First Samuel – Chapter 22

David Acquires Follower, vs. 1-5

From Gath David returned to the cave of Adullam in Judah, some fifteen miles east of Gath and about twenty straight-line miles southwest of Jerusalem. David was in home territory here, and when his brothers and other relatives heard of his whereabouts they left their homes and came to join him. Possibly they were sympathetic toward him, but more than that their lives were in danger from Saul. In addition to these there gathered round David those who were distressed by the times, those who were in debt, and those who were simply discontented with affairs. These things did not speak well for the reign of Saul. They also indicate that the law of Moses was not being applied as it should have been relative to debtors. In a short time they numbered four hundred men, and David became their captain. With this band David could be considered to be irrevocably opposed to Saul, and Saul could brand David as a rebel before the people. Of course Saul had driven him to this course.

At this time David made a trip to Mizpeh in Moab to the king of that country to seek asylum for his aged parents. The Moabite king granted refuge to Jesse and his wife all through the time of David’s flight from Saul. This was a logical place for David to seek refuge for his father and mother, for Jesse’s grandmother had been Ruth, the Moabite daughter-in-law of Naomi.

Finally, God sent His representative to abide with David in the person of Gad the prophet. Gad arrived with a message from the Lord. God did not want David to hold up in the cave of Adullam, but to move among the people of his tribe of Judah. Acting on this advice David left Adullam and moved his men into the forest of Hareth, its exact vicinity unknown.

(Author’s NOTE: The following passage from Chronicles is discussed here because it comes here chronologically. There is no parallel in Samuel.)

Newcomers, l Chronicles 12:16-18

16. And there came of the children of Benjamin and Judah to the hold unto David 17. And David went out to meet them, and answered and said unto them, If ye be come peaceably unto me to help me, mine heart shall be knit unto you: but if ye be come to betray me to mine enemies, seeing there Is no wrong In mine hands, the God of our fathers look thereon, and rebuke It. 18. Then the spirit came upon Amasai, who was chief of the captains, and he said. Thine are we, David, and on thy side, thou son of Jesse: peace, peace be unto thee, and peace be to thine helpers; for thy God helpeth thee. Then David received them, and made them captains of the band.

This passage gives insight into the plight of David often voiced in his psalms, the times when he was uncertain of his friends, when those he had trusted turned against him (see, e.g., Psalms 41). David met them with hesitation, saying his heart would be knit with theirs in gratitude if they came in peace, but that the Lord would rebuke them if they had not. God’s people of the same mind and heart should be knit together in perfect harmony (Act 4:32).

The chief captain, Amasai, answered. “Amasai” is the same name as Amasa, so he may well be the famous captain of Absalom’s host in later years (2Sa 17:25). He was a nephew of David, son of David’s sister, and if the same man, later betrayed his king. On this occasion, however, he was moved by the spirit of the Lord to answer for the men who had come to join David in exile from Saul. He said, “We belong to you, David, and we are on your side.” He then expressed desire for peace on David’s part and on the part of those who helped him. He expected this because he believed David was helped by God. Peace should be characteristic of God’s people (Rom 12:18). These early adherents to David’s cause became captains in his band.]

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

CRITICAL AND EXPOSITORY NOTES

1Sa. 22:1. Adullam. The site of Adullam (mentioned in Jos. 15:35, etc) has not yet been identified, but from the mention of it in the above and other passages in proximity with other known towns, it is likely that it was near Deir Dbban, five or six miles north of Eleutheropolis The limestone cliffs of the whole of that locality are pierced with extensive excavations (Robinson ii. 23, 5153), some one of which was possibly the refuge of David. (Abridged from Smiths Biblical Dictionary). The general opinion of commentators and travellers agree with this, but Thomson supports the ancient view that it was near the village Khureitein, five miles south-east of Bethlehem, and thus describes his visit to that spot: Leaving our horse in charge of wild Arabs, and taking one for a guide, we started for the cave, having a fearful gorge below, gigantic cliffs above, and a path winding along a shelf of the rock, narrow enough to make the nervous among us shudder. At length from a great rock hanging on the edge of this shelf, we sprang by a long leap into a low window which opened into the perpendicular face of the cliff. We were then within the hold of David, and creeping half doubled through a narrow crevice for a few rods, we stood beneath the dark vault of the first grand chamber of this mysterious and oppressive cavern. Our whole collection of lights did little more than make the damp darkness visible. After groping about as long as we had time to spare, we returned to the light of day, fully convinced that, with David and his lion-hearted followers inside, all the strength of Israel under Saul could not have forced an entrancewould not even have attempted it.

1Sa. 22:2. Everyone that was discontented, etc. Literally, bitter in soul, as in 1Sa. 1:10 The comparison of this body with Catilines followers (Clericus, Thenius) supposes that Davids retinue was of a similar character with Catilines, a riotous, adventure-seeking rabble. But there is nothing in the narrative to support such a supposition, and Davids position as to them, and to Saul, is decidedly against it. Hengstenberg (on Psa. 7:10) rightly remarks Davids war with Saul was one not of individuals, but of parties; the wicked espoused Sauls side, the righteous Davids; compare the much misunderstood passage 1Sa. 22:2. The distressed persons were those who were persecuted under Sauls government on account of their love for David. The debtors were such as, under Sauls arbitrary misrule, were oppressed by their creditors, and received from the government no protection against the violation of the law of loan and interest (Exo. 22:25; Lev. 25:36; Deu. 23:19). They were bitter of soul, not as desirous of new things, not as merely dissatisfied with their present condition (Clericus), but as those whose anxiety of soul over the ever-worsening condition of the kingdom under Saul, drove them to a leader from whom for the future they might hope for better things. (Ew.) Comp. Jephthahs fugitive life and retinue of poor empty persons. (Erdmann.) Four hundred men. A list of the principal among them is given in 1Ch. 12:8-18; and some of their acts are described in 2Sa. 23:13-22. (Wordsworth.)

1Sa. 22:3. Mizpeh of Moab. Mizpeh; literally a watch-tower or mountain height commanding a very extensive prospect. Here it is probably a proper name belonging to a mountain fastness on the high land which bounded the Arboth Moab on the eastern side of the Dead Sea, most likely on the mountains of Abarim or Pisgah (Deu. 34:1), and which could easily be reached from the country round Bethlehem by crossing the Jordan near the point where it entered the Dead Sea. (Keil.) Perhaps he resorted to Moab for refuge because his ancestress Ruth was from that country. (Wordsworth.)

1Sa. 22:4. The hold. This fastness could not have been the cave of Adullam, because in the next verse we read that David was commanded to return to Judah, but it was probably the same refuge to which David had taken his parents.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.1Sa. 22:1-4

THE CAVE OF ADULLAM

I. Oppressive rule transforms good subjects into outlaws. When those who are in authority disregard those universal laws of righteousness and beneficence which are equally binding upon every man, they must not expect obedience from those under their rule; their injustice will create a lawlessness in the governed classes which, although it is rebellion against them, may be obedience to a higher and juster rule. David had been a loyal servant to King Saul, and had given full proof of true patriotism, but the oppression which he had undergone, and the danger to which he was exposed through Sauls injustice compelled him to take up the position of an outlaw. He had once and again gone forth at the peril of his own life to defend the throne of the king, but justice to himself now demanded that he should take up arms in self-defence. It is most probable also that those who joined him were men who had likewise been transformed by oppression from obedient subjects into rebels. Before we condemn men for resistance to authority we must know what is the nature of the authority they resist.

II. Common suffering is a strong bond of union. There are many influences which tend to bridge over the differences which divide mendifferences of birth, of education, of character and dispositionbut perhaps there is nothing which does this so effectually as a common calamity. If a vessel is in danger of sinking, the passengers who have hitherto been separated by distinctions of rank recognise their common brotherhood and forget all minor differences in their common danger. When a city is besieged the noble in the palace and the artisan in the workshop exchange words and looks of sympathy as they recognise their common peril. In the band which gathered to David in the cave of Adullam there were doubtless men who would have never united in any common action if they had not been suffering from a common calamitythe misrule of Saul. Separated from each other and from David by every variety of circumstance and disposition, they were one with him and with each other in indignation against oppression, and in determination to defend their lives and liberties. Times of prosperity are not favourable to the promotion of union among men, but times of adversity often bring them very near together.

III. Relationship to great men has its penalties as well as its advantages. It was doubtless a proud day for Jesse when he became aware that he was to be the head of a royal house, but the immediate consequences were not pleasant. If he had not been related to the chosen king of Israel, he would doubtless have been permitted to remain unmolested in his quiet village home, but because he was the father of David he was obliged to flee from his native land. When the storm is abroad, the highest trees are most exposed to its violence, and if they fall they bring down with them those which stand near. So, in times of national disquietude, the most prominent men are most in danger, and those who are related to them are endangered by their relationship. There are, therefore, drawbacks as well as advantages in belonging to the family of a great man.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS

If it behoved a ruler to know the heart of his subjectstheir sorrow, their wrongs, their crimesto know them and to sympathise with them, this was surely as precious a part of his schooling as the solitude of his boyhood, or as any intercourse he had with easy men who had never faced the misery of the world, and had never had any motive to quarrel with its laws. He was now among the lowest of those whom he would afterwards have to governnot hearing at a distance of their doings and sufferings, but partaking in them livingly, realising the influences which were disposing them to evil. And here he was acquiring more real reverence for law and order, more understanding of their nature, than those can ever arrive at who have never known the need of them from the want of them. He was bringing his wild followers under a loving discipline and government which they had never experienced; he was teaching them to confess a law which no tyrant had created, no anarchy could set aside.Maurice.

Who can fail to recognise in David, as he here appears, a remarkable type of the Divine Prince of Peace, who at a future age would go forth from his house. As David then stood, so Christ, his illustrious descendant, according to the flesh, now stands almost everywhere, misapprehended by the world where not hated and persecuted, and only surrounded by a little band of devoted followers, comparatively small and insignificant, and for the most part contemptible in the eyes of the world, and, moreover, reviled by bitter enemies. The dwelling-place of the exalted Son of David upon earth is meanwhile as unlike to a splendid royal palace as was Davids cave of Adullam to a proud lordly mansion. The true Church is as yet concealed under a dark covering, yea, as with a widows veil. Her Lord is not yet present to the sight. Her people walk by faith and not by sight, and know that they are surrounded by the powers of darkness, against whom their weapons of war are to be laid aside neither by day nor by night. A world stands in arms against the decided followers of the crucified King of Glory, and they are dealt with as very outlaws, on whom anyone may lay his hands. But even to them also the time comes when, as our fugitive must exchange the cave of Adullam for the gorgeous palace on Mount Zion, even so for those who are not offended at the form of a servant assumed by the Divine Son of David, and at the lowly aspect of His kingdom upon earth, the simple dwelling in which the Church now gathers together shall become transformed into a glorious building, irradiated with heavenly splendour, whose dome shall tower upward into the ever-opened heavens, whose pillars shall encompass the whole earth, and whose inhabitants, after they have waited patiently with their Head here below, shall reign with Him for ever.Krummacher.

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Sauls Reprisals Against David and His Friends, 1Sa. 22:1-23.

The Prophet Gad and David. 1Sa. 22:1-5

David therefore departed thence, and escaped to the cave Adullam: and when his brethren and all his fathers house heard it, they went down thither to him.

2 And every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him; and he became a captain over them: and there were with him about four hundred men.

3 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 for me.

4 And he brought them before the king of Moab: and they dwelt with him all the while that David was in the hold.
5 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.

1.

Where was Adullam? 1Sa. 22:1

Adullam is one of the Canaanite towns whose kings are said to have been conquered by Joshua (Jos. 12:15). It is mentioned in the Shephelah, between Jarmuth and Shocoh (Jos. 15:35); in 2Ch. 11:7, it comes in immediate connection with Shocoh; and in Neh. 11:3; Neh. 11:30, it is one of the towns of Judah. These indications point to a location on the western edge of Judah and favor the identification with the present Aid-el-ma, twelve miles west by south from Bethlehem. David probably had friends there, and he was joined by his own clan. With David outlawed, they would not feel safe. At this time also a large number of malcontents gathered around David. These numbered about four hundred men, and David became their leader. Here is evidence that Saul was oppressing his people, causing some of them to sell themselves to others as servants (Lev. 25:39; 2Ki. 4:1).

