (13:13), interrupted a consultation to rush to battle on another (14:19), and finally endangered the life of his son (14:44), whereas Jonathan is described as 'possessing the characteristics of a charismatic leader, stood in the tradition of those who waged God's battles' and became God's instrument: he held the assumption that 'the LORD will act for us' (verse 6), depended on God's approval of his action (verses 8–12), and attributed the victory to God (verse 23, cf. verse 45).
The Battle of Michmash (14:1–15) The Philistines camped at Michmash (1 Samuel 13:23) on the north side of the deep ravine, Wadi es-Suwenit, whereas the Israelites camped in Geba to the south of the ravine. Jonathan and his armour-bearer bravely clambered up from the ravine through hard-to-climb rock formations, as indicated by their names, Bozez ('slippery one') and Seneh ('thorny one'), and succeeded in defeating a group of Philistine soldiers (verses 1–15).
Verse 2
And Saul was sitting in the outskirts of Gibeah under a pomegranate tree which is in Migron. The people who were with him were about six hundred men. "The outskirts of Gibeah": Gill suggests that Saul did not dare to fight the Philistines, so he remained in the furthest part of Gibeah, at the greatest distance from the camp of the Philistines, in the strongest part of the city, or deeply entrenched in the outer part of it. "Under a pomegranate tree": later Saul was said to sit "under a tamarisk tree in Ramah" (1 Samuel 22:6). The Hebrew word for "pomegranate" is "rimmon", here is meant for the tree as it is an appellative noun, not the "Rock of Rimmon" (Judges 20:45, 47; probably because the form resembles the fruit), which was located on the north-east of Michmash. "Migron": means "a precipice", one of the conical or spherical hills which are plenty in the Benjamite territory, and favorable for an encampment, or to observe the motions of the Philistines.<ref name=benson>Benson, Joseph. [http://biblehub.com/commentaries/benson/1_samuel/14.htm '’Commentary on the Old and New Testaments. 1 Samuel 14.] Accessed 9 Juli 2019.</ref>