1 Samuel 22
Butler3. AND David went thence to Mizpeh of Moab : and he said unto the king of Moab, Let my father and my mother, I pray thee, come forth, and be with you, till I know what God will do 4 for me. And he brought them before the king of Moab : and they dwelt with him all the while 5 that David was in the hold. And the prophet Gad said unto David, Abide not in the hold ; depart, and get thee into the land of Judah. Then David departed, and came into the forest of Hareth. 6 And Saul heard that David was discovered, and the men that were with him : now Saul was sitting in Gibeah, under the tamarisk tree on the height, with his spear in his hand, and all 7 his servants were standing about him. And Saul said unto his servants that stood about him, Hear now, ye Benjamites ; will the son of Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards, 8 will he make you all captains of thousands and captains of hundreds ; that all of you have conspired against me, and there is none that discloseth to me when my son maketh a league with the son of Jesse, and there is none of you that is sorry for me, or discloseth unto me that 9 my son hath stirred up my servant against me, to lie in wait, as at this day ? Then answered Doeg the Edomite, which stood by the servants of Saul, and said, I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahimelech the son of Ahitub. And he inquired of the LORD for him, and gave 10 him victuals, and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine. Then the king sent to call Ahimelech the priest, the son of Ahitub, and all his father’s house, the priests that were in Nob : 11 and they came all of them to the king. And Saul said, Hear now, thou son of Ahitub. And 12 he answered, Here I am, my lord. And Saul said unto him, Why have ye conspired against me, thou and the son of Jesse, in that thou hast given him bread, and a sword, and hast in- 13 quired of God for him, that he should rise against me, to lie in wait, as at this day ? Then Ahimelech answered the king, and said, And who among all thy servants is so faithful as David, which is the king’s son-in-law, and is taken into thy council, and is honorable in thine house ?
15. Have I to-day begun to inquire of God for him? be it far from me: let not the king impute anything unto his servant, nor to all the house of my father: for thy servant knoweth nothing of all this, less or more. And the king said, Thou shalt surely die, Ahimelech, thou, and all thy father’s house. And the king said unto the guard that stood about him, Turn, and slay the priests of the LORD; because their hand also is with David, and because they knew that he fled, and did not disclose it to me. But the servants of the king would not put forth their hand to fall upon the priests of the LORD. And the king said to Doeg, Turn thou, and fall upon the priests. And Doeg the Edomite turned, and he fell upon the priests, and he slew on that day fourscore and five persons that did wear a linen ephod. And Nob, the city of the priests, smote he with the edge of the sword, both men and women, children and sucklings, and oxen and asses and sheep, with the edge of the sword. And one of the sons of Ahimelech the son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped, and fled after David. And Abiathar told David that Saul had slain the LORD’s priests. And David said unto Abiathar, I knew on that day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul: I have occasioned the death of all the persons of thy father’s house. Abide thou with me, fear not; for he that seeketh my life seeketh thy life; for with me thou shalt be in safeguard.
23 1 And they told David, saying, Behold, the Philistines are fighting against Keilah, and they rob the threshing-floors. Therefore David inquired of the LORD, saying, Shall I go and smite these Philistines? And the LORD said unto David, Go, and smite the Philistines, and save Keilah. And David’s men said unto him, Behold, we be afraid here in Judah: how much more then if we go to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines? Then David inquired of the LORD yet again. And the LORD answered him and said, Arise, go down to Keilah; for I will deliver the Philistines into thine hand. And David and his men went to Keilah, and fought with the Philistines, and brought away their cattle, and slew them with a great slaughter. So David saved the inhabitants of Keilah.
6. And it came to pass, when Abiathar the son of Ahimelech fled to David to Keilah, that he came down with an ephod in his hand. And it was told Saul that David was come to Keilah. And Saul said, God hath delivered him into mine hand; for he is shut in, by entering into a town that hath gates and bars. And Saul summoned all the people to war, to go down to Keilah, to besiege David and his men. And David knew that Saul devised mischief against him; and he said to Abiathar the priest, Bring hither the ephod. Then said David, O LORD, the God of Israel, thy servant hath surely heard that Saul seeketh to come to Keilah, to destroy the city for my sake. Will the men of Keilah deliver me up into his hand? will Saul come down, as thy servant hath heard? O LORD, the God of Israel, I beseech thee, tell thy servant. And the LORD said, He will come down. Then said David, Will the men of Keilah deliver up me and my men into the hand of Saul? And the LORD said, They will deliver thee up. Then David and his men, which were about six hundred, arose and departed out of Keilah, and went whithersoever they could go. And it was told Saul that David was escaped from Keilah; and he forbade to go forth.