2.

Why did David flee to Moab? 1Sa. 22:3

His ancestress Ruth was a Moabitess. Mizpeh means literally a watch-tower or mountain height commanding a very extensive country. It is probably used here in reference to a mountain hideout on the high land which bounded Moab on the eastern side of the Dead Sea. As David came to the king of Moab, the Moabites had probably taken possession of the most southerly portion of the eastern lands of the Israelites. We may also infer this from the fact that Saul had also made war upon Moab.

3.

Who was the prophet Gad? 1Sa. 22:5

The prophet had probably come to David from Samuels school of prophets; but whether he remained with David from that time forward to assist him with his counsel in his undertakings cannot be determined. In 1Ch. 21:9, he is called Davids seer. In the last year of Davids reign he announced to him the punishment which would fall upon him from God on account of his sin in numbering the people (2Sa. 24:11 ff.); and he also wrote the acts of David (1Ch. 29:29). In consequence of his admonition, David returned to Judah and went into the wood Hareth, a woody region on the mountains of Judah, which is never mentioned again, and the situation of which is unknown. According to the counsel of God, David was not to seek for refuge outside the land; not only that he might not be estranged from his fatherland and the people of Israel, but also that he might learn to trust entirely in the Lord as his only refuge and fortress. David had said that he would wait until he knew what God would do to him. He was assured of the justice of his cause as contrasted with the insane persecutions of Saul, and he confidently hoped that God would bring his flight to an end. Now he was to trust implicitly in Jehovah.

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

(1) The cave Adullam.The great valley of Elah forms the highway from Philistia to Hebron. In one especially of the tributary vales or ravines of the Elah valley are many natural caves, some of great extent, roomy and dry, which are still used by the shepherds as dwelling-places, and as refuges for their flocks and herds. David chose one of these natural fastnesses as the temporary home for himself and his followers. The traveller sees that there was ample room for the 400 refugees who gathered under Davids skilled leadership. Stanley even speaks of this Adullam Cavern as a subterranean palace, with vast columnar halls and arched chambers.

The name Adullam was probably given to the largest of these great caverns from its proximity to the old royal Canaanitish city of Adullam (Jos. 15:35), ruins of which on a rounded hill to the south of the cave are still visible.

His brethren and all his fathers house.They of course soon felt the weight of Sauls anger against the prominent hero of their race, and dreading the fate which often overwhelms whole families for the faults of one of the more distinguished members, fled from their homes, and joined David and his armed force of outlaws.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

DAVID IN THE CAVE OF ADULLAM, 1Sa 22:1-2.

David has now found that neither the privacy of his own house, nor the sanctity of Samuel, nor the love of Jonathan, nor the favour of the high priest, avails to save him from the persecutions of Saul. Nor will he dare again trust himself alone in the hands of a heathen king. He now resolved to act, for the time, the part of a Jephthah, and gather around himself a band of warriors, in whom he may find at least a powerful body-guard.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

1. Departed thence, and escaped Whether he was thrust out of the land or escaped by stealth we are not here told, but from the title of Psalms 34 we infer that he was driven away. Having thus effected his escape, his joyful heart gives vent to its feelings in that inimitable psalm.

The cave Adullam A city Adullam was situate in or near the plain of Philistia, (Jos 15:35😉 but there is no passage of Scripture that necessarily connects the cave of Adullam with the city of that name. There appears, therefore, no sufficient reason to disturb the tradition of seven hundred years, which fixes this cave about six miles southeast of Bethlehem, in the side of the wild gorge el-Kureitun. It has been visited by many travellers, who all describe it as an immense natural cavern in the side of the cliff, and very difficult of access. Dr. J.P. Newman, who explored it in 1861, thus writes: “Entering the cave through a passage way six feet high, four wide, and thirty long, but which soon contracted to such dimensions as to compel us first to stoop and then to creep, we at length found ourselves in the hiding place of David. Owing to the curve in the entrance, no sunlight ever penetrates this dismal abode. Lighting our candles, we began to explore.

We found the interior divided into chambers, halls, galleries, and dungeons, connected by intricate passageways. The chief hall is one hundred and twenty feet long, and fifty wide; the ceiling is high and arched, ornamented with pendants resembling stalactites; and from the walls extend sharp projections, on which the ancient warriors hung their arms. The effect was grand as our tapers revealed each irregular arch, graceful pendant, and sharp projection, giving the whole the appearance of a grand Gothic hall. Lateral passages radiate in every direction from this chamber, but ultimately converge in a central room. The darkness and silence were oppressive, and the seclusion and intricacies of the cave would have baffled any attempt of Saul to capture the object of his pursuit. From the side of the first chamber we reached a pit ten feet deep, and from it a low, narrow alley, two hundred and ten feet long, leads to another hall, the inner sanctum, where David held his secret counsels.” David probably became familiar with this cave in his childhood, when he kept his father’s flocks near Beth-lehem.

His brethren and all his father’s house went down thither Because, on account of Saul’s rage, their lives were no longer safe at Bethlehem.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

DAVID’S FLIGHT TO RAMAH, AND SAUL’S PURSUIT, 1Sa 19:18 to 1Sa 24:18.

David fled to Samuel Whither could he better go for help and counsel at a time like this? Surely, he thinks, Samuel will defend me against Saul.

He and Samuel went and dwelt in Naioth Naioth is not to be regarded as a proper name. The word means habitations, dwelling places, and refers to the dwellings of the band of prophets over whom Samuel presided. The plural is used because of the number of cells or huts in this locality. The Targum renders the word house of instruction, and Ewald defines it as studium, or school. Here these disciples of Samuel dwelt, and disciplined themselves in holy exercises. How long David enjoyed this society of Samuel and these prophets before Saul ascertained whither he had fled we cannot determine, but probably not long.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

The Glory of God Is Revealed In The Cave of Adullam: David Establishes The Beginnings of His Private Army And Re-establishes The Future ( 1Sa 22:1-2 ).

Having barely escaped from Gath with his life David returned to Israel and made for the cave of Adullam. Adullam was an ancient royal city of the Canaanites, twelve miles east of Gath and in the Judean foothills near the valley of Elah (Jos 15:35). Nearby were a series of large caves. And it was to one of these caves that David made his way. It must have seemed like the end of the road. He had been rejected by Saul, had perjured his soul to Ahimelech, and had played the madman in Gath. Now he was to become a trogladyte. Though he did not realise it he was being faced up with the fact of the truth about himself, and was learning that the way to Up is Down.

Imagine now the scene as the Reject of Saul, the Liar of Nob and the Goon of Gath makes his tired way towards the cave of Adullam. His exultation at escaping from Gath (Psalms 34) must now have been replaced by a sense of despair. For as he entered its gloomy portal, and was no doubt met by a motley and suspicious group of ragged and dirty refugees, he must have asked, ‘has it all come to this?’ Little did he realise at that moment that in that cave he was about to experience the Grace of God. It did not come immediately, nor did it come in any moment of high exaltation but it came in dribs and drabs, as God drew to that cave the beginnings of a unique fighting force..

From that cave he appears first to have got a message through to his family, who were possibly not yet aware of the disaster that might face them. For the one who would slaughter the innocent priests of Nob would have had no qualms about the destruction of the family of the traitor David. And the result was that he was soon joined by his brothers and parents, and their household. But it was not only they who gathered to David. When news got around in whispers that David, the hero of Israel, was sheltering in the caves of Adullam, (and presumably venturing out on raiding trips, for they would need to survive somehow), many who had grievances or were in debt gathered to him, until at length he had about four hundred men at his command, a considerable force in those days (compare Esau in Gen 32:6 and Abraham in Gen 14:14), especially when they were well trained.

Indeed one thing that will stand out in the future narratives is the fact that David had ‘his men’. It was they who would be the foundation of his future greatness, and it was here that they had their beginnings. We have already noted the military successes of David. He was a brilliant campaigner, and a popular hero. But shaping the motley group that he would now gather into an effective and powerful fighting force was undoubtedly one of his greatest achievements. They came together as a group of malcontents, and we are left to imagine his tight control over them, the requirement for worship and the daily training that gradually honed them into a powerful instrument of war. But we can be sure that all were prominent features of life in the cave.

Analysis.

a David therefore departed from there, and escaped to the cave of Adullam (1Sa 22:1 a).

b And when his brethren and all his father’s house heard it, they went down there to him (1Sa 22:1 b).

c And every one who was in distress, and every one who was in debt, and every one who was discontented, gathered themselves to him (1Sa 22:2 a).

b And he became commander over them (1Sa 22:2 b).

a And there were with him about four hundred men (1Sa 22:2 c).

Note that in ‘a’ David goes to the large cave at Adullam and in the parallel he soon has four hundred men living with him there. In ‘b’ his family come to join him, and in the parallel he has command over them. Central in ‘c’ are the threefold types who join up with him. It was an army of the needy and the discontented

1Sa 22:1 a

‘David therefore departed from there, and escaped to the cave of Adullam.’

There were a number of caves at Adullam, and this was presumably the largest of them. Adullam itself was an ancient royal city of the Canaanites, twelve miles east of Gath (midway between Jerusalem and Lachish) and in the Judean foothills near the valley of Elah (Jos 15:35). It would not have been very welcoming, but it was all he had.

1Sa 22:1 b

‘And when his brothers and all his father’s house heard it, they went down there to him.’

It would appear that David contacted his family at this time and warned them of what Saul might do to them, with the result that they joined him in the Cave of Adullam. For as his behaviour towards the priests of Nob would demonstrate Saul was both bloodthirsty and unreliable, and David’s family were no doubt near the top of his list. There can be little doubt that David urged them to join him there.

1Sa 22:2

‘ And every one who was in distress, and every one who was in debt, and every one who was discontented, gathered themselves to him, and he became commander over them. And there were with him about four hundred men.’

But not only his family came. For as news spread around Israel about how David had escaped from Saul, his name became a magnet that drew men to the cave at Adullam. All who were distressed or in debt, and all who were not content to have Saul as king, gathered to David at Adullam. And they all looked to him as their natural leader with the result that he became commander over them. The consequence was that soon he had four hundred trained and disciplined men under his command, to say nothing of their wives and children. And we can be sure that David ensured that they were well trained. He would know that their future depended on it.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

1Sa 22:1-4 David Flees to Moab – David’s entire family was now in danger from King Saul, so he takes them out of the territory of Israel.

1Sa 22:1  David therefore departed thence, and escaped to the cave Adullam: and when his brethren and all his father’s house heard it, they went down thither to him.

1Sa 22:2  And every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him; and he became a captain over them: and there were with him about four hundred men.

1Sa 22:2 Comments – How broken David must have been when David heard this horrible news, him being a man easily moved with emotion (See Psalms 52).

1Sa 22:3  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 for me.

1Sa 22:3 Comments – Note that David’s great grandmother was Ruth, who was from Moab (Rth 1:4). So there must have been family ties that brought David to this nation of Moab.

Rth 1:4, “And they took them wives of the women of Moab; the name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other Ruth: and they dwelled there about ten years.”

1Sa 22:7 Then 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, and make you all captains of thousands, and captains of hundreds;

1Sa 22:7 Comments – Samuel had warned Israel that their king would take from them fields and vineyards (1Sa 8:14). This is exactly what Saul did, giving it to his Benjamite relatives and friends in order to maintain their loyalty so that he could remain in power against opposition.

1Sa 8:14, “And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants.”

1Sa 22:8  That all of you have conspired against me, and there is none that sheweth me that my son hath made a league with the son of Jesse, and there is none of you that is sorry for me, or sheweth unto me that my son hath stirred up my servant against me, to lie in wait, as at this day?

