1 Samuel 14:1 Explained in Context

Selected verse

Verse 1. Now it came to pass upon a day, that Jonathan the son of Saul said unto the young man that bare his armour, Come, and let us go over to the Philistines’ garrison, that is on the other side. But he told not his father.

King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions

Quick Meaning

Opens Jonathan's secret proposal to cross toward the Philistine garrison.

Read It With

1 Samuel 14:1–14:3

1 Samuel 14:1–14:3 supplies the necessary frame for verse 14:1. Here the narrator opens Jonathan's secret proposal to cross toward the Philistine garrison, within this larger movement: Jonathan leaves secretly with his armor-bearer while Saul remains with six hundred and the Eli-house priest Ahiah wears the ephod.

Why This Verse Appears Here

The unit “Jonathan slips away while Saul waits” needs this line's precise work: it opens Jonathan's secret proposal to cross toward the Philistine garrison. The verse remains one part of the scene rather than its complete claim.

What Remains True

Opens Jonathan's secret proposal to cross toward the Philistine garrison. Within 1 Samuel 14:1–14:3, this contribution supports the unit's enduring claim: Leadership and loyalty remain answerable for the effects traced here: Jonathan leaves secretly with his armor-bearer while Saul remains with six hundred and the Eli-house priest Ahiah wears the ephod. Jonathan's secrecy does not make unauthorized risk a universal model, and Saul's waiting does not by itself diagnose cowardice or incompetence.

How It Can Shape Life

Opens Jonathan's secret proposal to cross toward the Philistine garrison. The proportionate response is therefore the one traced from the complete unit: Evaluate leadership by truthful action, accountability, and its effects on people with less power—not by status, charisma, religious language, or apparent success. Jonathan's secrecy does not make unauthorized risk a universal model, and Saul's waiting does not by itself diagnose cowardice or incompetence.

Continue in Context

The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.

Read 1 Samuel 14:1–14:3 — Jonathan slips away while Saul waits

Sources used for this Verse Lens

How certain is this explanation? strong

These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.

Biblical text

King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006

eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society

USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.

Supports: Exact displayed KJV words, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete unit coverage.

Exact location: 1 Samuel 14:1–14:3, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus

Open source ↗

hebrew text and morphology

Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: 1 Samuel

Open Scriptures

Open Scriptures, release 2.2

Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology, with the two KJV-Hebrew versification shifts stated rather than silently offset.

Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/1Sam.xml, OSIS 14:1–14:3; KJV 20:42 spans Hebrew 20:42–21:1, KJV 21:1–15 maps to Hebrew 21:2–16, KJV 23:29 maps to Hebrew 24:1, and KJV 24:1–22 maps to Hebrew 24:2–23

Open source ↗

translation and translator notes

NET Bible First Edition Notes: 1 Samuel

Biblical Studies Press

Biblical Studies Press, 2006

Supports: Only the translator notes actually printed for these verses, used for lexical, grammatical, textual, historical, and older-English controls.

Exact location: NET Bible First Edition Notes, 1 Samuel PDF, printed pp. 504–543, exact tc/tn/sn entries attached to 14:1–14:3

Open source ↗

Open the complete thought-unit research record