1 Samuel 14:28
Then answered one of the people, and said, Thy father straitly charged the people with an oath, saying, Cursed be the man that eateth any food this day. And the people were faint. Then answered one of the people, and said, Thy father straitly charged the people with an oath, saying, Cursed be the man that eateth any food this day. And the people were faint.
The verse stands in the crisis when Saul was not to have the honor of defeating the Philistines because of his sin in making a presumptuous offering, and Jonathan was chosen instead as the instrument to deliver Israel. Jonathan was the king's son, a man who feared the Lord, moved by a divine impulse to propose a secret attack on the enemy camp together with his armor-bearer. That armor-bearer was also a man of faith and prayer, and the two undertook the attack secretly with earnest prayer and an agreed sign.
The faintness of the people came from hunger under Saul's oath that laid a curse on anyone who ate food that day. That prohibiting command was rash and humanly devised, not inspired by God, and it displeased Him. Jonathan had unknowingly eaten honey, found that it had strengthened him, and recognized that the people could have pursued the Philistines more effectively if they had eaten.