And Saul tarried in the outskirts of Gibeah under a pomegranate tree which is in Migron: and the people that were with him were about six hundred men;
All Commentaries on 1 Samuel 14:2 Go To 1 Samuel 14
Bede
AD 735
For a person of virtue comes to the conclusion that he tarried in Gibeah, that is, on the hill, that he tarried under the pomegranate tree and that he had six hundred companions. As we already noted before, the hill portrays the height of the virtues, the shade of the pomegranate tree the protection of the cross of our Lord, the number of the six hundred soldiers those made complete in hope and work. But the fact that he sat at the outskirts of the hill and that the tree by whose shade he was protected was located in Migron, that is, in the throat, are signs of a less than perfect mind. That is to say, his mind had not yet scaled the walls of virtues, although he much desired them. His mind confessed with his mouth the mystery of the Lord’s passion, but he was not yet strong enough to imitate it. But if we follow the ancient translators and read Megiddo (“Tempter”) instead of Migron, we still come to the same meaning. There are those who are endowed with the right faith and ablaze with the desires of just works but who do not cease to undergo harsh struggles against vices that tempt them.