3,4. David went thence to Mizpeh of Moab.** The position of this place is unknown, but as the word means a watch tower, it was no doubt some beacon-hill in the highlands of Moab on the east of the Dead Sea, and probably in the mountains of Abarim or Pisgah. Here David placed his father and mother under the care of the king of Moab. They had fled from Bethlehem under the combined fear of Saul and the Philistines, but were too old to bear the fatigues of David’s life. He therefore asks for a refuge for them with the king of Moab, probably on the ground that Jesse’s grandmother, Ruth, was a Moabitess. But as Saul had waged war on Moab (ch. 14: 47), the king was probably glad to help one who would keep Saul employed at home. R. P. S.
5. The prophet Gad from this time appears to have been a companion till the end of his reign (2 S. 24: 11), and subsequently became David’s biographer (1 Chron. 29: 29). A. M.—Abide not in the hold. The future king must not remain in a foreign land, but in the face of all risk return to his own country, in order that by such exploits as the relief of Keilah he might gain reputation, and prepare his way to the throne. A. F. K.—Another object was, that they might not imagine he had fled on account of any crime, or had joined the enemies of Israel. He therefore sojourned in the forest of Hareth, in the wilderness of Judah. C. G. B.
6. We have seen the progress of David’s troubles; now here we have the progress of Saul’s wickedness. He seems to have laid aside the thoughts of all other business, and to have devoted himself wholly to the pursuit of David. He heard, at length, that David was discovered, and hereupon he called all his servants about him. H. — We have here a vivid picture of a solemn conclave met to deliberate on affairs of state or to administer justice. The king sits in state under some venerable tamarisk; his spear, the emblem of royalty, is in his hand; his servants, still chiefly the men of his own tribe, stand round him. A. F. K.
7,8. His speech is wholly personal and selfish. He appeals to them, not as Israelites, but as Benjamites, as if he had said: “Will a Bethlehemite of the tribe of Judah do better for you than a man of your own tribe?” He appeals to their love of riches and of military station. “How can the son of Jesse give more than myself?” He suspects even them of conspiracy, and has no deep confidence in their loyalty. By their selfish fears and their selfish interest, he appeals to them to tell him the extent of his son’s league with sedition against himself. He accuses Jonathan of having stirred up David, a mere servant, to lie in wait for the throne. There is not a syllable of high-toned passion for God and for God’s people and the maintenance of God’s kingly government. Knox.
9. Then answered Doeg.** The title of Ps. 52 states that it was composed by David in reference to this occasion. Verses 1-4 describe such a character as we may well suppose Doeg to have been. His tongue was “a false tongue,” because, though the facts he reported were true, he helped to confirm Saul in a false and cruel suspicion. It “devised destruction,” and “loved devouring words,” for his story was told with malicious intent and fatal result. A. F. K.
10-18. Saul is now in a mood for bloody vengeance upon somebody! Just here Doeg the Edomite is on hand to put fuel to the fire of Saul’s rage, charging Ahimelech and the priests at Nob with conspiracy against Saul. Saul summons them all before him, and too infuriated to listen with the least candor to their defence, commands and witnesses their causeless murder, eighty-five priests in one day; and only one, Abiathar, fortunately not with them at the hour of slaughter, escaped. From him David learned the sad tale. Thenceforward Abiathar the priest became David’s companion in tribulation, and his fast friend, till the rebellion of Adonijah. David’s Psalm on this occasion (Ps. 52) charges Doeg with unmitigated deceit and falsehood. H. C.
14-20. In answer to the charge of conspiracy, the priest Ahimelech protested his innocence ence in language the truth of which could not have been mistaken by any impartial judge. But the case had been decided against the priesthood before it was heard. Yet, callous as Saul’s men-at-arms were, not one of them would execute the sentence of death against the priests of Jehovah. It was left to the Edomite to carry out what his reckless malice had instigated. That day no fewer than eighty-five of the priests in actual ministry were murdered in cold blood. Not content with this, the king had “the ban” executed upon Nob. As if the priest city had been guilty of idolatry and rebellion against Jehovah, every living being, both man and beast, was cut down by the sword. Only one escaped the horrible slaughter of that day, Abiathar, the son of Ahimelech, who fled to David. A. E.
