3. One of the men was named Ahijah. Ahijah was a son of Ichabod’s brother Ahitub. Ahitub was the son of Phinehas. Phinehas was the son of Eli. Eli had been the Lord’S priest at Shiloh. Now Ahijah was the priest who wore the ephod. These men did not know that Jonathan had left.
4. Jonathan was planning to go through a pass to get to the Philistine camp. There was a large rock on each side of the pass. The large rock on one side was named Bozez. The large rock on the other side was named Seneh.
5. One of the rocks faced north toward Micmash, and the other faced south toward Geba.
6. Jonathan said to his young helper who carried his weapons, “Come on, let’s go to the camp of those foreigners. Maybe the Lord will use us to defeat them. Nothing can stop the Lord—it doesn’t matter if we have many soldiers or just a few soldiers.”
7. The young man who carried Jonathan’s weapons said to him, “Do what you think is best. Whatever you decide, I am with you all the way.”
8. Jonathan said, “Let’s go! We’ll cross the valley and go to the Philistine guards. We’ll let them see us.
9. If they say to us, ‘Stay there until we come to you,’ we will stay where we are. We won’t go up to them.
25-26. Because of the fighting, the people went into some woods. Then they saw a honeycomb on the ground. The Israelites went up to the honeycomb, but they didn’t eat any of it. They were afraid to break the promise.
27. But Jonathan didn’t know about the oath. He didn’t hear his father make the soldiers promise not to eat. Jonathan had a stick in his hand, so he dipped the end of the stick into the honeycomb and pulled out some honey. He ate the honey and began to feel much better.
28. One of the soldiers told Jonathan, “Your father forced the soldiers to make a special promise. He said that any man who eats today will be under a curse. So the men have not eaten anything. That’s why they are weak.”
29. Jonathan said, “My father has brought a lot of trouble to the land. See how much better I feel after tasting just a little of this honey.
30. It would have been much better for the men to eat the food that they took from their enemies today. We could have killed more Philistines.”
31. That day the Israelites defeated the Philistines. They fought them all the way from Micmash to Aijalon. So the people were very tired and hungry.
32. They had taken sheep, cattle, and calves from the Philistines. Now they were so hungry that they killed the animals on the ground and ate them. And the blood was still in the animals.
33. Someone said to Saul, “Look, the men are sinning against the Lord. They’re eating meat that still has blood in it!” Saul said, “You have sinned. Roll a large stone over here now!”
34. Then Saul said, “Go to the men and tell them that each one must bring his bull and sheep to me. Then the men must kill their bulls and sheep here. Don’t sin against the Lord! Don’t eat meat that still has blood in it.” That night everyone brought their animals and killed them there.
35. Then Saul built an altar for the Lord. Saul himself began building that altar for the Lord.