And the people flew 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.
And ... flew upon the spoil. At evening, when the time fixed by Saul had expired, faint and famishing, the pursuers fell voraciously upon the cattle they had taken, and threw them on the ground, to cut off their flesh and eat it raw, so that the army, by Saul's rashness, were defiled by eating blood, or living animals; probably as the Abyssinians do, who cut a part of the animal's rump, but close the hide upon it, and nothing mortal follows from that wound. They were painfully conscientious in keeping the king's order, for fear of the curse, but had no scruple in transgressing God's command. To prevent this violation of the law, Saul ordered a large stone to be rolled, and those that slaughtered the oxen to cut their throats on that stone. By laying the animal's head on the high stone, the blood oozed out on the ground, and sufficient evidence was afforded that the ox or sheep was dead before it was attempted to eat it.