1 Samuel 14:26
And when the people were come into the wood, behold, the honey dropped; but no man put his hand to his mouth: for the people feared the oath.
And when the people came into the wood, behold, the honey dropped,.... Either from trees, which produced it; so Diodorus Siculus {t} speaks of trees in some countries which produce honey; or from the sugar canes, as Jarchi; or rather from the honeycombs which were framed in trees by bees; so Hesiod {u} speaks of bees making their nests or combs in trees. Ben Gersom thinks that bee hives were placed here in rows by the wayside, from whence the honey flowed; or "went" {w}, or there was a going of it; perhaps the combs being pressed by the Philistines as they fled: the land of Canaan was a land flowing with milk and honey:
but no man put his hand to his mouth; that is, took not any of the honey and ate it, though it was so near at hand, and there was plenty of it:
for the people feared the oath: Saul adjured them by, or the imprecation he made on the person that should eat any food that day.
{t} Bibliothec. l. 17. p. 548.
{u} Hesiod, Theogon. ver. 230. Vid. Diodor. Sic. ut supra. (Bibliothec. l. 17. p. 548.)
{w} vbd Klh "ambulatio mellis", Montanus; "itio mellis", Drusius; so in Ovid. Metamorph. l. 1. fab. 3. "----jam flumina nectaris ibant".