XXII. (1 Samuel 22:1) David’s Life when Bearing Arms against the King at Adullam and Hareth — Saul is informed by Doeg of the Visit of David to the High Priest at Nob — Massacre of all the Priests, and Destruction of the Sanctuary of Nob by Saul — Abiathar, son of Ahimelech, escapes to David. EXCU... [ Continue Reading ]
THE CAVE ADULLAM. — The great valley of Elah forms the highway from Philistia to Hebron. In one especially of the tributary vales or ravines of the Elah valley are many natural caves, some of great extent, roomy and dry, which are still used by the shepherds as dwelling-places, and as refuges for th... [ Continue Reading ]
EVERY ONE THAT WAS IN DISTRESS. — EWALD WRITES ON THIS STATEMENT: — “The situation of the country, which was becoming more and more melancholy under Saul,... drove men to seek a leader from whom they might hope for better things for the future... David did not send away these refugees, many of them... [ Continue Reading ]
MIZPEH. — This particular Mizpeh is mentioned nowhere else. The word means _a watch tower;_ it was probably some mountain fortress in Moab. It has been suggested that it was the same as Zophim, a word of the same root as Mizpeh (see Numbers 23:14). David evidently sought hospitality among his kin in... [ Continue Reading ]
WHILE THAT DAVID WAS IN THE HOLD. — This “hold” is, of course, identical with the “hold” of 1 Samuel 22:5, from which Gad the prophet directs David to depart, and to return into the land of Judah. It was, most likely, in the Land of Moab.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE PROPHET GAD. — From this time onward throughout the life and reign of David, Gad the prophet occupied evidently a marked place. He is mentioned as the king’s seer in 2 Samuel 24:11; and in 1 Chronicles 29:29 he appears as the compiler of the acts of David, along with Samuel and Nathan. In 2 Chro... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN SAUL HEARD. — No note of time is here given. Probably the return of David with a disciplined force to the land, and the pitching of an armed camp in the “forest of Hareth,” excited anew Saul’s jealous fears. NOW SAUL ABODE IN GIBEAH. — In Gibeah of Saul, his own royal city. The LXX. wrongly ren... [ Continue Reading ]
HEAR NOW, YE BENJAMITES. — We have here a fair specimen of Saul’s manner of ruling in his later years. It is no wonder that the heart of the people gradually was estranged from one of whom in earlier years they had been so proud. The suspicious and gloomy king had evidently — we have it here from hi... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT ALL OF YOU HAVE CONSPIRED. — The unhappy, jealous spirit had obtained such complete mastery over the unhappy king that now he suspected even the chosen men of his own tribe. All his tried favourites, the men of his own house, even his gallant son, he charged with leaning towards David the trait... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN ANSWERED DOEG THE EDOMITE. — This Doeg has already been mentioned in the preceding chapter. His presence in this council meeting under the tamarisk of Gibeah, among the famous Benjamito chieftains, and the previous notice which speaks of him as the officer superintending the royal herds, indica... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HE ENQUIRED OF THE LORD FOR HIM. — This is, however, by no means certain (see below); nothing was said about the Urim and Thummim being brought out and questioned by the high priest on the occasion of David’s visit. It is possible that Doeg was misled here by the fact of the high priest’s going... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN THE KING SENT TO CALL AHIMELECH. — This sending for all the priestly house to Gibeah when alone Ahimelech was to blame — if blame there was — looks as though Saul and Doeg had determined upon the wholesale massacre which followed.... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HAST ENQUIRED OF GOD FOR HIM. — This using of the Urim and Thummim for David is again repeated by the king. It seems in Saul’s eyes to have been the gravest of the charges imputed to the high priest by Doeg, for Ahimelech specially in his defence recurs to this point with peculiar insistence: th... [ Continue Reading ]
WHO IS SO FAITHFUL AMONG ALL THY SERVANTS? — The words of the high priest were quiet and dignified, and no doubt spoke the general sentiments of the people respecting David. What he — the guardian of the sanctuary — had done, he had done as a matter of course for one so closely related to the king —... [ Continue Reading ]
DID I THEN BEGIN TO ENQUIRE? — The English translation of the Hebrew here would imply that David had on many previous occasions received through him (the high priest) Divine directions from the Urim and Thummim. “Did I that day _begin_ to enquire?” Abarbanel gives an alternative rendering: “That was... [ Continue Reading ]
THE FOOTMEN. — “Footmen,” literally _runners._ These “guards,” or “lictors,” were men who ran by the royal chariot as an escort. They are still the usual attendants of any great man in the East. From long habit they were able to maintain a great speed for a long time. (See 1 Samuel 8:11, where Samue... [ Continue Reading ]
AND DOEG THE EDOMITE... FELL UPON THE PRIESTS, AND SLEW ON THAT DAY FOURSCORE AND FIVE PERSONS. — No doubt, assisted by his own attached servants, Doeg carried out this deed of unexampled barbarity. For this act the Edomite servant of Saul has been execrated in the most ancient Jewish writings perha... [ Continue Reading ]
NOB, THE CITY OF THE PRIESTS, SMOTE HE. — The vengeful king, not content with striking the men, the heads of the priestly houses, in his insane fury proceeded to treat the innocent city where they resided as a city under the ban “cherem,” as though it had been polluted with idolatry and wickedness,... [ Continue Reading ]
ABIATHAR. — Of those who dwelt at Nob, only one single priest, Abiathar, Ahimelech’s son, seems to have escaped this general massacre. It has been suggested that when his father and the whole body of priests went to Gibeah, in accordance with the summons of King Saul, Abiathar remained behind to per... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN DOEG THE EDOMITE WAS THERE. — The Talmudical tradition evidently pre-supposes that a bitter enmity existed between David and Saul’s too faithful friend Doeg. If the Rabbinical belief that the identity between the family servant, or steward, who accompanied the young man Saul on that journey whe... [ Continue Reading ]