1 Samuel 14:32-33
1Sa 14:32 They therefore “fell voraciously upon the booty” - (the Chethibh ויּעשׂ is no doubt merely an error in writing for ויּעט, imperf. Kal of עיט with Dagesh forte implic. instead of ויּעט, as we may see from 1Sa 15:19, since the meaning required by the context, viz., to fall upon a thing, cannot be established in the case of עשׂה with על. On the other hand, there does not appear to be any necessity to supply the article before שׁלל, and this Keri seems only to have been taken from the parallel passage in 1Sa 15:19), - “and took sheep, and oxen, and calves, and slew them on the ground (ארצה, lit. to the earth, so that when they were slaughtered the animal fell upon the ground, and remained lying in its blood, and was cut in pieces), and ate upon the blood” (הדּם על, with which הדּם אל, “lying to the blood,” is interchanged in 1Sa 14:34), i.e., the flesh along with the blood which adhered to it, by doing which they sinned against the law in Lev 19:26. This sin had been occasioned by Saul himself through the prohibition which he issued. 1Sa 14:33-34 When this was told to Saul, he said, “Ye act faithlessly towards Jehovah” by transgressing the laws of the covenant; “roll me now (lit. this day) a large stone. Scatter yourselves among the people, and say to them, Let every one bring his ox and his sheep to me, and slay here” (upon the stone that has been rolled up), viz., so that the blood could run off properly upon the ground, and the flesh be separated from the blood. This the people also did.
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