1Sa 22:8 “to lie in wait” Comments – Saul was accusing David of preparing to kill him and get the kingdom (1Sa 24:9). Instead, David spared Saul’s life twice.

1Sa 24:9, “And David said to Saul, Wherefore hearest thou men’s words, saying, Behold, David seeketh thy hurt?”

1Sa 22:15  Did I then begin to enquire of God for him? be it far from me: let not the king impute any thing unto his servant, nor to all the house of my father: for thy servant knew nothing of all this, less or more.

1Sa 22:15 “Did I then begin to inquire of God for him? Be it far form me.” – Comments – Note that Doeg lied to Saul in 1Sa 22:10 by saying, “He inquired of the Lord.”

1Sa 22:17  And the king said unto the footmen that stood about him, Turn, and slay the priests of the LORD; because their hand also is with David, and because they knew when he fled, and did not shew it to me. But the servants of the king would not put forth their hand to fall upon the priests of the LORD.

1Sa 22:17 “But the servants of the king would not put forth their hand to fall upon the priests of the Lord” Comments – Neither would Saul’s servants kill Jonathan in 1Sa 14:44-45

1Sa 14:44-45, “And Saul answered, God do so and more also: for thou shalt surely die, Jonathan. And the people said unto Saul, Shall Jonathan die, who hath wrought this great salvation in Israel? God forbid: as the LORD liveth, there shall not one hair of his head fall to the ground; for he hath wrought with God this day. So the people rescued Jonathan, that he died not.”

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

David a Fugitive in Judah and Moab

v. 1. David, therefore, because he could find no refuge in the land of the Philistines, departed thence and escaped to the cave Adullam, in the foothills of the Judean mountains, about sixteen miles southwest of Jerusalem; and when his brethren and all his father’s house heard it, they went down thither to him, all his nearest relatives joined him, evidently because they feared the revenge of Saul upon their entire family; for it was nothing unusual for an Oriental prince to destroy a whole family for the fault of one person.

v. 2. And everyone that was in distress, feeling that the government of Saul was an arbitrary misrule, and everyone that was in debt, oppressed by his creditors and having failed to receive from the government that protection against the violation of the law of loan and interest which he might expect, Exo 22:25; Lev 25:36; Deu 23:19, and everyone that was discontented, bitter or embittered of soul, whose anxiety of soul over the condition of the kingdom, as it grew worse from day to day, drove them to a leader from whom they might, for the future, hope for better things, gathered themselves unto him; and he became a captain over them, their leader; and there were with him about four hundred men, the number afterward rising to six hundred, 1Sa 23:13. It was not a wild and lawless band, hut a well organized company, who were here trained in warfare, so that many of them afterwards became heroes in the nation.

v. 3. And David went thence to Mizpeh of Moab, southeast of the Dead Sea, the country of his great-grandmother; 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 for me. He wanted his aged parents to have some protection, to live in some degree of security, until the present uncertain period. of his own life would come to an end.

v. 4. And he brought them before the king of Moab, to remain under the latter’s protection; and they dwelt with him all the while that David was in the hold, in his fortified position, in his mountain fastness near Mizpeh.

v. 5. And the Prophet Gad said unto David, in a direct message which shows the loving care of God, Abide not in the hold; depart, and get thee into the land of Judah. The Prophet Gad may have been one of the band which lived near Ramah, where David became acquainted with him, 1Sa 19:18. Then David departed, out of the land of Moab, and came into the forest of Hareth, an unknown region, probably in the southwestern part of the territory of Judah. Like David, his great descendant, Jesus, accompanied by only a small band of faithful men, befriended by publicans and sinners, journeyed about in this country, in Palestine, entering into His glory through suffering and persecution.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

EXPOSITION

COMMENCEMENT OF DAVID‘S LIFE AS AN OUTLAW.

1Sa 22:1

The cave Adullam. According to Josephus this was situated near a city of the same name (‘Ant.,’ 1Sa 6:12, 1Sa 6:3), which formed one of a group of fifteen in the Shephelah (see on 1Sa 17:1), and its site has now been recovered by Mr. Conder (see ‘Tent Work,’ 2:156-160). “The great valley,” he says, “of Elah, which forms the highway from Philistia to Hebron, runs down northwards past Keilah and Hareth, dividing the low hills of the Shephelah from the rocky mountains of Judah. Eight miles from the valley head stands Shochoh, and two and a half miles south of this is a very large and ancient terebinth.” This stands on “the west side of the vale, just where a small tributary ravine joins the main valley; and on the south of this ravine is a high rounded hill, almost isolated by valleys, and covered with ruins, a natural fortress,” the site of the city Adullam. David’s cave, he considers, would not be one of the larger caverns, as these are seldom used for habitations; but “the sides of the tributary valley are lined with rows of caves, and these we found inhabited, and full of flocks and herds; but still more interesting was the discovery of a separate cave on the hill itself, a low, smoke-blackened burrow, which was the home of a single family. We could not but suppose, as we entered this gloomy abode, that our feet were standing in the very footprints of the shepherd king, who here, encamped between the Philistines and the Jews, covered the line of advance on the cornfields of Keilah, and was but three miles distant from the thickets of Hareth.” After describing the fine view from this hill, which is about 500 feet high, he adds, “There is ample room to have accommodated David’s 400 men in the caves, and they are, as we have seen, still inhabited.” Thus then David’s cave was one of many in the Terebinth valley and the ravine opening into it, and was not far from Gath, though over the border. Here his brethren and all his father’s house joined him through fear of Saul. Among these would be Joab, Abishai, and Asahel, his cousins; and we learn how great was the love and enthusiasm which David was able to inspire among them from the feat of the three heroes, of whom Abishai was one, who, while he was in the cave of Adullam, and a garrison of the Philistines at Bethlehem, broke through them to bring David water from the well there (2Sa 23:13-17). As Bethlehem was thus held by the Philistines, there was double reason for the flight of Jesse’s family; and it is a proof how thoroughly Saul’s government had broken down that, while Samuel could maintain a son at Beersheba as judge (1Sa 8:1-22 :24 Saul was unable to defend places so much more distant from the Philistine border.

1Sa 22:2

Everyone that was in distress, in debt, or discontented (Hebrew, bitter of soul), gathered themselves unto him. Had Saul’s government been just and upright David would have had no followers; but he never rose above the level of a soldier, had developed all that arbitrariness which military command fosters in self-willed minds, and seems entirely unaware of its being his duty to attend to the righteous administration of the law. The Israelites had in him the very king they had desired, but they found that a brave general might at home be a ruthless tyrant. Debt was one of the worst evils of ancient times. The rate of usury was so exorbitant that a loan was sure to end in utter ruin, and not only the debtor, but his children might be made slaves to repay the debt (2Ki 4:1). It was one of the first duties of an upright governor to enforce the Mosaic law against usury (Le 1Sa 25:36); but all such cares Saul despised, and there were probably many in the land impoverished by Saul’s own exactions and favouritism (1Sa 22:7), and made bitter of soul by his cruelty and injustice. All such were glad to join in what seemed to them the banner of revolt. Afterwards at Ziklag David was joined by nobler followers (see on 1Sa 27:6). With David we may compare Jephthah’s case in the old days of anarchy (Jdg 11:3-6), and note that bad government leads to lawlessness just as surely as no government.

1Sa 22:3, 1Sa 22:4

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 (1Sa 14:47), the king was probably glad to help one who would keep Saul employed at home. The language of David is remarkable, and is literally, “Let, I pray, my father and my mother come forth with you” (pl.); but no better interpretation has been suggested than that in the A.V.: “Let them come forth, i.e. from the hold in Mizpeh, to be or dwell with you.” While David was in the hold. Not merely that in the land of Moab, but up to the time when David was settled in Hebron. During all this period David was wandering from one natural fortress to another. Till I know what God will do for (or to) me. These words show that David had recovered his composure, and was willing calmly to leave everything to the wise disposal of God.

1Sa 22:5

The prophet Gad. This sudden appearance of the prophet suggests Stahelin’s question, How came he among such people? But, in the first place, David’s followers were not all of the sort described in 1Sa 22:2; and, next, this must be regarded as a declaration of the prophetic order in his favour. As we have a summary of David’s proceedings in 1Sa 22:4, extending over some time, during which the massacre of the priests at Nob took place, we may well suppose that Saul had alienated from him the minds of all religious people, and that Gad, probably by Samuel’s command, came to be David’s counsellor. The advice he gives is most importantAbide not in the hold. I.e. do not remain in the land of Moab. Had David done so he probably would never have become king. By remaining in Judah, and protecting the people from the Philistines, which Saul could no longer do, David grew in reputation and power, and from the list of those who joined him at Ziklag (1Ch 12:1-22) it is evident not only that such was the case, but that there was a strong enthusiasm for him throughout not merely Judah, but all Israel. In the happier times which followed Gad became David’s seer (2Sa 24:11), was God’s messenger to punish David for numbering the people (ibid. 1Sa 22:13), and finally wrote a history of his life (1Ch 29:29). As he thus survived David, he must have been a young man when he joined him, and possibly had been a companion of David in the prophetic schools at Naioth in Ramah. The forest of Hareth. Or, rather, Hereth. “This lay on the edge of the mountain chain (of Hebron), where Kharas now stands, surrounded by the thickets which properly represent the Hebrew yar, a word wrongly supposed to mean a woodland of timber trees” (Conder, ‘Tent Work,’ 2:88). Yar is translated forest here. Hereth was about three miles from Adullam (see on 1Sa 22:1).

MASSACRE OF THE PRIESTS AT NOB (1Sa 22:6-19).

1Sa 22:6

When Saul heard that David was discovered. Hebrew, “was known.” The meaning is easy enough, though rendered obscure by the involved translation of the A.V; and is as follows: When Saul heard that there was information concerning David and his men, he held a solemn council, in which we see how simple was the dignity of his court, but how great the ferocity to which he was now a prey. There is no parenthesis, but the account of Saul taking his seat, surrounded by his officers, follows directly upon the narration of the fact that news of David had reached him, and should be translated thus: “And Saul takes his seat in Gibeah under the tamarisk tree on the height, holding his javelin (as a sceptre) in his hand, and all his officers stand in order by him.” For Saul’s fondness for trees see 1Sa 14:2; but at a time when there were no large buildings a branching tree formed a fit place for a numerous meeting. A tree. Really a tamarisk tree, which “sometimes reaches such a size as to afford dense shade …. It is a very graceful tree, with long feathery branches and tufts, closely clad with the minutest of leaves, and surmounted in spring with spikes of beautiful pink blossom”. It grows abundantly on the seashore of England, but requires a warmer climate to develope into a tree. In Spain beautiful specimens may be seen, as for instance at Pampeluna. In Ramah. Conder (Handbook) thinks that Gibeah was the name of a district, which included Ramah; others take the word in its original signification, and render “on the height.” Standing. The word means that they took each their proper posts around him (See on 1Sa 10:23; 1Sa 12:7, 1Sa 12:16; 1Sa 17:16). Saul was holding a formal court, to decide what steps should be taken now that David had openly revolted from him.

1Sa 22:7, 1Sa 22:8

Ye Benjamites. Saul had evidently failed in blending the twelve tribes into one nation. He had begun well, and his great feat of delivering Jabesh Gilead by summoning the militia of all Israel together must have given them something of a corporate feeling, and taught them their power when united. Yet now we find him isolated, and this address to his officers seems to show that he had aggrandised his own tribe at the expense of the rest. Moreover, he appeals to the worst passions of these men, and asks whether they can expect David to continue this favouritism, which had given them riches and all posts of power. And then he turns upon them, and fiercely accuses them of banding together in a conspiracy against him, to conceal from him the private understanding which existed between his own son and his enemy. Hath made a league. Hebrew, “hath cut.” This use of the formal phrase forsaking a covenant seems to show that Saul was at length aware of the solemn bond of friendship entered into by Jonathan with David. To lie in wait. To Saul’s mind, diseased with that suspicion which is the scourge of tyrants, David is secretly plotting his murder. As at this day. I.e. as today is manifest (see 1Sa 22:13).

