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 the people had come into the wood, and behold, the honey flowed; but no man put his hand to his mouth, for the people feared the oath.

and the people come in unto the forest, and lo, the honey dropped, and none is moving his hand unto his mouth, for the people feared the oath.

But not a man put his hand to his mouth for fear of the curse.

And when the people were come unto the forest, behold a flow of honey; but no man put his hand to his mouth; for the people feared the oath.

When the people had come to the forest, look, a flow of honey, but no man would raise his hand to his mouth; for the people feared the oath.

And so the people entered the forest, and there appeared flowing honey, but no one drew his hand near his mouth. For the people were afraid of the oath.

The honey dropped - Rather, "Behold a stream of honey." The same thing may be seen in Spain, where in woody and rocky ground copious streams of honey are often found.

The honey dropped - It seems to have dropped from the trees on the ground. Honey dews, as they are called, are not uncommon in most countries; and this appears to have been something of this kind. I have seen honey in considerable quantity on the trees and long grass in the fields, and have often eaten of it.

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 (m) oath.
(m) That is, the punishment if they break their 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) "ambulatio mellis", Montanus; "itio mellis", Drusius; so in Ovid. Metamorph. l. 1. fab. 3. "----jam flumina nectaris ibant".

When the people came into the wood and saw a stream of honey (or wild or wood bees), "no one put his hand to his mouth (sc., to eat of the honey), because they feared the oath."

Honey - Bees often make their hives in the trunks of trees, or clefts of rocks, or holes of the earth; and this in divers countries, but eminently in Canaan.