And the people rushed upon the spoil, and took sheep, and oxen, and calves, and slew them on the ground: and the people did eat them with the blood.
Read Chapter 14
Bede
AD 735
When it is said that the people ate the animals with their blood, one ought not the think that they ate the meat bloody and raw. After all, it is not human nature but the nature of wild animals to do that. Rather, once the herds had been killed, they began cooking or roasting the meat before it had been properly drained, and so they ate meat not yet fully purged of blood. This practice, however, refers to lazy teachers who, just as we see today, are wearied by the time-consuming task of catechizing, offer to God through their teaching a number of people whom they have delivered by their preaching from demonic errors and pagan rituals. They attempt to imitate him to whom it was said, when animals of every sort were lowered from the heavens, “Kill and eat.” But just as the Israelites slaughtered animals on the ground and ate them with the blood, so these teachers do not draw them from earthly senses and the allurements of flesh and blood. Perhaps they are less than perfect teachers; perh...
Blood, contrary to a two-fold law, Genesis ix. 4., and Leviticus xvii. 14. The blood ought to have been carefully extracted and buried. (Calmet)
This was another bad effect of Saul's rash oath. (Worthington)
It is also the custom of the arrogant to not let their self-esteem keep quiet whenever the tongues of others grow silent in praising them. Indeed, while all the others keep quiet, the arrogant shouts aloud, for in his heart he carries around one who broadcasts his great worth. Therefore, the following words are readily applied to such people: “And the people turned to the spoils and brought sheep, cows and calves. They slaughtered them on the ground, and the people ate them with their blood.” If anyone cultivates many reasons for his innocence and boasts about them, he takes sheep. When someone thinks about his labors of preaching and collects in his memory whatever has been useful as he spoke to others or cultivated the earth, he takes cattle as booty. When he is elated from the fact that the impulses of wantonness upon the mind have been restrained and reduced, he takes calves. For there are two commandments that bring great praise to the just: the splendor of chastity and the light ...