1Sa 22:9, 1Sa 22:10

Doeg the Edomite, which was set over the servants of Saul. This translation is entirely wrong, nor would Saul’s Benjamites have endured to have an Edomite set over them. The verb is that used in 1Sa 22:6, and refers simply to Doeg’s place in the circle of attendants standing round Saul. The words mean, “Doeg the Edomite, who stood there with the servants of Saul.” As chief herdsman he was present as a person of some importance, but far below “the captains of thousands and the captains of hundreds.” I saw the son of Jesse, etc. As Saul was in a dangerous state of excite. sent, bordering on insanity, Doeg’s statement was probably made with the evil intent of turning the king’s suspicions from the courtiers to the priests. His assertion that the high priest enquired of Jehovah for David was possibly true (see on 1Sa 22:15).

1Sa 22:11-13

All his father’s house. Doeg’s suggestion that the priests were David’s allies at once arouses all Saul’s worst passions. As if he had determined from the first upon the massacre of the whole body, he sends not merely for Ahimelech, but forevery priest at Nob. Shortly afterwards they arrived, for Nob was close to Gibeah, and Saul himself arraigns them before the court for treason, and recapitulates the three points mentioned by Doeg as conclusive proofs of their guilt.

1Sa 22:14-16

Ahimelech’s answers are those of an innocent man who had supposed that what he did was a matter of course. But his enumeration of David’s privileges of rank and station probably only embittered the king. In his eyes David was of all Saul s officers the most faithful, both trusty and trusted (see on 1Sa 2:35). He was, moreover, the king’s son-in-law; but the next words, he goeth at thy bidding, more probably mean, “has admission to thy audience,” i.e. is thy privy councillor, with the right of entering unbidden the royal presence. Did I then begin to enquire of God for him? Though the meaning of these words is disputed, yet there seems no sufficient reason for taking them in any other than their natural sense. It was probably usual to consult God by the Urim and Thummim on all matters of importance, and David, as a high officer of Saul’s court, must often have done so before starting on such expeditions as are referred to in 1Sa 18:13. But the Bible is singularly reticent in such matters, and it is only incidentally that we learn how fully the Mosaic law entered into the daily life of the people. But for this frightful crime we should not even have known that Saul had brought the ark into his own neighbourhood, and restored the services of the sanctuary. But just as he took care to have Ahiah in attendance upon him in war, so we cannot doubt but that his main object in placing the priests at Nob was to have the benefit of the Divine counsel in his wars. It would be quite unreasonable to suppose that such consultations required the king’s personal attendance. Thy servant knew nothing of all this, less or more. Whatever Ahimelech had done had been in perfect good faith, and though David’s conduct must have seemed to him suspicious, yet there was nothing that would have justified him in acting differently. Nevertheless, in spite of his transparent innocence, Saul orders the slaughter not only of God’s high priest, but of the whole body of the priesthood whom he had placed at Nob, and now had summoned for this ferocious purpose into his presence.

1Sa 22:17-19

Footmen. Hebrew, “runners.” They were the men who ran by the side of the king’s horse or chariot as his escort (see on 1Sa 8:11). In constant training, they were capable of maintaining a great speed for a very long time. Here they were present at the king’s council as his bodyguard, but when commanded to commit this horrid deed not one of them stirred from his place. Saul might have seen by this that he was alienating the hearts of all right minded men from him; but, unabashed, he next orders Doeg to slay the priests, and he, aided probably by his servants, slew in that day fourscore and five persons that did wear a linen ephod. The fact that they were thus clad in their official dress added not to the wickedness, but to the impiety of this revolting act. And, not satisfied with thus wreaking his rage on innocent men, he next destroyed the city of the priests, barbarously massacring their whole families, both men and women, children and sucklings, and even their oxen, asses, and sheep, as if Nob was a city placed under the ban. It is a deed in strange contrast with the pretended mercy that spared Agag and the best of the Amaleklte spoil on the pretext of religion. Only once before had so terrible a calamity befallen the descendants of Aaron, and that was when the Philistines destroyed Shiloh. But they were enemies, and provoked by the people bringing the ark to the battle, and even then women and children escaped. It was left to the anointed king, who had himself settled the priests at Nob and restored Jehovah’s worship there, to perpetrate an act unparalleled in Jewish history for its barbarity. Nor was it an act of barbarity only, but also of insane and wanton stupidity. The heart of every thoughtful person must now have turned away in horror from the king whom they had desired; and no wonder that when, two or three years afterwards, war came Saul found himself a king without an army, and fell into that deep, despondent melancholy which drove him, in need of some human sympathy, to seek it from a reputed witch.

ESCAPE OF ABIATHAR TO DAVID (1Sa 22:20-23).

1Sa 22:20-23

Abiathar escaped. Probably he was left in charge of the sanctuary when Ahimelech and the rest were summoned into the king’s presence, and on news being brought of Saul’s violence, at once made his escape, Naturally, as representing a family who, though originally Saul’s friends, had suffered so much for David, he was kindly received, and a friendship commenced which lasted all David’s life; but, taking at last Adonijah’s side, he was deprived by Solomon of the high priesthood, and sent into honourable banishment at Anathoth (1Ki 2:26). On hearing of the terrible tragedy from which Abiathar had escaped, David, with characteristic tenderness of conscience, accuses himself of being the cause of all this bloodshed. Perhaps he felt that when he saw Doeg at Nob he ought at once to have gone away, without implicating Ahimelech in his cause; but he could never have imagined that Saul would have treated innocent men so barbarously, and may have supposed that their sacred character as well as their guiltlessness would have secured them from more than temporary displeasure. David now warmly promises Abiathar safety and friendship, and possibly the inversion of the natural order, he that seeketh my life seeketh thy life, is meant to express this entire oneness and close union henceforward of the two friends. As to the question when and where Abiathar joined David, see on 1Sa 23:6.

HOMILETICS.

1Sa 22:1-5

Difficult circumstances.

The facts are

1. David, escaping from Garb, takes refuge in the cave of Adullam.

2. Here he is joined by his kindred and a miscellaneous band of men, over whom he exercises authority as captain.

3. Anxious for the comfort of his father and mother, he desires and obtains of the king of Moab permission for them to dwell at Mizpeh.

4. On being advised by the prophet Gad, he returns to Judah. This section covers the conduct of David up to the point when the “walking in darkness” terminated in a merciful Divine intervention. Four leading characters are here set before us: David, his adherents, his parents, and the seer; and the teaching of the passage may be arranged by making each of these in succession the prominent figure.

I. PRUDENCE IN DIFFICULTY. The line of action taken by David after his escape from the dangers of Gath is a remarkable instance of prudence, when regard is had to the utterly hopeless condition to which he was apparently reduced, and that no light was afforded him from any prophetic source. Lonely and bunted, he sought an impregnable cave for shelter, abstaining from any publicity to attract men into revolt against Saul. Being, apart from his choice, surrounded by men who for various private reasons were in sympathy with him, he simply organised them for defence in case of need. Knowing the peril of parents advancing in years, he sought out a place of safety where they would be free from possibility of annoyance. To secure this, and also to betake himself as far as possible from collision with Saul, he availed himself of the advantage of a kinship through Ruth, and yet, after having made the best disposition of affairs his judgment could suggest, he at once yielded to the superior wisdom of the prophet of God. In all this we get traces of the qualities which subsequently made David a wise king. Herein are lines of conduct worthy of our imitation amidst the perplexities which sometimes fall to our lot in private, domestic, and public life. Amidst the fears and gloom of our position let us cherish that faith in God’s purpose concerning us which, in spite of fears and sorrows, underlies all David’s procedure (Psa 7:1-17; Psa 24:1-10.), and then exercise our best judgment on the avoidance of evil, the discharge of daily duty, and the measures most conducive to the end in view. To avoid all occasions of annoyance, to avail ourselves of such aid as Providence may bring to us, to lay hold of and control any unsatisfactory surroundings so as to divest them of possible mischief and convert them into useful agents, to see to it that others shall not if possible come to grief by being associated with our movements, to go on steadily awaiting God’s time for action, and to welcome any clear intimations of his will, however contrary to our own arrangementsthis will prove our wisdom.

II. UNSATISFACTORY ADHERENTS. The men who flocked to David were of miscellaneous characters, and were swayed by diverse motives; not such perhaps as David would have chosen. The manifestly unjust treatment of the young deliverer of Israel, and the increasingly irritable and impulsive temper of the king, accompanied with misgovernment in matters of detail, could not but make brave and chivalrous men “discontented;” and it was no wonder if at such a time many were brought to poverty. It is certain, however, that many of them did not enter into the lofty spiritual aims of David, and, in so far as their principles were not identical with his, they were a questionable support. Yet the fact is instructive.. Persons of high character and lofty aims exercise an attractive influence over many who cannot enter fully into their conceptions. The assertors of great principles do sometimes find adherents very inferior to themselves. The adherents of a just cause are not always to be credited with an intelligent appreciation of its nature. It is therefore wrong to judge leaders of important movements by the crude notions and imperfect character of their followers. In the case of our Saviour it was the force of his personal character that drew disciples of diverse tastes and degrees of intelligence around him. But just as David disciplined and educated his followers till they became valiant, loyal men in the kingdom (1Ch 11:1-47.), so Christ in due time endowed his disciples with power to enter into the spirit of his mission. Neither in the Church nor in social and political affairs can we dispense with men who, though drawn to leaders, are not yet in perfect harmony of intelligence and character.

III. FILIAL PIETY. Amidst the gravest anxieties of his life David manifested concern for the welfare of his parents. Indeed all his private and public movements for a time seem to have been subordinated to securing their freedom from danger and distress. If ever a man could plead inability he could just then. This tenderness of character is very prominent in his entire life. Filial piety is strongly enjoined in the Bible. The “commandment with promise” relates to duty to parents. Our Saviour’s example is conspicuous (Luk 2:50-52; Joh 19:26, Joh 19:27). It is impossible to lay claim to religion without this love, care, tender interest, self-denial, and reverence for parents (Eph 6:1-3). There are manifold ways in which it may be displayed: by sympathy in sorrow and sickness, by reverence and affection in health, by deference to their wishes whenever consistent with holiness and right, by forecasting their needs and providing for them, by insuring support and comfort in old age, and by the cherished love which ever causes them to thank God for the gift of children.

IV. OPPORTUNE COUNSEL. During the long season of darkness David had groped his way from place to place, exercising his judgment, and doubtless lifting up his heart for more light. He stumbled at Nob; he fell into a net at Gath; he showed prudence at Adullam; and now in the land of Moab, where perhaps he mourned in being so far from the sanctuary of God, he is remembered on high, and the prophet Gad brings to him the first Divine and official communication he, as far as we can learn, ever received. This circumstance was full of meaning. The prophetic order was recognising him. The dayspring had come. Henceforth he was to be instructed more openly in the way in which he should go (verses 20-23; 1Sa 23:2). There is, also, a limit to our seasons of darkness. We have not a prophet Gad; but when patience has had her “perfect work,” and discipline has brought us nearer to God, a “more sure word of prophecy,” which “shineth as a light in a dark place,” will make clear to us the perfect will of God. Like as Christ found an end to the “hour of darkness,” so all who share in his sorrows will find darkness made light before them. The resurrection morn was an end to the gloom and uncertainty of the apostles. Many an anxious soul, troubled with dark doubts and on the borders of despair, has found at last a light which has turned doubt into confidence and made the path of submission to Christ the path of joy. “I will not leave you comfortless, but will come unto you.”

General lessons:

1. We should not despise or discourage persons seeking to be identified with a good cause on account of their inferiority to those who lead.

2. There may be many waiting for action if men of energy and attractiveness would afford them facility.

3. The experience of the Church in all ages justifies faith in the guidance of God when we have work to do for him.

1Sa 22:6-16

Resistance to God’s purposes.

