1 Kings 14:25
And all the common people came into a forest, in which there was honey upon the ground.
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- Vulgate (Clementine)
- omneque terræ vulgus venit in saltum, in quo erat mel super faciem agri.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ Ἰάαλ δρυμὸς ἦν μελισσῶνος κατὰ πρόσωπον τοῦ ἀγροῦ.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וְכָל הָאָ֖רֶץ בָּ֣אוּ בַיָּ֑עַר וַיְהִ֥י דְבַ֖שׁ עַל פְּנֵ֥י הַשָּׂדֶֽה
Haydock's commentary
Ground. Even still travellers perceive the smell of honey very frequently in that country. (Maundrell)
The people use honey almost in every sauce and in every repast. Virgin assures us, that "bees dwell in holes under ground, in hollow stones, and trees." (Georg. iv.) The Scripture frequently mentions honey flowing, Exodus ii. 8., Psalm lxx. 17., and Job xx. 17.
Mella fluant illi, ferat & rubus asper amomum. (Virgil, Ec. iii.)
Sanctius says, that in Spain, streams of honey may be seen on the ground; and Maldonet observes, that the countrymen get a livelihood by gathering it from the trees in Betica, or Andalusia.
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
Tertullian On Fasting, Chapter X
At all events, Saul himself, when engaged in battle, manifestly enjoined this duty: “Cursed (be) the man who shall have eaten bread until evening, until I avenge me on mine enemy;” and his whole people tasted not (food), and (yet) the whole earth was breakfasting! So solemn a sanction, moreover, did God confer on the edict which enjoined that Station, that Jonathan the son of Saul, although it had been in ignorance of the fast having been appointed till a late hour that he had allowed himself a taste of honey, was both presently convicted, by lot, of sin, and with difficulty exempted from punishment through the prayer of the People: for he had been convicted of gluttony, although of a simple kind. …