Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Samuel 22:18
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 slew on that day fourscore and five persons that did wear a linen ephod.
18. that did wear a linen ephod ] See on 1Sa 2:18. The distinctive priestly dress should have reminded Saul of the sacredness of their persons.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
We are not to suppose that Doeg killed them all with his own hand. He had a band of men under his command, many or all of whom were perhaps foreigners like himself, and very likely of a Bedouin caste, to whom bloodshed would be quite natural, and the priests of the Lord of no more account than so Early sheep or oxen.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 18. And Doeg-fell upon the priests] A ruthless Edomite, capable of any species of iniquity.
Fourscore and five persons] The Septuagint read , three hundred and five men; and Josephus has three hundred and eighty-five men. Probably the eighty-five were priests; the three hundred, the families of the priests; three hundred and eighty-five being the whole population of Nob.
That did wear a linen ephod.] That is, persons who did actually administer, or had a right to administer, in sacred things. The linen ephod was the ordinary clothing of the priests.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Turn thou; or, go about, to wit, from man to man, till thou hast killed all.
The Edomite; which is noted to wipe off the stain of this butchery from the Israelitish nation, and to show why he was so ready to do it, because he was one of that nation which had an implacable hatred against all Israelites, and against the priests of the Lord.
Slew on that day fourscore and five persons, with his own hand; which was not difficult, when no resistance was made.
That did wear a linen ephod; not at that time, as some fancy, but usually; such as used to minister to the Lord in a linen ephod, which priests and Levites used to do. See Exo 28:40, &c.; 1Sa 2:18.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And the king said to Doeg, turn thou and fall upon the priests,…. For determined he was they should die; if one would not put them to death, another should, and who so fit for this bloody work as the false accuser of them, and false witness against them?
and Doeg the Edomite turned; immediately, he at once obeyed the king’s orders, as brutish as they were:
and fell upon the priests; with his sword in hand:
and slew on that day fourscore and five persons that did wear a linen ephod; not the ephod of Urim and Thummim, which was only worn by the high priest, but a garment wholly linen, worn by common priests; the Targum is,
“who are fit to be clothed with a linen ephod;”
not that they were clothed with it, but were deserving of it; or it designs the great and more honourable among the servants of the Lord, as Kimchi observes, for such were clothed with this garment, as Samuel and David; and he thinks it suggests, that more were slain than these; and the Septuagint version makes them to be eight hundred five, and Josephus h three hundred eighty five; in the slaying of whom, as the same writer says, Doeg was assisted by some wicked men like himself; and the slaughter did not end here, as the 1Sa 22:19 shows.
h Antiqu. l. 6. c. 12. sect. 6.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Saul then commanded Doeg to cut down the priests, and he at once performed the bloody deed. On the expression “ wearing the linen ephod,” compare the remarks at 1Sa 2:18. The allusion to the priestly clothing, like the repetition of the expression “ priests of Jehovah,” serves to bring out into its true light the crime of the bloodthirsty Saul and his executioner Doeg. The very dress which the priests wore, as the consecrated servants of Jehovah, ought to have made them shrink from the commission of such a murder.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
(18) 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 perhaps above any other of the famous wicked men who meet us in the Holy Scriptures. For instance, we read in the Babylonian Talmud how Doeg the Edomite, after his massacre of the priests, was encountered by three destructive demons. One deprived him of his learning (concerning which see above, in Note on 1Sa. 22:9), a second burned his soul, and a third scattered his dust in the synagoguesTreatise Sanhedrin, fol. 106, Colossians 2. The Babylonian Talmud has a still more curious comment on the iniquity of Doeg, in which David is bitterly reproached by the Most High for being the cause of Doegs great sin and its terrible consequences. Rav Yehudah recorded that Rav had said . . . The Holy One, blessed be He! had said to David, How long shall this iniquity cling to thee? Through thee the priests of Nob were slain; through thee Doeg the Edomite became a reprobate; and through thee Saul and his three sons were slain.Treatise Sanhedrin, fol. 95, cols. 1, 2.
A linen ephod.The ordinary priests appear to have worn a linen over garment, similar in form to the high priestly cape or ephod. They came probably from Nob to Gibeah (the distance was not great) clad in their official costume, out of respect to the king who sent for them. The murderous deed assumes a still more awful character when we recollect who were the victimsthe priests of the living God, clad in their white ministering robes!
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
18. Doeg fell upon the priests Assisted, no doubt, by many of the herdsmen of whom he had the command. 1Sa 21:7. Not only the priests, but the entire city of Nob was given over to destruction.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘ And the king said to Doeg, “Turn you, and fall on the priests.” And Doeg the Edomite turned, and he fell on the priests, and he slew on that day four score and five persons who wore a linen ephod.’
Then Saul turned towards the only man who appeared to be in sympathy with what he wanted. Perhaps as a newly converted Edomite he would not have the same built in qualms of an Israelite. And he was right, For when he called on him to turn and fall on the priests, Doeg gladly obeyed, probably along with some of his shepherds. Shepherds were notorious for their godlessness (their very occupation prevented regular worship at the Sanctuary). And that day Saul’s chief shepherd turned on the chief shepherds of YHWH and cut them to pieces, all eighty five of them.
“Four score and five persons who wore the linen ephod”. The linen ephod was the sign that they were qualified to act as High Priests in an emergency. They were the true priesthood. So the ‘holiest’ men of Israel, whose lives were taken up in the service of YHWH, were being murdered. The partial effects of this is seen later in 1Ch 24:4 when the sons of Ithamar could not raise more than eight ‘chief men’ to be over the orders of the priests in the Sanctuary, compared with Eleazar’s sixteen.
