And the people flew upon the spoil, and took sheep, and oxen, and calves, and slew them on the ground: and the people did eat them with the blood.
Parallel translations
- WEB and the people pounced on the plunder, and took sheep, cattle, and calves, and killed them on the ground; and the people ate them with the blood.
- BSB So they rushed greedily to the plunder, taking sheep, cattle, and calves. They slaughtered them on the ground and ate meat with the blood still in it.
- NKJV And the people rushed on the spoil, and took sheep, oxen, and calves, and slaughtered them on the ground; and the people ate them with the blood.
- NASB So the people loudly rushed upon the spoils, and took sheep, oxen, and calves, and slaughtered them on the ground; and the people ate them with the blood.
- NLT That evening they rushed for the battle plunder and butchered the sheep, goats, cattle, and calves, but they ate them without draining the blood.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Famished, the people rush on the spoil and eat the animals with the blood, violating God's law.
Overview
Driven by the hunger Saul's oath caused, the soldiers slaughter and eat the plunder without draining the blood, breaking the Mosaic command (Leviticus 17:10-14). Saul's rash vow thus leads the people into actual sin against the Lord. The episode shows how unwise leadership can occasion the very transgressions it never intended.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- 1 Sam 15:19Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the LORD, but didst fly upon the spoil, and didst evil in the sight of the LORD?
- Lev 3:17It shall be a perpetual statute for your generations throughout all your dwellings, that ye eat neither fat nor blood.
- Lev 19:26Ye shall not eat any thing with the blood: neither shall ye use enchantment, nor observe times.
- Deut 12:16Only ye shall not eat the blood; ye shall pour it upon the earth as water.
- Gen 9:4But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.
- Lev 17:10–14And whatsoever man there be of the house of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among you, that eateth any manner of blood; I will even set my face against that soul that eateth blood, and will cut him off from among his people.
- Deut 12:23–24Only be sure that thou eat not the blood: for the blood is the life; and thou mayest not eat the life with the flesh.
- Acts 15:20But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.
- Ezek 33:25Wherefore say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Ye eat with the blood, and lift up your eyes toward your idols, and shed blood: and shall ye possess the land?
- Acts 15:29That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.
- Lev 7:26–27Moreover ye shall eat no manner of blood, whether it be of fowl or of beast, in any of your dwellings.
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Christ at the center
The rise of the anointed king after Israel's failed first choice points to the true Anointed One (Messiah means 'anointed'), the shepherd-king after God's own heart from Bethlehem.
How 1 Samuel 14:32 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.