And between the passages, by which Jonathan sought to go over unto the Philistines' garrison, there was a sharp rock on the one side, and a sharp rock on the other side: and the name of the one was Bozez, and the name of the other Seneh.
Between the passages - i:e., the deep and great ravine of Suweinit, which extended from west to east.
Jonathan sought to go over unto the Philistines' garrison - a distance of about three miles, running between two jagged points, or, Hebrew, 'teeth of the cliff.'
There was a sharp rock on the one side, and a sharp rock on the other side ... Bozez (shining, from the aspect of the chalky rock) ... Seneh (the thorn, probably from a solitary acacia on its top). They are the only rocks of the kind in this vicinity; and the top of the crag toward Michmash was occupied as the post of the Philistines. 'In the gorge or valley are two hills of a conical or rather a spherical form, having steep rocky sides, with small wadies running up behind each, so as almost to isolate them. One is on the side toward Geba (Jeb'a), and the other toward Michmash (Mukhmas). These would seem to be the two rocks mentioned in connection with Jonathan's adventure. They are not, indeed, so "sharp" as the language of Scripture would seem to imply, but they are the only rocks of the kind in this vicinity' (Robinson's 'Biblical Researches,' 2:, p.
116). The ridges on each side of the valley exhibit two elevated points which project into the great wady; and the easternmost of these bluffs on each side probably the outposts of the two garrisons of the Israelites and the Philistines.
The road passes around the eastern side of the southern hill, the post of Israel, and then strikes up over the western part of the northern one, the post of the Philistines, and the scene of Jonathan's adventure. These hills struck us now, more than formerly, as of sharp ascent, and as appropriate to the circumstances of the narrative. They are isolated cliffs in the valley, except so far as the low ridge, at the end of which they are found, connected them back with the higher ground on, each side (Robinson's 'Later Biblical Researches,' Second Journey p. 289). The two camps were in sight of each other; and it was up the steep rocky sides of this isolated eminence that Jonathan and his armour-bearer (1 Samuel 14:6) made their adventurous approach. This enterprise is one of the most gallant and romantic that history records. The action, viewed in itself, was rash, and contrary to all established rules of military discipline, which do not permit soldiers to fight, or to undertake any enterprise that may involve important consequences, without the order of the generals. It might be that he was incited to it by a divine impulse, his patriotic spirit being roused by rumours of the depredations committed by the three marauding parties (1 Samuel 13:17-18) on the peasantry in the neighbourhood.