The dispute about Jonathan eating honey

24 Before Saul’s soldiers went to the battle, Saul declared to them solemnly, “I do not want any of you to eat any food before this evening, before we have defeated all our enemies. If anyone eats anything, Yahweh will curse/punish him.” So none of the Israeli soldiers ate any food, and they became faint/weak because they were very hungry.

25 The Israeli army went into the forest, and they found honeycombs on the ground, but they did not eat any honey. 26 They were afraid to eat any, because they had solemnly promised that they would not eat any food. 27 But Jonathan did not hear what his father commanded because he had left the camp very early in the morning. So when he saw a honeycomb, he dipped the end of his walking stick into it and ate some honey. After he ate the honey, he felt stronger.

28 But one of the Israeli soldiers saw him and said to him, “Your father solemnly declared to us that Yahweh would curse/punish anyone who ate any food today. So now we are very tired and weak from being hungry because we obeyed him.” 29 Jonathan exclaimed, “My father has caused trouble for all of us! See how refreshed/strong I am after eating a little honey! 30 If he had permitted all of us to eat from the food we took from our enemies while we were pursuing them, we would have been able to kill many more of their soldiers!”

31 The Israelis pursued and killed Philistia soldiers all that day, from Micmash town west to Aijalon. But they continued to become weaker from being hungry. 32 They had taken many sheep and cattle that the Philistia soldiers had abandoned. Now, because they were extremely hungry, they butchered some of those animals and ate the meat without draining the blood from the animals. 33 One of the soldiers told Saul, “Look! The men are sinning against Yahweh by eating meat that still has blood in it!”

Saul replied to the men who were near him, “They have disobeyed Yahweh! Roll a large stone over here!”

34 After they did that, he said to those men, “Go and tell all the soldiers that each of them must bring an ox or a sheep to me, and kill it here on this stone, and drain the blood before he eats any of the meat. They should not sin against Yahweh by eating meat from some animal without draining its blood.” So that night all the soldiers brought animals and slaughtered them there. Then Saul built an altar to worship Yahweh. 35 That was the first time that he built an altar for Yahweh.