1 Samuel 14:31

THE PEOPLE EAT MEAT WITH THE BLOOD STILL IN IT

"They struck down the Philistines that day from Michmash to Aijalon. And the people were very faint; the people flew upon the spoil, and took sheep and oxen and calves, and slew them on the ground; and the people ate them with the blood. Then they told Saul, "Behold, the people are sinning against the Lord, by eating with the blood." And he said, "You have dealt treacherously; roll a great stone to me here." And Saul said, "Disperse yourselves among the people, and say to them, `Let every man bring his ox or his sheep, and slay them here, and eat; and do not sin against the Lord by eating with the blood.'" So every one of the people brought his ox with him that night and slew them there. And Saul built an altar to the Lord; it was the first altar that he built to the Lord."

"From Michmash to Aijalon" (1 Samuel 14:31). "Aijalon was fifteen or twenty miles from Michmash."[20] The Philistines, of course, were fleeing home as fast as possible; and, if the Israelites had not been suffering from hunger and fatigue the Philistine casualties would have been far greater.

"Let every man bring his ox or his sheep, and slay them here, and eat" (1 Samuel 14:34). The purpose of Saul here was to see that the animals to be eaten by his troops were properly bled.

"And Saul built an altar" (1 Samuel 14:35). Saul evidently used that great stone upon which the animals were slain as part of an altar to the Lord. However, "He only began to build that altar, but did not finish it (1 Corinthians 27:24), because of his haste to pursue the Philistines that night."[21]