And when the people came into the wood, behold, the honey dropped,.... Either from trees, which produced it; so Diodorus Siculus 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 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" , 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.
Bibliothec. l. 17. p. 548. Hesiod, Theogon. ver. 230. Vid. Diodor. Sic. ut supra. (Bibliothec. l. 17. p. 548.) vbd Klh "ambulatio mellis", Montanus; "itio mellis", Drusius; so in Ovid. Metamorph. l. 1.
fab. 3.