1 Samuel 21 - Introduction
XXI. David in Exile — His Visit to the High Priest Ahimelech at the Sanctuary of Nob — His Sojourn with Achish, the Philistine King of Gath.... [ Continue Reading ]
XXI. David in Exile — His Visit to the High Priest Ahimelech at the Sanctuary of Nob — His Sojourn with Achish, the Philistine King of Gath.... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN CAME DAVID TO NOB. — Before leaving his native land, David determined once more to see, and if practicable to take counsel with, the old high priest of Israel, with whom, no doubt, in the past years of his close connection with Samuel, he had had frequent and intimate communion. He hoped, too,... [ Continue Reading ]
THE KING HATH COMMANDED ME. — This is one of the sad episodes in a glorious life. Overwhelmed with dismay at his sudden fall, home and wife, friends and rank, all had been taken from him, and he who had been on the very steps of the throne, the darling of the people, strangely successful in all that... [ Continue Reading ]
THERE IS NO COMMON BREAD. — The condition of the priests in these days of Saul was evidently a pitiable one. The terrible massacre related in the next chapter seems not to have excited the wail of indignation and woe which such a wholesale murder of the priests of the living God should naturally hav... [ Continue Reading ]
THE VESSELS. — Their clothes and light, portable baggage — answering to the modern “knapsack.” The Vulg. renders the Hebrew word by “vasa.” David means to say, “Since we have just left home, you may readily suppose that no impurity has been contracted; it would be different if we were returning home... [ Continue Reading ]
A CERTAIN MAN. — Among the personages who surround Saul in the Bible story appears incidentally the keeper of the royal mules, and chief of the household slaves, the “Comes stabuli,” “the constable of the king,” as appears in the later monarchy. “He is the first instance of a foreigner employed in a... [ Continue Reading ]
SPEAR OR SWORD? — We may well suppose _to what_ David pointed when he made his request — the famous sword, the trophy of the combat which had for ever made his name illustrious. In the first flush of gratitude to the invisible One who had stood by him in the hour of peril, he had doubtless taken and... [ Continue Reading ]
THE SWORD OF GOLIATH THE PHILISTINE. — It was in safe guardianship, that trusty sword of the mightiest of the Philistines, stained perhaps with the blood of the brave but unworthy priests, Hophni and Phineas, the sons of Eli, whom Goliath was believed to have slain in the fatal battle when the Ark w... [ Continue Reading ]
AND DAVID AROSE AND FLED· — The cause of this sudden flight was, of course, the fear of Doeg, one of Saul’s most trusted servants. Not an hour must be lost, thought David; my deadly foe will hear that I am here, and I shall be trapped like a hunted beast of prey. It seems at first sight strange that... [ Continue Reading ]
IS NOT THIS DAVID? — Some expositors have supposed, but quite needlessly, that it was the sword of Goliath which betrayed the identity of the hero; but although David in his humility did not suspect how widely spread was his fame, he was evidently as well known in Philistia as in his own land. That... [ Continue Reading ]
AND DAVID LAID UP THESE WORDS. — Now, for the first time, David saw how widely travelled was a renown of which he in his humbleness of heart had thought so little, and at once a deadly fear took possession of him. The life he held so cheaply when in battle with the enemies of his country now, strang... [ Continue Reading ]
HE CHANGED HIS BEHAVIOUR. — These very words (with the substitution of Abimelech for Achish, a name which, as has been above suggested, seems to have been the “nomen dignitatis” for generations of Philistine kings) are found in the title of Psalms 34. The poem in question is, however, of a general,... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN SAID ACHISH... THE MAN IS MAD. — The Philistine king would look with peculiar sorrow and repulsion on a madman if, as according to Jewish tradition (see Philippson), _his own wife and daughter were insane._ The device, however, succeeded, as David hoped it would, and he was suffered to depart i... [ Continue Reading ]