The facts are

1. Saul, hearing at Gibeah of David’s movements, makes an appeal to his Benjamite attendants.

2. He insinuates the existence of secret designs against himself, connivance at David’s supposed purpose, and lack of pity for his condition.

3. Thereupon Doeg the Edomite relates what he saw at Nob, and makes the statement that the high priest inquired of the Lord for David.

4. Saul sends for Ahimelech and charges him with conspiracy.

5. Notwithstanding the high priest’s denial of the charge, and his conviction of David’s innocence, Saul condemns him and his house to death. The conduct of Saul is increasingly devoid of reason, and this gradual failure of intelligence has its root in moral decay. The key to his infatuation is to be found in the obstinate impenitence of his heart in relation to the sins of his probationary career, and the consequent fight of his entire nature against the settled purposes of God (1Sa 11:1-15 :24, 25; 1Sa 12:24, 1Sa 12:25; 1Sa 13:11-14; 1Sa 15:26-29). The events recorded in the section before us reveal a more fatal advance in this course of mental and moral degeneration.

I. RESISTANCE TO GOD‘S PURPOSES FORCES ON INCREASED DANGERS. Had Saul with penitent spirit bowed to the will of God, as expressed in 1Sa 15:26-29, and at once retired into private life, the rest of his days might have been at least devout and quiet. But, persisting in rebellion, he soon saw in the innocent son of Jesse a personal enemy. And the resistance to God’s purposes which induced personal envy and ill will prompted also to open deeds of violence, and these deeds, designed by the perverted judgment to negative the Divine decree (1Sa 15:26-29), had the triple effect of cementing the bond between David and Jonathan, of developing the sympathy of the prophets and of all just men with the persecuted one, and of making David the leader of a band of 400 men. Thus the very devices of a guilty, hardened heart to prevent the fulfilment of the purposes of God were conducive to a reverse issue. Saul’s dangers multiplied just as he sought their removal. The only safe course for guilty men, guilty Churches and nations, is to bow at once before God, and place themselves unreservedly at his mercy. The laws of providence are in incessant movement toward the realisation of God’s purpose against sin. Every effort to set them aside, or to avoid their inevitable issue, only tends to multiply the agencies by which they at last shall be vindicated. The man who, having committed secret sin, seeks, in the exercise of an impenitent spirit, to cover it up, or brave it out, creates by every thought of his mind a new cord by which he is bound fast to his fate. Nations that seek to ward off the judgments due to past sins by guilty acts for strengthening their position in the world, rather than by sincere repentance and newness of life, are only heaping up wrath for the day of wrath. Penitence, submission, righteousness, these are the “way everlasting.” Practical godliness is the soundest philosophy for individuals and communities.

II. IT INDUCES A STATE OF MIND WHICH CREATES GREAT FEARS OUT OF SLIGHT CIRCUMSTANCES. Three circumstances were the occasion of much fear to Saulthe existence of David, his friendship with Jonathan, and his holding a cave with 400 men. External events are to us what the medium through which we view them makes them appear to be, and this medium is often the creation of our moral nature. With all his daring resistance to the purposes of God, Saul could not lose the consciousness that he was a guilty man, that the judgment pronounced was just, and that, in spite of all wishes, hopes, and efforts to the contrary, the dreaded doom would come. In such a state of mind he saw messengers of justice and supplanters of his position where others saw only blessings to Israel. A prudent act for purposes of self-defence against cruel persecution became to him a formidable attack on his throne. The secrets of a holy friendship were the plottings of unfaithful men, and the want of sympathy on the part of upright men with his malicious designs against an honourable man and public benefactor, he construed into conspiracy against himself. This tendency of the mind to clothe all things with its own moral coloring is universal. As the holy and the wise see occasions for joy and confidence in everything except the sins of men and their natural effects, so the guilty and foolish see occasions for trouble and fear in what to others is the expression of goodness and of righteousness. It is a slight circumstance for a policeman to walk the street, but there are men who quail at the sight. The bare mention of a name or incidental reference to a transaction will cause agitation in the minds of evil doers. The appearance among men of the holy Saviour caused trembling in the heart of the guilty Herod (Mat 2:3; Mat 14:1-3). A man like Saul carries within him all the elements of a hell. Small things become instruments of self-inflicted torture. In such a moral mood a man becomes an Ishmaelite indeed by reason of the quickness of his fears and the strength of his suspicions. If, beyond this life, this state of mind is intensified in the wicked by the complete dominion of sin and absence of present mitigations, it is not difficult to conceive the imperfection of language to indicate the future of the lost.

III. IT PROMPTS TO NEW EXPEDIENTS FOR RELIEF FROM SELF–CREATED DIFFICULTIES. The circumstances which caused fear to Saul were the product of his transgression; for had he not disobeyed there would have been no need for a David to be brought out from the sheepfold as a conqueror of Goliath and chosen supplanter of his line, and hence no suspicious friendship and no cave of Adullam; but now that the fears bred of these circumstances were heavily upon him, the old resistance to God manifests itself in fresh contrivances to extricate himself from trouble. He addresses the leading men of Benjamin, seeking for loyal support. He works on the feeling of clanship. He appeals to their lust for promotion and wealth. He claims their pity in his sorrows, and suggests that they, as loyal men, should avoid the suspicion of conniving at a conspiracy between his son and the son of Jesse. There is here a strange blending of hardihood and cowardice, defiance of God’s will and sense of weakness, distrust of his friends and hope of assistance from thema fair index of the mental confusion out of which spring all devices for warding off the certain doom which the guilty conscience sees to be approaching. Generally very much energy and skill are spent by men in seeking to avert the necessary consequences of their past lives. No mental operation is more universal than that which associates evil consequences, remote or near, with wrong doing. But a guilty man’s repugnance to suffering, combined with a determined spirit of rebellion against the moral order, induces an incessant strain of energy and skill to evade the inevitable. It is possible for men to look on Saul’s appeals to Benjamites, and his stratagems for nullifying the words of Samuel (1Sa 15:28, 1Sa 15:29), as vain and foolish as would be an attempt to prevent the action of the law of gravity, while in their own sphere they may be pursuing a similar course. All who live in hopes of a future blessedness while not laying a foundation for it in purity of nature and personal fellowship with Christ are practically like Saul; for no law is more unchangeable than that the pure in heart alone can see God. History relates how men of abandoned lives have, in later years, under a dread of future consequences, become precise in formal acts of worship, and bountiful in use of wealth, without the slightest perception of the need of a radical love of holiness, hoping by such external means to break open the door that bars the entrance into the kingdom of God of whatever defileth. A salvation from uneasiness and pain men are eager for, not a salvation which consists in holiness of nature and joy in God.

IV. IT IS SURE TO FIND SOME ABETTORS OF ITS STRIFE WITH GOD. It is probable that the more sober of the Benjamites had begun to distrust their king, and although they may not have known all his dread secret (1Sa 15:28, 1Sa 15:29), they could not but see that he had lost the moral support of Samuel, and was bent on a reckless course in hunting the life of David. But one man was ready to strengthen his hate and urge him on in the fatal conflict. Doeg the Edomite, a man of low spiritual tastes, an alien to Israel, maliciously added fuel to the raging evils of the unhappy king. There are several suggestive items in this brief account of the dark deed of Doeg.

1. He was not a true Israelite. By education, habit, and taste he could not have sympathy with the lofty, Messianic aims of o David or a Samuel. He is the type of a formal professor, who bears the name, but has none of the spirit, of the true religion.

2. He had material interests at stake in the continued reign of Saul (1Sa 21:7; 1Sa 22:9). The psalm supposed to refer to him represents him as bent on the acquisition of wealth (Psa 52:1-9). He is the ideal of a man whose main thought is business, and who therefore forms a judgment of religious, social, and political claims according to their presumed bearing on worldly advancement.

3. He was cruelly cool in his plans and conduct. The simulated tone of ingenuousness in his reference to what he had seen at Nob, his abstention from personal invective, and the matter of fact way in which he welded his lie about the priest inquiring of the Lord for David with the other part of the story, reveal a cruelly cool scheme for destroying one whose pure life and lofty aspirations must have mirrored too painfully his own vileness. The readiness with which he could subsequently shed the blood of God’s priests fully bears out all the severe language of Psa 52:1-9. He reminds us of the many vile men who, under cloak of attachment to a religion too pure for them, pursue this cruel course, seeking to heap up treasure by any means, and ready by word or deed to blight fair reputations and pander to the passions of the powerful. It only requires a little knowledge of the facts of David’s life to enable every just and pure mind to sympathise with his strong denunciation of such men (Psa 35:4-9; Psa 52:2-5; Psa 57:4; Psa 58:4-11). There are affinities of evil. Sauls yearn for Doegs, and Doegs are ever ready to blend interest with the Sauls. Satan is not the only one lying in wait to destroy the poor and needy. Hand joins hand in wickedness, and base heart encourages base heart in the mad endeavour to destroy a greater than David.

V. IT WILL PROCEED TILL IT SETS AT NOUGHT THE MOST SACRED THINGS. Bad men are often checked in their antagonism to God’s purposes by the wholesome influence on their remaining religious instincts of spiritual institutions and characters. The priesthood was revered by Saul at one time. The spiritual power had been prominent in his installation to the kingdom. All the influence of early Hebrew training conspired to make him look up with reverence to the high priest as in some sense the representative of all that is holy and Divine. Common prudence, religious prepossessions, every sentiment of tenderness and awe ought to have discounted the assertion of Doeg in the presence of the high priest’s emphatic demal of having inquired of the Lord for David. It was therefore an evidence of the utter suppression of all that hitherto had acted as a beneficial restraint when. in the desperate violence of his strife with God, Saul dared to sentence the innocent high priest to death. He now sank to a deeper deep. The spiritual powers became the object of his deadly hate. The warfare must now be urged against the most sacred things of God. Facilis descensus Averni. Spiritual deterioration is nearly complete when men set themselves in antagonism to the institutions of religion. It argues a terrible power of evil when a soul can accept the suggestions of bad characters and cast aside all the reverence fostered by years of education and discipline. Yet there is a reason in the madness; for, no doubt, as the spiritual in Israel was at this time the most formidable, though not conspicuously active, force against Saul’s permanence in the kingdom, so it is the spiritual, as embodied in a pure Christianity, which bars the way most surely to the permanent prosperity of the man who persistently lives in impenitence, and, therefore, from his mistaken point of view, it is essential if possible to doom it to destruction. It is the old tragedy again when men, for love of their own sinful will, trample underfoot the Son of God, and count the “blood of the covenant an unholy thing” (Heb 10:29). The bold defiance of religion is too often simply an effort to cast away the cords of a holy restraint (Psa 2:3).

General lessons:

1. It is well to consider the force of habit in its bearing on unwillingness to submit to God’s judgments.

2. Whenever slight circumstances create great fears it should be regarded as instant proof of the existence of a perilous spiritual condition, and a demand for great searching of heart.

3. Remembering how much all our judgments are coloured by our imperfect moral state, we should pray much that God would open our eyes to see things in his light and lead us in the “way everlasting.”

4. History and personal experience should teach us that the shortest and indeed only way to extricate ourselves from difficulties induced by our sins is to shun every evil way and submit ourselves entirely to God.

5. Reputations are to be held sacred, and all gain at the cost of others’ ruin brings a curse with it.

6. One of the best safeguards against the dangerous allurements of wealth and the love of worldly power is a lofty spiritual aspirationsympathy with the Lord’s Anointed.

7. It is in vain to spend arguments on men who in self-abandonment to their sinful will seek to destroy the institutions of religion; for it is not a question of reason, but of perverted, degraded nature.

8. We should avoid the slightest approach to evil, seeing that when indulged in the impetus downwards is so fearful.

1Sa 22:17-23

The tragedy at Nob.

The facts are

1. Saul commands his guards to slay the priests of Nob, but they refuse.

2. Thereupon he commands Doeg to effect their death, who slays eighty-five priests, and procures the destruction of the entire city.

