David flees to Adullam and Mizpah
22
📚So David left there and escaped to the cave Adullam 📖. And when his brothers 📖 and all his father’s household heard it, they went down there to him. 2 📚And everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented 📖, gathered around him and he became their leader. And about four hundred men were with him.3 📚And David went from there to Mizpeh in Moab 📖, and said to the king of Moab, “Please let my father and my mother come over and be with you, until I know what God is going to do for me”. 4 📚And he brought them before the king of Moab, and they lived with him all the time that David was in the stronghold.
5 📚 And the prophet Gad 📖 said to David, “Do not remain in the stronghold. Leave and go 📖 into the land of Judah”. Then David departed and came into the forest of Hareth.
Saul kills the priests of Nob
6 📚When Saul heard that David and the men who were with him had been discovered (now Saul was staying in Gibeah under a tree in Ramah, with his spear in his hand, and all his servants were standing around him). 7 📚Then Saul said to his servants who were standing around him, “Listen now, you Benjamites! Is the son of Jesse giving each one of you fields and vineyards, and making you all captains of thousands, and captains of hundreds,
22:7 Saul appeals for loyalty on two grounds – tribal connection (Saul was from Benjamin, David from Judah), and worldly matters (property and power). Alas, caste and money are often still the chief considerations today, even in Christian circles. True servants of God should avoid these considerations like they would the plague.⚜
8 📚so that all of you have conspired 📖 against me, and no one tells me that my son has made a treaty with the son of Jesse, and none of you is sorry for me 📖, or reveals to me that my son has stirred up my servant against me, to lie in ambush, as it is today 📖?”
9 📚Then Doeg 📖 the Edomite, who had been appointed over the servants of Saul, answered and said, “I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahimelech the son of Ahitub. 10 📚And he consulted the LORD for him, and gave him food and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine”.
11 📚Then the king sent men to summon Ahimelech the priest, the son of Ahitub, and all his father’s household, the priests who were in Nob. And all of them came to the king. 12 📚And Saul said, “Listen now, you son of Ahitub”. And he answered, “Here I am, my lord”.
13 📚And Saul said to him, “Why have you conspired against me, you and the son of Jesse, in that you gave him bread and a sword, and consulted God for him, so that he would rise up against me to lie in ambush, as it is today?”
14 📚Then Ahimelech answered the king and said, “And among all your servants who is as faithful as David, who is the king’s son-in-law, and goes on your orders, and is honoured in your house?
22:14 This was true. Often those in authority prefer to believe deceptive words rather than the plain truth.⚜
15 📚Did I just begin consulting God for him today? Be it far from me. Let not the king impute anything to his servant or to the whole household of my father, for your servant knew nothing whatever of all this”.
16 📚And the king said, “You shall surely die, Ahimelech, you, and all your father’s household”.
17 📚And the king said to the guardsmen who stood around him, “Turn and kill the priests of the LORD, because their hand also is with David, and because they knew when he fled, and did not tell it to me”. But the servants of the king would not put forth their hand to attack the priests of the LORD.
18 📚And the king said to Doeg, “You turn and attack the priests”. And Doeg the Edomite turned and attacked the priests, and on that day killed eighty-five persons who wore a linen ephod. 19 📚And he struck Nob, the city of the priests, with the edge of the sword, both men and women, children and infants, and oxen and donkeys and sheep, with the edge of the sword.
22:16-19 Reveals Saul was totally corrupted by power and envy.⚜
22:19 Saul was not willing to kill God’s enemies (1 Sam 15:9), but God’s priests were a different matter.⚜
20 📚And one of the sons of Ahimelech the son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped and fled after David. 21 And Abiathar told David that Saul had killed the LORD’s priests. 22 📚And David said to Abiathar, “I knew that day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul. I have brought about the death of all the persons of your father’s household.
22:22 David’s meaning may be that he made a mistake in not dealing with Doeg at the time. Or it may be he meant that his very appeal to Ahimelech for help resulted in this tragedy.⚜
23 📚You stay with me. Don’t be afraid, for the one who is seeking my life is seeking your life, but you will be safe with me”.