Troublesome Topic: JONATHAN VS MANY PHILISTINES

I Samuel chapter 14

As we go through this I will enumerate the elements of this story that point to chivalry in ancient warfare, rather than an anything-goes attitude.

First a word about armor bearers. While the famous warrior was well trained and had plenty of practice in one-on-one combat, his armor bearer was probably more muscular because he was basically a pack mule, he had to carry his master’s armor, weapons, and personal stuff, as well as his own weapon and personal stuff.

In this story, Jonathan believed that God wanted to do something special through him, even though he was only one man. He knew that God could use any number of people for His glory (14:6).

In Verse 8 we read that Jonathan told his armor-bearer that they would show themselves to the Philistines, and if the enemy told them to stay where they were, they would do so, but if the enemy told them to come up to them, then they would take that as a sign from God that He would give them victory over the Philistines, even though it was only one warrior and his armor-bearer.

Element #1: No arrows!  

Had this been an “anything goes” situation, it would have been more logical for Jonathan to look for a concealed place from which to shoot arrows at his unsuspecting enemy. Ellicott’s Commentary says that Jonathan was an archer because his tribe was known for its archers, and he would have been a chief archer among them. That makes it even more likely that a free-for-all would have motivated Jonathan to use his bow. However, I think archery had nothing to do with this encounter; this was entered into as a series of hand-to-hand contests. The bow was used in the case of a large scale battle involving two armies, but not during the competition between two individual warriors.

So he and his armor bearer approached and made themselves visible to the Philistines, who responded by saying, “Come on up to where we are, and we will teach you a lesson.” This was the sign Jonathan had asked God for as confirmation of a positive outcome. So Jonathan and his Armor bearer crawled on their hands and knees up a steep incline to get to where the Philistines were, then the fighting began.

Element #2:  The climb up the steep embankment is an important detail.

If the Philistines had followed the free-for-all approach, they would have been waiting at the top of the embankment and cut them to pieces before they could even get to level ground. But they did not do that. They waited until the two Hebrews got to the level ground at the top. They wanted to follow the well-known rules that governed one-on-one combat.

Several commentaries say that the crag was so steep that the Philistines did not think its accent was possible, so they were waiting for Jonathan to come up the normal way, up the pass and around to them on the slowly ascending road or path. Their theory states that Jonathan surprised them, and that is why they didn’t roll a rock on them or attack them as they climbed the last few feet of the cliff. However, I find it very unlikely that the Philistines would all take their eyes off their adversaries and not watch them at all. That theory has some other holes in it, including my next point, # 3 below.

These steep banks had names. One was called Bozez (Botsets is closer to the Hebrew) which means “shining” due to how the sun hits that side and makes it gleam. (The Targum renders it as “slippery”.) The other side was called “Seneh” which means “Acacia or little thorn tree.” We are not told which side they climbed up, but I think the name that means “shining” adds richness to the story because God chose to shine His glory in that place at that time through Jonathan. So, I think he climbed up the bank called “shining.”

They expected Jonathan to be breathing heavily when he got to the top of his climb, so they expected to start the man-to-man contests with an advantage over Jonathan. But Jonathan must have been in good shape; he was not a fat, lazy prince.

The highest ranking officer among the Philistines probably went first or chose who went in his place.

Element #3:  After each Philistine fell before Jonathan, his armor bearer came and killed behind him.

What does that mean? It sounds to me like there were a number of one-on-one contests and each time Jonathan killed or wounded one of them and moved on to the next challenger, his armor bearer would make sure the last one was fully dead. Why the other philistines allowed that is not stated. It is likely that once Jonathan won a challenge, that man’s companions counted him for dead even if he was technically still alive.

If this were a case of a free-for-all, and if the two Hebrews made it to the top alive (which we know they did) Jonathan and his armor bearer would have been separated and both of them would have been surrounded by more than ten Philistines. This means that the armor bearer would not have been free to go along behind Jonathan and make sure they were dead.

After Jonathan had single handedly killed 20 men (his armor bearer was not considered a warrior and only finished them off), great fear struck the Philistines and the entire army began to flee, giving the Israelite army a chance to pursue them. This event caused a rout of the Philistines and garnered a military victory for Israel that was much larger than the few men that Jonathan defeated.

In this case the one-challenger-at-a-time method fits very well with the details of this story while the free-for-all explanation does not fit at all.