3. Abiathar, escaping to David, makes known to him what has happened.

4. David perceives that his presence at Nob was the occasion of this sad calamity, and admits that he feared the course Doeg would take.

5. He encourages Abiathar to remain with him, and assures him of safety. This section sets forth Saul’s conduct in the darkest characters, and brings out a turn in the course of events of great consequence to David, while at the same time illustrating several important truths.

I. SINFUL MEN ARE SOMETIMES THE INSTRUMENTS OF FULFILLING DIVINE PREDICTIONS OF JUDGMENT. It had been declared as a judgment on the house of Eli that terrible things should befall his descendants (1Sa 2:31-36; 1Sa 3:11-14). In the fearful destruction at Nob this prediction was partly fulfilled. The sins of Saul brought on retribution for the sins of Eli and his sons. In this we have an instance of frequent occurrence in human history, both of nations and individuals. The savage ambition of Rome realised the truth of our Saviour’s words concerning the judgment due to impenitent Jerusalem (Mat 23:34-38; Luk 21:20-24). The untruthful conduct of Jacob was most severely chastised by the lying tongues of his sons who conspired against his favourite Joseph; just as now the judgment due to a parent for irreligious example in the home is often realised in the open vices of his children, which perhaps ruin his health and fortune. In all these cases we have to distinguish between the just purpose of God to visit sin by future retribution, and the free action of the men who are the means of bringing it to pass. Had pestilence, or plagues, or earthquakes bean more in the line of natural order just then, these would have conserved the Divine purpose. But man’s sinful action, free, responsible, was the agency used, thus illustrating the statement which sometimes perplexes superficial students of the Bible”the wicked, which is thy sword” (Psa 17:13). The metaphysical question, involved in this conjunction of a righteous retribution with the free agency of man in the perpetration of crimes for which alone they are responsible, may be beyond present solution, but the fact is plain. Philosophical difficulties are inherent in common facts, and are not peculiar to theological truth.

II. IN ORDINARY MEN RELIGIOUS INSTINCTS ARE STRONGER THAN POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CONSIDERATIONS. We need not be surprised that Saul’s Hebrew guards declined to obey his command to slay the “priests of the Lord.” No doubt strong reasons were present to prove their loyalty to their king. Not only is loyalty a first principle of action with good subjects, but the fact that he was of their own tribe, and had been their choice out of all Israel (1Sa 10:19-24), must have made them anxious to sustain his authority against all comers. Even the very weaknesses of a monarch will induce some men to put down with strong hand all charged with conspiracy against him, whether or not the charge he fully established. Yet these men had been wont to recognise a higher authority than Saul’s. They belonged to a race whose vocation in the world was of God. All the sanctities of religious worship and ritual, all the rich instruction of their marvellous history, strengthened and purified the instinct that leads man to fear God. To them the high priest and his subordinates were representatives of a sacred order, the exponents of a spiritual power, and it would therefore be violence to all that was sacred, inexpressible, and most influential in their nature were they, out of loyalty to the king or from tribal considerations, to touch the “priests of the Lord.” The religious instincts of men are a great power. They not only prompt to actions more or less good according to the degree of enlightenment, but we cannot calculate the vast benefits resulting to mankind by their restraining power. The fact is worthy of much study, and the wide world furnishes ample illustrations of its importance. On the nation, the family, and the individual it acts as a conservator of good and a represser of much that would destroy. It is often the only barrier against the tide of passion and ignorance. The wise know how to appeal to it and turn it to their own uses. It is this in men, among other things, which renders null and void all efforts to exterminate Christianity. Men may call reverence for sacred persons and offices superstition, and in extravagant forms the term is fitly applied, yet it is the indication of a governing influence in human affairs superior to all the advances of civilisation. Man must be remade if his life is permanently to be regulated by any principles or opinions at variance with the natural religiousness of his spirit.

III. ACTIONS INNOCENT IN INTENTION MAY BE FRAUGHT WITH SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES TO OTHERS. It can scarcely be charged on David that he was guilty of sin in visiting the tabernacle at Nob, seeking there food and shelter, though it may have been an indiscretion. The false representation by reason of which Ahimelech was induced to give him bread and a sword was the real wrong. On a wider survey of facts, and with a juster estimate of the risks of compromising the officials of the sanctuary, he would probably have sought food in some other quarter, or have cried out to God for special deliverance. As it was, his device of being on Saul’s business was evidently intended to save the high priest from the political sin of aiding one outlawed by the king. But his good motives were entirely useless because the overt act was witnessed by an enemy, who, David felt sure, would put on it a construction inconsistent with his own wishes and the knowledge of the high priest. His conduct, therefore, pure in intentions and fenced with precaution, did compromise a band of innocent men, and was, owing to the wickedness of the parties he had to contend with, and not to the natural justice of the case, the occasion of the fearful slaughter of the priests and entire population of the city. The guilt of the slaughter rested on Saul; the occasion for the exercise of the murderous malice was unwittingly created by David. With a sorrowful heart he admits the great woe to have had its origin incidentally in his own action. It is a truism that every action carries with it consequences into the future, in which we ourselves and others are concerned. One of the effects of our action is to prompt the action of other men, or to modify the course which otherwise they would have taken. And as the interests of many may depend not on what we do directly, but on the conduct of others whom we directly affect, it is obvious that it is often possible for us to perform deeds or pursue courses which shall give occasion for other men to perpetrate great wrongs on those we would gladly shield. In that case we are not responsible for their crimes or follies, but we are responsible for any indiscretions which may have given plausible ground for their procedure, or have rendered it possible. But it is only where indiscretions are possible that blame really rests. The wise men from the East, inquiring with all simplicity of purpose for the newborn king, were the occasion of the slaughter of the children of Bethlehem; but though they no doubt were pained, if ever they knew the fact, they were not guilty of any wrong. We cannot always refuse to act because evil men exist. Indiscretion is chargeable where a knowledge of facts and of the probable uses men will make of our deeds is presumably possible. The practical bearing of the risks attendant on our actions is to induce extreme caution, to awaken watchfulness, lest by our well intentioned deeds we should compromise others, or give an appearance of reason for wicked men to manifest their wickedness. In the memory of many a man there are records of deeds unwise and out of season, which have left a fatal mark on the world in spite of subsequent efforts of wisdom and goodness. Like David men can say, “I have occasioned” all this.

IV. THE DESIGNS OF THE WICKED DEFEAT THEMSELVES. The conflict waged by Saul was, as we have seen, really against the decree of God, but its ostensible object was a plot on the part of David against the throne. Whatever fears Saul may have had concerning Samuel’s sympathy with David, there was no public ground for them in any positive action taken by the prophet in concert with David. What he dreaded most of all was the open espousal of David’s cause by the spiritual power; for the priesthood had immense influence with the people. It was to crush out by one terrible blow any supposed concert that he caused the slaughter at Nob; and it is instructive to observe how this very attempt to deprive David of the official support of the spiritual power really put it on his side. The deeds of bad men are never complete enough for insuring a final triumph; some oversight, some weakness, some so called accident gives occasion for the ultimate frustration of their purpose. By some chance, as men say, Abiathar escaped and went over to David. Saul fell into the pit he had prepared for David (Psa 52:6). There is now a Christian spiritual power, and the truth thus exemplified is especially seen in the great conflict of men against it. The same interests in higher form are still in conflict with opposing forces. Every effort to subvert or crush out the kingdom of God, though it should be a great “slaughter” either of bodies or of characters, develops more life, leads to closer union, throws the Church more on the power and guidance of God, and so prepares the way for a new movement of a higher spiritual character before which the powers of evil must yield. Give time, and the spiritual will triumph.

General lessons:

1. In matters of doubt, where evil consequences may possibly ensue from our conduct it is best to abstain from action; for it is a good rule to bar the way to evil by every possible contrivance.

2. Where the reputation of others is affected by our conduct we should either seek their consent or avoid a possible compromise of their character.

3. Any false step in life is greatly embittered in review if it has been attended with untruthfulness.

4. We may confidently appeal to the religious feelings of men in our defence of Christian truth even when by bare argument we cannot touch them.

5. In the frequent historical illustrations of the impossibility of men crushing out the spiritual power, whether in Jewish or Christian form, we see a prophecy of the time when Christ shall have “put down all rule and all authority and power” (1Co 15:24).

HOMILIES BY B. DALE

1Sa 22:1, 1Sa 22:2. (THE CAVE OF ADULLAM.)

David’s refuge and following.

David’s escape from Gath to the cave of Adullam marks a fresh starting point in his career. Henceforth he led the life of an independent outlaw at the head of a band of armed men. He was openly and continually persecuted by Saul, under the illusion that he was aiming at the crown, although he neither rebelled nor encouraged rebellion against his authority. He was thereby kept prominently before the minds of the people, and must have fixed the attention of the most observant and devout upon him, as, in contrast to Saul (whose government became more and more arbitrary, inefficient, and ungodly), the man who alone was worthy to be “captain over the Lord’s inheritance;” and the experience through which he passed served to prepare him for his destination. “This very period of his deepest sufferings becomes the decisive turning point of his whole history, at which it enters upon a true upward course, thence to rise ever higher and higher; while his real destiny, viz; to rule, is now for the first time not only foreshadowed, but already begun, though only on the smallest scale; and the clearest proof that this actually is his destiny is found in the fact that he begins to work it out without consciously exerting himself to do so” (Ewald). He may be considered as representing, in some respects, the good man under persecution, and as

I. PROTECTED FROM THE VIOLENCE OF PERSECUTORS, with which the servants of God have been threatened in every age.

1. Underneath the personal and ostensible grounds of such violence lie the opposition of “the kingdom of darkness” to the kingdom of God, and the enmity of the evil heart against righteousness and goodness. David was “the representative of the theocratic principle for which he suffers and endures; Saul of the antitheocratic principle.” Like Moses, David bore “the reproach of Christ,” who was in him and suffered with him (Act 9:4; Col 1:24; Heb 11:26, Heb 11:32-38).

2. It is limited in its power, and is always ultimately defeated. “Be not afraid of them that kill the body,” etc. (Luk 12:4).

3. God himself is the Refuge of the persecuted, and provides varied, wonderful, and effectual means for their deliverance. “Thou art my refuge” (Psa 142:5). “Thou hast delivered my soul from death,” etc. (Psa 56:13). The operation of Divine providence was displayed in a remarkable manner in the preservation of David throughout the whole course of his persecution by Saul.

II. SYMPATHISING WITH THE MISERY OF THE OPPRESSED. “His brethren and all his father’s house,” endangered by Saul’s jealousy as well as by the Philistine garrison at Bethlehem (2Sa 23:13, 2Sa 23:14), “and every one that was in distress” (outwardly impoverished and harassed), “and in debt” (to avaricious usurers, and not necessarily through any fault of his own), “and discontented” (inwardly embittered and dissatisfied with the existing state of things), owing to bad government. “Surely oppression maketh a wise man mad” (Ecc 7:7), and incites and justifies the adoption of a course which, under other circumstances, would be highly culpable. They did not gather to David in vain.

1. Sympathy with suffering is usually felt in an eminent degree by those who have themselves suffered (Heb 2:18).

2. It is always shown, when it is genuine, in practical effort for its alleviation (2Co 1:4).

3. It generally produces in those toward whom it is shown a peculiarly strong and enduring attachment. “Pain is the deepest thing we have in our nature, and union through pain has always seemed more real and more holy than any other” (A.H. Hallam). “I do not know where a better home could have been provided for David than among those men in distress, in debt, in discontent. If it behoved a ruler to know the heart of his subjects, their sorrows, their wrongs, their crimes,to know them and to sympathise with them,this was surely as precious a part of his schooling as the solitude of his boyhood, or as any intercourse he had with men who had never faced the misery of the world, and never had any motive to quarrel with its laws. Through oppression, confusion, lawlessness he was learning the eternal, essential righteousness of God” (Maurice).

