(29) My father hath troubled the land.--In other words, "My father's ill-considered vow has done-grave harm to us in Israel. Had he not weakened the people, by hindering them from taking the needful refreshment, our victory would have been far more complete. Utter exhaustion has prevented us from following up our victory."
Verse 29. - My father hath troubled the land.I.e. hath brought disaster upon it (see Genesis 34:30; Joshua 7:25). This disaster was the incompleteness of the victory, owing to the people being too exhausted to continue the pursuit.
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.
Then said Jonathan, my father hath troubled the land,.... The people of the land, as the Targum, the soldiers in his army; afflicted and distressed them, and made them uneasy in their minds, like troubled waters; the Arabic version is,"my father hath sinned against the people;''hath done them injury by forbidding them to eat. This was not wisely said by Jonathan; how much soever his father was to be blamed, it did not become him as a son thus to reflect upon him, and it might have tended to mutiny and sedition:
see, I pray you, how mine eyes have been enlightened, because I tasted a little of this honey; the benefit he received by it was very visible; it might easily be discerned that he was greatly refreshed with it, and his spirits invigorated by it; it was to be seen in the cheerfulness of his countenance, and the briskness of his eyes: and he suggests it would have had the same effect upon the people, had they eaten of it, as he had done.
see, I pray you, how mine eyes have been enlightened, because I tasted a little of this honey; the benefit he received by it was very visible; it might easily be discerned that he was greatly refreshed with it, and his spirits invigorated by it; it was to be seen in the cheerfulness of his countenance, and the briskness of his eyes: and he suggests it would have had the same effect upon the people, had they eaten of it, as he had done.