(As with all numbers in ancient times, however, the number may not be intended to be seen as mathematically accurate. Most did not think mathematically in those days, and no one would have made a head count. Larger numbers were rather intended to convey an impression. Thus this may represent four full priestly groups and a part group of novitiates or reserves awaiting appointment to a group, all of course descended from Ithamar, Aaron’s son).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
1Sa 22:18-19. Doegslew on that day fourscore and five persons Josephus says, that Doeg, taking to his assistance some men as wicked as himself, slew, in all, three hundred and eighty-five persons. The LXX says three hundred and five. A robe of linen was the common dress of the priests, and it is what the historian means by a linen ephod; very different from that of the high-priest. See chap. 1Sa 2:18. But why should all the priests have been involved in this barbarous massacre? Doeg mentions only Ahimelech as being applied to by David; and, in like manner, Saul himself, in the charge he brings against Ahimelech, accused him and David: why have ye conspired against me, thou and the son of Jesse? without a syllable of any other priests. As to the priests not acquainting Saul with David’s flight, why should they do it, if they were not informed of it, but believed, as David had pretended, that he was in haste upon the king’s business? And if they had known the reason of it, it was not in their power to have acquainted Saul with it time enough for him to have apprehended David; for the sacred writer informs us, ch. 1Sa 21:10 that David arose and fled that very day, for fear of Saul. It appears further, that Saul’s guards thought Ahimelech and the priests wholly innocent; because, when he bid them put them all to the sword, 1Sa 22:17 they unanimously refused to obey his command; and one ruffian only was found, a foreigner, and by nation an enemy to the Jews, capable of imbruing his hands in the blood of so many respectable and innocent persons. It is further evident, from Saul’s charge against Ahimelech, that his suspicion of the priests being in David’s interest arose merely from the information of Doeg, and not from any thing they had done before this, contrary to their duty. For Saul confines himself to the facts which Doeg alleged against him, and never intimates that they had done any thing formerly to offend. Even Saul himself afterwards exculpates them, when he declares David to be more righteous than himself, chap. 1Sa 24:17 which David could not be, if really guilty of rebellion against him; and if he was totally free from this charge, the priests could not be concerned in any such rebellion with him. The massacre of them, therefore, was so outrageous, so bloody, and so horrible, that it paints the character of Saul in the blackest colours; and exposes him as a warning, not only to tyrannical monarchs, but likewise to private persons who give a loose to the instigations of jealous suspicion and intemperate wrath. Dr. Delaney observes, that Saul attained two ends by this massacre: First, He weakened the power of the priests, whom he had made his enemies, by slaying such a number of them and stripping the order of their possessions; and secondly, He strengthened the hands of his own family, and confirmed the faith of his tribe, then doubtful, by conferring those possessions upon them. It is observed by almost all the commentators, how remarkable an instance this massacre of the priests supplies of God’s turning the worst devices of the wicked to the purposes of his Providence. Eli had grievously offended God, because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not: for this reason God denounced his vengeance against his race, and declared that they should be cut off by a sudden and surprising destruction in one day. See how terribly this denunciation was fulfilled by Saul’s unparalleled cruelty!
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
1Sa 22:18 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 slew on that day fourscore and five persons that did wear a linen ephod.
Ver. 18. And Doeg the Edomite. ] Not the Syrian, as the Septuagint, by a mistake of letters, renders it, but the bloody Esavite.
And he fell upon the priests.
And slew on that day forescore and five persons,
That did wear a linen ephod.
a Lyra. Osiander.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
slew. Thus partly fulfilling 1Sa 2:31; 1Sa 3:12, on Eli’s house.
persons. Hebrew. ‘ish. App-14.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Doeg: 1Sa 22:9
he fell: 2Ch 24:21, Hos 5:11, Hos 7:3, Mic 6:16, Zep 3:3, Act 26:10, Act 26:11
fourscore: The LXX read, , “three hundred and five men;” and Josephus, “three hundred and eighty-five men.” Probably the eighty-five were priests and the three hundred the families of the priests; three hundred and eighty-five being the whole population of Nob. 1Sa 2:30-33, 1Sa 2:36, 1Sa 3:12-14
a linen ephod: 1Sa 2:28, Exo 28:40
Reciprocal: 1Sa 2:18 – a linen ephod 2Sa 1:10 – slew 2Sa 1:15 – Go near 2Sa 6:14 – girded 2Sa 13:28 – commanded 2Sa 13:29 – servants Ezr 3:10 – they set Psa 10:8 – sitteth Psa 26:9 – bloody men Psa 52:4 – devouring Psa 78:64 – priests Psa 141:7 – bones Pro 24:15 – Lay Pro 27:3 – but Ecc 7:15 – there is a just Hos 3:4 – ephod
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1Sa 22:18. Doeg the Edomite turned and fell upon the priests The country of Doeg is very properly here mentioned, and again repeated, to wipe off the stain of this butchery from the Israelitish nation, and to show why he was so ready to do it; because he was one of that nation which had an implacable hatred against all Israelites, and against the priests of the Lord. And slew on that day fourscore and five persons The massacre of these innocent men was so outrageous, so bloody, and so horrible, that it paints the character of Saul in the blackest colours, and exposes him as a warning, not only to tyrannical monarchs, but likewise to private persons, who give a loose to the instigations of jealous suspicions and intemperate wrath. Chandler. That did wear a linen ephod That is, ministered unto the Lord; but we are not to understand by the ephod such a garment as the high-priest wore, for this is distinguished from the high-priests ephod by the matter of it, which was merely linen. The priests had probably all put on this habit, on account of appearing before the king.