III. ASSUMING THE LEADERSHIP OF THE FAITHFUL. “He became captain over them: and there were with him about four hundred men”afterwards six hundred (1Sa 23:13); including his nephews, Abishai (1Sa 26:6), Joab, Asahel, and Amasa, Ahimelech the Hittite, the “three mighty men” who “broke through the host of the Philistines and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem” (2Sa 23:16), many of those whose names are recorded in the list of David’s heroes (1Ch 11:10 47), Gadites “whose faces were like the faces of lions, and were as swift as the roes upon the mountains,” Benjamites and men of Judah, under Amasai, on whom “the Spirit came, and he said, Thine are we,” etc.; “for thy God helpeth thee” (1Ch 12:8-18). Some of them possessed, perhaps, little religious principle, and were ready for any adventurous enterprise; but most of them were young, free, noble spirits, resenting the tyranny of Saul, and sympathising with all that was best in the nation”the unconscious materials out of which a new world was to be formed.” David’s leadership was

1. Exercised by virtue of his peculiar position, eminent godliness, and surpassing ability.

2. Accepted by them voluntarily, and followed with fidelity and enthusiasm.

3. Contributed to their discipline, improvement (Psa 34:11), and future service against the common enemy, as well as his own moral force and power of organisation and rule. “The effect of such a life on his spiritual nature was to deepen his unconditional dependence on God; by the alternations of heat and cold, fear and hope, danger and safety, to temper his soul and make it flexible, tough, and bright as steel. It evolved the qualities of a leader of men, teaching him command and forbearance, promptitude and patience, valour and gentleness. It won for him a name as a founder of a nation, and it gathered around him a force of men devoted to him by an enthusiastic attachment, bred by long years of common dangers and the hearty friendships of many a march by day and nightly encampment round the glimmering watchfires beneath the lucid stars” (Maclaren).

IV. DEVOTED TO THE SERVICE OF GOD. The effect of persecution on a good man is to cause him to draw nigh to God in

1. Renewed confidence and hope.

2. Intense desire for the manifestation of his glory in “bringing the wickedness of the wicked to an end and establishing the just” (Psa 7:9). He wishes above all things and strives for the setting up of the kingdom of God upon earth.

3. Earnest prayers and thanksgivings, such as are expressed in the “cave songs” of David. Psa 142:1-7; ‘A cry of the persecuted to God’ (see inscription):

“With my voice to Jehovah do I cry,
With my voice to Jehovah do I make supplication.
Deliver me from my persecutors,
For they are stronger than I.”

Psa 57:1-11, ‘Trusting in the protection of God’ (see inscription):

“Be gracious unto me, O God, be gracious unto me,
For in thee hath my soul found refuge;
And in the shadow of thy wings will I find refuge
Until the destruction passeth by.
Be thou exalted above the heavens, O God,
Thy glory above all the earth.”

“When his companions in arms were carousing or asleep, he sat by his lamp in some still retreat, or ‘considered the heavens’ as they spread above him, or meditated on the law, or engaged in prayer, or held intimate communion with God, and composed and wrote (though he thought not so) what shall sound in the Church and echo through the world to all time” (Binney).D.

1Sa 22:3, 1Sa 22:4. (MOAB.)

Filial kindness.

To honour parents is the earliest obligation of life, the foundation of human duties and a stepping stone to Divine. It applies to children not only when they dwell at home and depend on their parents, but also when they leave home and become independent of them. The manner in which it should be shown in the latter case differs in some respects from that in the former; but such kindness as David exhibited towards his aged father and mother ought never to be neglected. It was

I. NEEDFUL. In early life we need the care of parents, in old age that of children.

1. Bodily weakness and failing health often render parents dependent for physical comforts and even necessaries (Gen 47:12).

2. Increasing loneliness makes them desirous of the cheering presence and intercourse of their children; and much pain is naturally given by lack of respect, affection, confidence, and gentle ministrations.

3. Special emergencies, like those here alluded to, sometimes demand unusual efforts for their safety and happiness. Their condition appeals to the tenderest and best feelings of the heart, though, alas, it sometimes appeals in vain.

II. OBLIGATORY.

1. Arising out of natural relationship, the duties of which on the part of children, however imperfectly they may have been fulfilled on the part of parents, cannot be cancelled.

2. Required by the claims of gratitude for innumerable benefits received.

3. Enjoined by the Divine word in many precepts to which great promises are annexed. “The fifth commandment is the centre of all the others; for upwards it is the point of departure for Divine, and downwards for human duties” (Eph 6:1). “Despise not thy mother when she is old” (Pro 23:22). “God commanded, saying, Honour thy father,” etc. (Mat 15:4-9). “Let them learn first to show (filial) reverence to their own household, and to requite their parents,” etc. (1Ti 5:4).

4. Commended by the example of the good. “Because ye have obeyed the commandment of Jonadab your father, etc. (Jer 35:18, Jer 35:19). Jesus Christ himself (Joh 19:26).

III. EXEMPLARY an the way in which it was displayed.

1. Thoughtful, affectionate, and tender.

2. Self-denying and self-sacrificing, with much effort and risk, and as was best suited to the circumstances of the case.

3. Religious: “Till I know what God will do to me;” where there is a recognition of his will as supreme, faith in his wise and gracious disposal (Psa 27:10), and hope of his enabling him to see again his parents, from whom he parted with regret, and provide for their permanent welfare.

Exhortation:

1. To children. Be kind to your parents, though you no longer need their care, if you would not have your children be unkind to you.

2. To parents. Seek to gain the respect and affection of your children, and teach them to honour God, if you would have them to honour you.

3. To all. Be not like those of whom the heavenly Father said of old, “I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me” (Isa 1:2).D.

1Sa 22:4. (MOAB.)

Awaiting the future.

“Till I know what God will do to me.” There are times when our thoughts naturally turn toward the future: the commencement of a fresh enterprise or a new season, suspense in sickness, the approach of critical events, especially when they lie beyond our control or even our probable conjecture. At such times this is the appropriate language of a good man. He awaits it in

I. UNCERTAINTY about the events of the futurenew positions, opportunities, advantages, trials, duties. “We know not with what we must serve the Lord until we come thither” (Exo 10:26). “Ye have not passed this way heretofore” (Jos 3:4), and cannot tell what may befall you therein. “Shadows, clouds, and darkness rest upon it.” But the good man is not distracted by curiosity or anxiety, inasmuch as

1. Neither is of any avail.

2. The Father has reserved the times and the seasons “in his own power” (Act 1:7).

3. And he has done so wisely and for our good. “The veil that hides the future is woven by the hand of mercy.”

II. CONFIDENCE in the care of God. “My times are in thy hand” (Psa 31:15). “I will cry unto God that performeth all things for me” (Psa 57:2). Such confidence respects

1. His perfect knowledge, almighty power, and supreme control of all things, including the thoughts and purposes of men (1Sa 19:23).

2. His individual observation.

3. His beneficent operation. “Being well assured of the justice of his cause as contrasted with the insane persecutions of Saul, David confidently hoped that God would bring his flight to an end” (Keil).

“O Lord, how happy should we be,
If we could cast our care on thee,

If we from self could rest,

And feel at heart that One above,
In perfect wisdom, perfect love,

Is working for the best” (Keble).

III. READINESS for whatever may take place.

1. By watchful attention to every indication of the will of God, looking out for it as a watchman for the dawn of the morning. “I will stand upon my watch,” etc. (Hab 2:1).

2. By cherishing a spirit of humble submissiveness to what he may think fit to do and fixed determination to do what he may require.

3. By faithful fulfilment of the plain and immediate duty of the present time. “Let my father and mother come forth” (from the hold in Mizpeh) “and be with you, till,” etc. Its performance is the best preparation for the events and duties of the future.D.

1Sa 22:5. (MIZPEH OF MOAB.)

A summons to duty.

The prophet Gad was probably sent at the instance of Samuel to David, who was now “in the hold” in Moab, and with whom he may have become acquainted at Ramah. His message was important in relation to the future course of David (1Sa 22:3). “According to the counsels of God he was not to seek for refuge outside the land; not only that he might not be estranged from his fatherland and the people of Israel, which would have been opposed to his calling to be king of Israel, but also that he might learn to trust entirely in the Lord as his only refuge and fortress” (Keil). There was also a special reason why he should be recalled in the incursions of the Philistines, which Saul failed to repel (1Sa 23:1). And the message furnished a test of his obedience to the will of God as declared by the prophets. “Immediately he conferred not with flesh and blood,” but did as he was directed, and thereby afforded an instructive example to others. Consider the message as

I. COMMUNICATED BY THE PROPHETIC WORD. This word is, for us, contained in the Scriptures of truth.”

1. It speaks with authority.

2. It speaks plainly, “in divers manners,” according to our need, and “for our good always.”

3. It speaks in the reading of the Scriptures, in the voice of preachers and teachers, parents and friends, in the recollections of the memory, and often comes to the heart and conscience with peculiar force. “Believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper” (2Ch 20:20).

II. CALLING TO UNEXPECTED DUTY; unexpected, inasmuch as, not unfrequently

1. It is such as we should not naturally have supposed.

2. It differs from the course which we have chosen for ourselves. “Abide not in the hold.”

3. It requires us to meet unusual difficulties and dangers. “Depart, and get thee into the land of Judah” (into the very presence of a deadly foe). “Master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee; and goest thou thither again?” (Joh 11:8-10; Luk 9:51).

“Do thy duty; that is best;
Leave unto thy Lord the rest.”

III. COMPLIED WITH IN A RIGHT MANNER. “And David departed,” etc.

1. Without question, like a good soldier at the word of command.

2. Without hesitation or delay.

3. Without fear. How different was it with Saul! (1Sa 13:11; 1Sa 15:11). “Whosoever will save his life,” etc. (Mat 16:25).

IV. CONDUCTING TO SAFETY, USEFULNESS, AND HONOUR.

1. Safety; for he was “kept by the power of God.”

2. Usefulness; for he “saved the inhabitants of Keilah” (1Sa 23:5).

3. Honour; for he was more fully recognised as the true defender of Israel against their enemies, and his heroic band was largely increased (1Sa 23:13).

“Stern Lawgiver! yet thou dos, wear
The Godhead’s most benignant grace;
Nor know we anything so fair
As is the smile upon thy face:
Flowers laugh before thee on their beds,
And fragrance in thy footing treads;
Thou dost preserve the stars from wrong;
And the most ancient heavens through thee are fresh and strong.
Give unto me, made lowly wise,
The spirit of self-sacrifice;
The confidence of reason give,
And in the light of truth thy bondman let me live.”

(Wordsworth, ‘Ode to Duty.’)D.

1Sa 22:6-19. (GIBEAH.)

The tyranny of Saul.

With his spear-sceptre in his hand, Saul, now considerably past the meridian of life, sat in the midst of his council of officers and magnates, under the tamarisk tree on the height, in Gibeah. The description of what took place in this assembly”a kind of parliament in the open air”casts a lurid light upon his character and rule. In it we see

1. The fulfilment of the prediction of Samuel concerning the course which would be pursued by a king such as the people desired (1Sa 8:11-18).

2. The moral deterioration of Saul since the day when they shouted “God save the king” in Mizpeh (1Sa 10:24), and “made him king before the Lord in Gilgal” (1Sa 11:15); and even since his rejection (1Sa 15:26).

3. The working out of the law of retribution in their chastisement through the king chosen by themselves and reflecting their own sin. The early brilliance of his reign had been long overcast, and the thunderstorm was approaching. Saul had ceased to be a servant of Jehovah. His government was the reverse of what it ought to have been. Although it had respect to the outward forms of religion, and displayed much zeal against irreligious practices, yet it did not really recognise the invisible King of Israel, obey his will, or observe “the manner of the kingdom” which had been ordained of old (Deu 17:14-20), and formally recorded as a permanent law and testimony (1Sa 10:25). It was essentially antitheocratic. The true theocracy was represented by Samuel and the prophets at Ramah, and David and his band at Adullam; and through them (in the wonderful working of Divine providence) the nation would be raised to power and glory, and the purposes of God concerning it accomplished. His character and rule were marked by

I. MORBID SELFISHNESS. By constantly directing his thoughts toward himself, instead of toward God and his people, Saul had come to think of nothing else but his own safety, power, and honour. Selfishness appears in

1. Pride and vainglory. Of this he had previously exhibited unmistakable signs (1Sa 15:12). Yet it was expressly required that his heart should not be “lifted up above his brethren” (Deu 17:20).