In the madness of his self-willed fury Saul wreaked upon an innocent city in his own kingdom the vengeance he had failed to execute upon a guilty heathen nation at God’s command (15 : 3). Thus the doom upon the house of Eli (2 : 31) received a fresh fulfilment. A. F. K. — Had Nob been a city of warriors that had resisted the king’s armies or harassed and exasperated them, it could not have had a more terrible doom. And had Saul never committed any other crime, this would have been enough to separate him from the Lord forever, and to bring down on him the horrors of the night at Endor and of the day that followed on Mount Gilboa. W. G. B. — From that day Saul was a doomed and ruined man. The atrocious massacre filled every human and religious mind with disgust and horror, and it made the priestly body throughout the whole land, and in all its departments, inveterately hostile. Kit.
Abiathar’s Escape to David.
Verses 20-23.
Possibly Abiathar had remained at Nob in charge of the Tabernacle, and got timely warning of the approach of Doeg’s ruffians. Henceforward he was the companion of David’s wanderings, and helped him by “inquiring of the Lord” for him. He held the office of high-priest till the close of David’s reign, when by some strange infatuation, after remaining faithful through Absalom’s rebellion, and “being afflicted in all wherein David was afflicted,” he took part in Adonijah’s rebellion, and was in consequence deposed by Solomon. A. F. K.
Surely there is no sting so sharp in the conscience of an honorable man as the feeling that, for his own safety or interest, he has misled his own friends, and unwittingly brought disaster on them. We can believe that David, on hearing what Abiathar told him, was bowed down with shame such as he never yet had needed to feel. D. F.
23 : 6. Abiathar, who had been left to keep the sanctuary, took the principal vestment of the high-priest, the ephod, with the breastplate, and Urim and Thummim annexed, and carried them to David. Bp. Patrick.—Thus one consequence of Saul’s slaughter of the priests was that he deprived himself forever of the protection and counsel of God, the ephod and oracle being now transferred to David. Chandler.—Abiathar was virtually the high-priest, and the recognized official medium of ascertaining the will of the Lord. The presence of both the high-priest and Gad, the seer, with David, must have given great importance to his movements and position in the eyes of the people; and he was by no means unmindful of the advantages he thus possessed, for he consulted the sacred oracle as to all his movements, and implicitly followed the indications it afforded. Kit.
3-13. With this Divine sanction, he overbore the fears of his followers and fell upon the Philistines, who had plundered the threshing-floors of Keilah, and were besieging the city. Having utterly defeated the Philistines, and gained great booty from them in cattle, David established himself in Keilah. Here Saul imagined he had caught him, as in a trap; and David, learning from God, by means of the sacred ephod, that the men of Keilah would give him up, left the city, with his little band, now amounting to six hundred men. P. S.—“The men of Keilah will certainly deliver you up,” is the answer of the oracle. This is intended to save David from an open conflict with the government. It is not by battle with Saul, and the spectacle of one Divinely anointed king warring with another that David is to be brought to the throne. With his six hundred, therefore, he quickly left Keilah. Knox.
13. The cowardly townspeople of Keilah had less gratitude than fear; and the king’s banished son-in-law was too dangerous a guest, even though he was of their own tribe, and had delivered them from the enemy. Saul, who had not stirred from his moody seclusion to beat back invasion, summoned a hasty muster, in the hope of catching David in the little city, like a fox in his earth: and the cowardly citizens meditated saving their homes by surrendering their champion. David and his six hundred saved themselves by flight, “whithersoever they could go.” A. M.
That the men of Keilah, suffering from plundering bands of Philistines, should have sought help from David rather than from Saul indicates his standing before the people and the service rendered to the country by his band of armed men. It astonishes us that Keilah, saved by David, is so ungrateful as to consent to surrender him to the power of Saul. The fact gives us a new sense of the trials incident to this period of David’s history. He owed his safety to the forewarnings of danger which he obtained from the Lord, at one time through the prophet Gad; at other times through the priests with the linen ephod. H. C.
IN THE WILDERNESS OF ZIPH, JONATHAN SEEKS DAVID WITH WORDS OF HELP. THEIR PARTING COVENANT. SAUL SURROUNDS DAVID’S BAND IN THE WILDERNESS OF MAON. CALLED BACK TO REPEL A PHILISTINE RAID. DAVID AT ENGEDI.