1 Samuele 22:17 Commento

David, being driven from Achish, returns into the land of Israel to be hunted by Saul. I. David sets up his standard in the cave of Adullam, entertains his relations (Sa1 22:1), enlists soldiers (Sa1 22:2), but removes his aged parents to a more quiet settlement (Sa1 22:3, Sa1 22:4), and has the prophet Gad for his counsellor (Sa1 22:5). Saul resolves to pursue him and find him out, complains of his servants and Jonathan (Sa1 22:6-8), and, finding by Doeg's information that Ahimelech had been kind to David, he ordered him and all the priests that were with him, eighty-five in all, to be put to death, and all that belonged to them destroyed (Sa1 22:9-19) from the barbarous execution of which sentence Abiathar escaped to David (Sa1 22:20-23).

INTRODUCTION TO FIRST SAMUEL 22 This chapter gives us an account of the flight of David from place to place, from Gath to the cave of Adullam, where his relations came to him; from thence to Mizpeh in Moab, where he got leave of the king of Moab for his father and mother to dwell there; and from thence, by the advice of Gad the prophet, departed into the land of Judah, and came to the forest of Hareth, Sa1 21:1; and of the complaint of Saul to his servants of their unfaithfulness to him, and indolence and unconcern at the behaviour of Jonathan and David to him, Sa1 22:6; when Doeg the Edomite informed him of David being seen by him at Nob, and of his receiving food and a sword from Ahimelech the priest, who inquired of the Lord for him, Sa1 22:9; upon which Saul sent for Ahimelech and all the priests at Nob, and charged them with a conspiracy against him; and notwithstanding the defence the priest made, Saul ordered him and the rest of the priests to be slain by his guards; which they refusing, Doeg became the executioner of them, and of all the inhabitants of the city of Nob, and the cattle in it, Sa1 22:11; only Abiathar a son of Ahimelech escaped and fled to David with the sorrowful news; which greatly affected David, looking upon himself to be the occasion of this sad disaster, and he took Abiathar under his protection, and promised him safety, Sa1 22:20.

And the king said unto the footmen that stood about him,.... Or the "runners" (f); the running footmen, that used to run before him when he went out from place to place, and were here waiting on him, ready to set out whenever he should give the orders to go elsewhere. The tradition of the Jews is, that these were Abner and Amasa (g); but, as Kimchi observes, they were not footmen, but princes, captains in the army, and the first of them the general of it: turn and slay the priests of the Lord; he owns them to be the priests of the Lord, and calls them so, and yet gave orders to put them to death, though innocent; one would have thought this their character would have flown in his face, and stung his conscience, and deterred him from so foul a fact: because their hand also is with David; as well as Ahimelech; which did not at all appear, nor that they had so much as seen him at Nob, only Ahimelech; and still less that they had entered into a conspiracy with him: and because they knew when he fled, and did not show it to me; which also was false; they knew nothing of the flight of David, and therefore could not discover it to the king: but the servants of the king would not put forth their hand to fall upon the priests of the Lord; their consciences would not suffer them to do it; they refused to obey the king's orders, and chose rather to expose themselves to his resentment, than to be guilty of such a crime. Saul's footmen had more sense of honour, justice, and truth, than he himself had, and were worthy of praise; but they would have been deserving of more, if they could not have prevailed upon him by entreaties and remonstrances to have forborne such a bloody execution, instead of being the tame spectators of it, they had taken him, and bound him as a madman, and so facilitated the escape of the priests, and prevented this shocking scene of wickedness. (f) "cursoribus", Pagninus, Montanus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator. (g) Midrash Tillim apud Abarbinel. in loc.

And the king said to the emissaries, etc. We always perceive a different state of the wicked and the good. For some, ascending to the highest peak of wickedness, become authors of persecution; whom Saul himself designates by persecuting David. Some openly submit to nefarious authority by supporting the fury of the same persecution in evil; of whom Doeg the Edomite holds the type. Some, as if of a milder nature, abstain from teaching neighbors, or from extorting punishments, although they seem to keep their hands innocent from impiety; to which the servants of Saul, refraining from injuring the priests of the Lord, are properly fitted. Likewise, among the faithful to be tested by the temptations of the wicked, there are some who struggle for the truth even unto blood; who are shown by the example of the priests of Nob with their destroyed ones, who, with equal faith and love, but endowed with lesser courage to endure tribulation, rather take refuge in flight; knowing that indeed the high mountains are a refuge for stags, but the rock is a refuge for hedgehogs and hares (Psalm 104), to which one, the priest who escaped the striking hand of Saul, is figuratively equated. Since we have seen this disparity of merits and manners in the past, we also believe it will occur in the final, although greater persecution to come; namely, that due to the savagery and infanda authority of the impious authors, among the mute who obediently yield to evil, there will not be those who keep themselves immune from hurting the good; nor could the slightest modesty of such people remove the fervor of the most savage tribulation. For it follows:

David flees to the cave of Adullam, where he is joined by four hundred men of various descriptions, Sa1 22:1, Sa1 22:2. He goes afterwards to Moab; and by the advice of the prophet Gad, to the forest of Hareth, Sa1 22:3-5. Saul, suspecting his servants of infidelity, upbraids them, Sa1 22:6-8. Doeg informs him of David's coming to Nob; of his being entertained by Ahimelech; on which Saul slays Ahimelech and all the priests, to the number of eighty-five, and destroys the city of Nob, Sa1 22:9-19. Abiathar, the son of Ahimelech, only escapes; he joins with David, by whom he is assured of protection, Sa1 22:20-23.

But the servants of the king would not - They dared to disobey the commands of the king in a case of such injustice, inhumanity, and irreligion.

DAVID'S KINDRED AND OTHERS RESORT TO HIM AT ADULLAM. (Sa1 22:1-8) David . . . escaped to the cave Adullam--supposed to be that now called Deir-Dubban, a number of pits or underground vaults, some nearly square, and all about fifteen or twenty feet deep, with perpendicular sides, in the soft limestone or chalky rocks. They are on the borders of the Philistine plain at the base of the Judea mountains, six miles southwest from Beth-lehem, and well adapted for concealing a number of refugees. his brethren and all his father's house . . . went down--to escape the effects of Saul's rage, which seems to have extended to all David's family. From Beth-lehem to Deir-Dubban it is, indeed, a descent all the way.

SAUL COMMANDS TO KILL THE PRIESTS. (Sa1 22:17-19) the footmen that stood about him--his bodyguard, or his runners (Sa1 8:11; Sa2 15:1; Kg1 1:5; Kg1 14:28), who held an important place at court (Ch2 12:10). But they chose rather to disobey the king than to offend God by imbruing their hands in the blood of his ministering servants. A foreigner alone (Psa 52:1-3) could be found willing to be the executioner of this bloody and sacrilegious sentence. Thus was the doom of the house of Eli fulfilled [Sa1 2:30-36].