Samuel said to all Israel, Behold, I have listened to your voice in all that you said to me, and have made a king over you.
 And this very thing gave occasion to a most instructive incident recorded in the rest of the chapter. Jonathan was in the secret of the Lord, but he was not privy to the oath with which Saul had bound the people. As Saul knew not what was between God and his own son, so Jonathan was a stranger outside to his father's adjuration, and hence unwillingly transgressed. "Jonathan heard not," as it is said, "when his father charged the people with the oath: wherefore he put forth the end of the rod that was in his hand, and dipped it in an honeycomb, and put his hand to his mouth; and his eyes were enlightened. 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." With all his love and respect to his father, Jonathan could not but feel the deep injury that was done. "Then said Jonathan, My father hath troubled the land: see, I pray you, how mine eyes have been enlightened, because I tasted a little of this honey. How much more, if haply the people had eaten freely today of the spoil of their enemies which they found?"
