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.
All Commentaries on 1 Samuel 14:32 Go To 1 Samuel 14
Gregory The Dialogist
AD 604
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 of good works. When an arrogant individual is exalted in his own estimation, he is said to have stolen sheep and calves. Sheep refer to the innocence of good works, calves to the mortification of bodily passion. Clearly, he added cattle to these, for he is not perfectly exalted if he thinks that he is in any way weak or powerless. He had already been great in his own opinion as far as he estimated his chastity and good works, but he raised himself in the arrogance of even fuller exaltation when he thought himself perfect in the labor of preaching.
But afterwards he wrote about the end to which all these things lead: “And they slaughtered them on the ground.” To slaughter sheep, cows and calves on the ground is to exult with carnal joy and a conscience bereft of virtues. Thus God spoke about the proud and arrogant in the book of Hosea: “He turned away their sacrificial offerings into the deep.” Indeed, they plunge their victims into the deep when they do not raise up the heavenly offerings of virtues to the heavens in gratitude, but they yield their sacrifices to the earth through their quest for vain praise. Therefore, these words are well applied to them: “The people ate the sacrifices with their blood.” The food of the mind is its own internal joy. What, then, does eating with blood signify except to refuse to remove by any means striving for vain praise from the internal appetite of the mind? The blood is removed when the mind removes the striving for vanity from the joy of a good work. For the mind of a godly sort knows to rejoice in a good work, since he rejoices to draw near to the heavenly beings through his good works, but he avoids letting those works be seen at the time as he carries out those works. Then to eat with blood is to take the joy of a good work and mix it with a longing for vanity. Clearly, when praise is offered by others, then it is sincere food even for the arrogant. But when no one else praises them, the conscience of the haughty swells up, it violently snatches as loot the praise nobody else voluntarily offers.
