Translations
F.O.G.MPrimary
F.O.G MessageThe leaders accepted the men's story — they tasted the evidence with their own hands — but they never stopped to seek the counsel of Yahweh.
F.O.GSecondary
The F.O.GThe men sampled their provisions but did not seek the mouth of YHWH.
KJV
King James VersionAnd the men took of their victuals, and asked not counsel at the mouth of the LORD.
BSB
Berean Standard BibleThen the men of Israel sampled their provisions but did not seek the counsel of the LORD.
Footnotes
אֶת-פִּי יְהוָה לֹא שָׁאָלוּ (*et-pi YHWH lo sha'alu*) — "they did not inquire of the mouth of YHWH" — a technical phrase for seeking oracular guidance, almost certainly through the Urim and Thummim entrusted to the high priest (cf. Num. 27:21). The idiom is arrestingly physical: YHWH has a *mouth* whose speech Israel was expected to seek before decisions of this magnitude. This verse is the narrative hinge of the entire chapter — the crisis is not Gibeonite cunning but Israelite self-reliance. FOG preserves the literal "mouth of YHWH" to honour this embodied divine-speech imagery; FOG Message unpacks the practical failure — "never stopped to seek the counsel of Yahweh" — making the neglect viscerally felt.