That evening they rushed for the battle plunder and butchered the sheep, goats, cattle, and calves, but they ate them without draining 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.
- KJV 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.
- 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.
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 15:19Why then didn’t you obey Yahweh’s voice, but took the plunder, and did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight?”
- Lev 3:17“‘It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your dwellings, that you shall eat neither fat nor blood.’”
- Lev 19:26“‘You shall not eat any meat with the blood still in it. You shall not use enchantments, nor practice sorcery.
- Deut 12:16Only you shall not eat the blood. You shall pour it out on the earth like water.
- Gen 9:4But flesh with its life, that is, its blood, you shall not eat.
- Lev 17:10–14“‘Any man of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who live as foreigners among them, who eats any kind of blood, I will set my face against that soul who eats blood, and will cut him off from among his people.
- Deut 12:23–24Only be sure that you don’t eat the blood; for the blood is the life. You shall not eat the life with the meat.
- Acts 15:20but that we write to them that they abstain from the pollution of idols, from sexual immorality, from what is strangled, and from blood.
- Ezek 33:25Therefore tell them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: You eat with the blood, and lift up your eyes to your idols, and shed blood: and shall you possess the land?
- Acts 15:29that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality, from which if you keep yourselves, it will be well with you. Farewell.”
- Lev 7:26–27You shall not eat any blood, whether it is of bird or of animal, 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.