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 food this day. And the people were faint.

And one of the people answering, said: Thy father hath bound the people with an oath, saying: Cursed be the man that shall eat any food this day. (And the people were faint.)

Then answered one of the people and said, Thy father strictly adjured the people, saying, Cursed be the man that eateth food this day; and the people are faint.

Then answered one of the people, and said, Thy father strictly charged the people with an oath, saying, Cursed be the man that eateth any food this day. And the people were faint.

And a man of the people answereth and saith, 'Thy father certainly adjured the people, saying, Cursed is the man who eateth food to-day; and the people are weary.'

Then answered one of the people, and said, Your father straightly charged the people with an oath, saying, Cursed be the man that eats any food this day. And the people were faint.

Then one of the people said to him, Your father put the people under an oath, saying, Let that man be cursed who takes any food this day. And the people were feeble, needing food.

And in response, one of the people said, "Your father has bound the people by an oath, saying: 'Cursed be the man who will eat any bread this day.' " (For the people were faint.)

And the people were faint - Read, "are faint," the words are part of the man's complaint.

Then answered one of the people, and said,.... To Jonathan, who might direct and encourage the people to do as he had done, at least so he did by his example, if not by words; the latter is not improbable: and therefore one of the men that came along with Saul, and had now joined Jonathan, and who heard what Saul had said, replied:
thy father straitly charged the people with an oath; gave them a strict charge, with an oath or imprecation annexed to it:
saying, cursed be the man that eateth any food this day; that is, until the evening, as in 1-Samuel 14:24.
and the people were faint; which is either the observation of the writer of the book; or it may be the words of the man, imputing the faintness of the people to this adjuration of Saul restraining them from food; or as taking notice how strictly the people observed it, though they were hungry, faint, and weary.

People - They that came with Saul, whose forces were now united with Jonathan's.