1 Samuel 22:19

And Nob, the city of the priests, smote he with the edge of the sword,.... Either Doeg or Saul; who, as Josephus i says, sent men thither to slay all the inhabitants of it:

both men and women, children and sucklings; not sparing sex nor age:

and oxen, and asses, and sheep, with the edge of the sword; Saul, who was so tender hearted and merciful in the case of the Amalekites, when his orders from the Lord were utterly to destroy them, 1 Samuel 15:2, that he spared their king, and the best of their cattle, 1 Samuel 15:7; yet now so cruel to a city of the priests, as to destroy all the inhabitants of it, and cattle in it; and yet this bloody affair of Saul's is not taken notice of afterwards, only his slaughter of the Gibeonites, 2 Samuel 21:1; and Abarbinel is of opinion, that the inhabitants of this place were Gibeonites, who were hewers of wood, and drawers of water, to the house of the Lord here, Joshua 9:23. Now Saul was the more severe this city, to deter others from joining with David, who, if they did, must expect the same treatment.

i Antiqu. l. 6. c. 12. sect. 6.