2. The use of power for personal ends. In contrast to charity, it seeketh its own. The king exists for the good of the people, not the people for the glory of the king. “Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers, which hath said, My river is my own, and I have made it for myself” (Eze 29:3).

3. The neglect of the performance of duty to others. Unlike Samuel, when he was judge, Saul had evidently, in his concern for himself, omitted to maintain law and order (1Sa 22:2), and even to resist the encroachments of the Philistines; against whom he had formerly rendered signal service.

II. AVOWED MISGOVERNMENT (1Sa 22:7-9).

1. Partisanship. He placed men of his own tribe in the chief offices of state, and this would not be conducive to the unity of the nation. “Hear now, ye Benjamites.”

2. Mercenariness. He sought to attach them to his interest by the lowest motives. “He boasts that he has given fields and vineyards to all his Benjamite servants and accomplices; and what he gave to them he must have taken away from others” (Hengstenberg). His reign was oppressive, as it had been predicted.

3. Suspicion of disloyalty, and reproach for want of gratitude and sympathy. “All of you have conspired against me,” etc. A man is apt to suspect in others the evil which exists in his own heart.

4. Falsehood. Having heard that a number of men had gathered around David, he said, “My son hath stirred up my servant against me,” etc. “There is herein a twofold false accusation: as to David, that he was lying in wait to take his throne and his life; and as to Jonathan, that he was the cause of this insurrectionary and insidious conduct of David.”

III. FLAGRANT INJUSTICE (1Sa 22:9-16). The people desired a king that he might judge them (1Sa 8:20). But Saul abused his judicial office by

1. Receiving and relying upon insufficient testimony. The law required the evidence of at least two witnesses; but he was satisfied with the information of one of his creaturesDoeg the Edomite.

2. A prejudiced prejudgment of the guilt of the accused. He sent for Ahimelech “and all his father’s house,” having already resolved, apparently, upon their destruction.

3. Utter disregard of the plainest proofs of innocence. The priest gave his evidence in a dignified, simple, and straightforward manner. In what he had done he was fully justified. And he had not done all that was attributed to him. “The force of the word begin lies in this, that it would have been his first act of allegiance to David and defection from Saul. This he strenuously repudiates” (Speaker’s ‘Com.’) He was ignorant of any treason in others, guiltless of it himself, and had done no wrong.

4. A rash, precipitate, revengeful, and disproportionate sentence. “Thou shalt surely die, Ahimelech, thou, and all thy father’s house” (1Sa 22:16).

IV. PERSISTENT WILFULNESS (1Sa 22:17). “Never was the command of a prince more barbarously given, never was the command of a prince more honourably disobeyed” (M. Henry). “We ought to obey God rather than man.” The besetting sin of Saul received another cheek; and another merciful warning was given him, which should have made him pause and desist from his evil purpose. But, blinded by passion, and probably thinking that his course was justifiable, he heeded it not, outraged the public conscience, as expressed in the refusal of his own bodyguard, and gave the order for immediate execution to one of his vilest servants and accomplices. Wicked men generally find appropriate instruments for the accomplishment of their wickedness.

V. ATROCIOUS CRUELTY (1Sa 22:18, 1Sa 22:19). Impelled by the same self-will as formerly led him to spare Agag, he not only destroyed eighty-five “priests of the Lord,” but also gave to the sword “the city of priests, both men and women, children and sucklings, and oxen, and asses, and sheep;” nor was he, as in his attack upon the prophets, restrained by the hand of God.

1. In fulfilling their own purposes evil men often unconsciously execute the predicted and righteous judgments of Heaven (1Sa 2:31-36; 1Sa 3:11-14).

2. Those judgments, though startling in their immediate occasion, are connected with their main cause. If the house of Eli had not been reduced to a dependent and despised condition by notorious transgression, Saul would hardly have dared to commit this act.

3. The evil which men do lives after them in its effects, and one generation suffers for the preceding (Exo 20:5).

4. Although men in doing wrong may execute the will of God, they are responsible for their own acts, and must sooner or later suffer the penalty due to them. Saul’s reckless cruelty alienated the best of his subjects and hastened his doom. This was not the only instance in which it was displayed (see 2Sa 21:1-6).

VI. IMPIOUS REBELLION. In destroying the servants of God for imaginary rebellion against himself Saul was guilty of real rebellion against the Divine King of Israel. More fully than ever he renewed a conflict which could end only in his defeat. “Woe to him that striveth with his Maker.”

Reflections:

1. How vast is the mischief which self-will works in the world!

2. How base do men sometimes become under its dominion!

3. How fearfully is the possession of power frequently misused!

4. “How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!”D.

1Sa 22:18, 1Sa 22:19. (GIBEAH.)

Doeg the Edomite.

Wicked men, especially when they occupy positions of authority and possess wealth and influence, attract to themselves others of like character, and become more wicked by association with them. Of the latter Doeg the Edomite was one. He belonged to a people between whom and Israel the bitterest enmity existed. But he had apparently become a proselyte, and, being a man of some ability, was made overseer of the herdsmen of Saul and one of his council. His real character seems to have been perceived by David before he fled from court (1Sa 22:22); and it is very probable that he gave secret information to the king of what took place at the tabernacle at Nob previous to bearing open testimony in the council. He was

I. A HEARTLESS WORSHIPPER; “detained before Jehovah” (1Sa 21:7). Whatever may have been the reason of his detention, there can be no doubt that he was present in the sacred place either unwillingly and by constraint, or offering a formal and hypocritical worship. “He concealed his heathen heart under Israelitish forms.” He was more observant of the conduct of others in the house of God than careful to correct his own. He cherished “a wicked mind,” and perhaps revolved therein how he could turn what he saw to his own advantage, or employ it for the gratification of his hatred and enmity. All who join in the outward forms of worship do not “lift up holy hands without wrath and disputation.”

II. A MALICIOUS INFORMER (1Sa 22:9, 1Sa 22:10). His immediate purpose in giving information may have been to avert the reproaches of the king from his courtiers; but he must have known what its effect would be with respect to the high priest, and doubtless deliberately aimed at producing it. He also appears to have gone beyond the truth; perchance supposing that when he saw the priest take “the sword of Goliath” from behind the ephod, he used the latter for the purpose of “inquiring of the Lord.” “Thou lovest evil more than good; and lying rather than to speak righteousness. Thou lovest all devouring words, O thou deceitful tongue” (Psa 52:3, Psa 52:4).

III. A RUTHLESS EXECUTIONER (1Sa 22:18, 1Sa 22:19). What others, whose consciences were not hardened, refused to do he willingly and readily accomplished, and probably found therein a gratification of the enmity of his race against Israel. The command of the king could not relieve him of his responsibility for his deed of blood. “Louis XIV; who had sanctioned the Dragonades, died declaring to the cardinals Rohan and Bissy, and to his confessor, that, being himself altogether ignorant of ecclesiastical questions, he had acted under their guidance and as their agent in all that he had done against the Jansenists or the Protestant heretics, and on those his spiritual advisers he devolved the responsibility to the supreme Judge” (Stephen, ‘Lect;. on the Hist. of France’).

IV. A RETRIBUTORY INSTRUMENT (see last homily). When the great wickedness of men like Doeg is considered, it is not surprising that David (living under the former dispensation) should predict and desire their due punishment as public enemies; “not in a spirit of revenge, but rather in a spirit of zeal for the glory of God, desire for the vindication of right, and regard for the peace and purity of society” (‘Expositor,’ 4:56), as he does in Psa 52:1-9, “The punishment of an evil tongue” (see inscription):

“Why boastest thou thyself in wickedness, O mighty man?
The mercy of God endureth continually.
Destruction doth thy tongue devise,
Like a sharp razor, working guile.
Thus then God will smite thee down forever.
He will seize thee and pluck thee out of thy tent,
And root thee out of the land of the living.”

Other psalms have been supposed by some to refer to Doeg and the massacre of the priests, viz; 17; 35; 64; 109; 140.D.

1Sa 22:20-22. (THE FOREST OF HARETH.)

Conscience.

Conscience is the consciousness a man has of himself in relation to the standard of right which he recognises. It is at once a judgment of his conformity or otherwise to that standard, and a corresponding feeling of approbation or disapprobation. It is the crowning faculty of the soul. “The whole world is under a solemn economy of government and judgment. A mighty spirit of judgment is in sovereign exercise over all; discerning, estimating, approving or condemning. And it is the office of conscience to recognise this authority and to represent it in the soul. It communicates with something mysteriously great without the soul, and above it, and everywhere. It is the sense (more explicit or obscure) of standing in judgment before the Almighty” (J. Foster). Its operation appears in what is here said of David as

1. Uttering a warning against sin. “I knew it that day,” etc. Conscience is not only reflective, but prospective in its operations. The sight of Doeg led him to see and feel that the course which he was about to take in deceiving Ahimelech was wrong, and would be productive of evil consequences. But under the pressure of urgent need he neglected the premonition.

2. Inflicting remorse on account of sin. “I am guilty as to every soul (life) of the house of thy father.” The information he received called his conscience into the highest activity. He judged himself strictly. He felt his sin deeply. And most gladly would he recall the evil he had done if he could. But that was impossible. “The lie had gone forth from him; and having done so, it was no longer under his control, but would go on producing its diabolical fruits” (W.M. Taylor).

3. Constraining to the confession of sin. He did not (as Saul had done) seek to conceal or palliate his transgression, hut freely and fully acknowledged it, renounced it, and sought its forgiveness (Psa 32:5).

4. Inciting to reparation for sin. “Abide thou with me,” etc. It was little that he could do for this purpose: but what was in his power he did. It is evident that, notwithstanding he had yielded to temptation, he possessed a tender conscience (Act 24:16). “And wouldst thou be faithful to that work which God hath appointed thee to do in this world for his name? Then make much of a trembling heart and conscience; for although the word be the line and rule whereby we must govern and order all our actions, yet a breaking heart and tender conscience is of absolute necessity for so doing. A hard heart can do nothing with the word of Jesus Christ. Keep then thy conscience awake with wrath and grace, with heaven and hell. But let .grace and heaven bear sway” (Bunyan).

“O clear conscience and upright!
How doth a little failing wound thee sore.”D.

1Sa 22:23. (HARETH.)

The defender of the persecuted.

As David afforded protection to Abiathar, so Christ affords protection to those who betake themselves to him. This is not a mere resemblance, but is directly involved in that (his royal office) wherein David was a type or Divine foreshadowing of “the King of kings.” They

I. ENDURE PERSECUTION FOR HIS SAKE. “He that seeketh my life seeketh thy life.” They do so

1. Because of their union with him, and partaking of his life and righteousness, to which “this present evil world” is opposed.

2. Because of their love to him, which will not suffer them to leave him, or be unfaithful to him for the sake of gaining the favour of the world.

3. Because it has been thus ordained. “Unto you it is given,” etc. (Php 1:29). “With persecutions” (Mar 10:30), which are an occasion of spiritual blessing (Mat 5:10).

II. MUST ABIDE IN HIS FELLOWSHIP. “Abide thou with me.”

1. By unwavering reliance upon him (Joh 15:4-7; 1Jn 2:28).

2. By intimate intercourse with him.

3. By constant obedience to him.

III. FIND SAFETY UNDER HIS PROTECTION. “Fear not; with me thou art in safe guard.” “David spoke thus in the firm belief that the Lord would deliver him from his foe and give him the kingdom” (Keil). Christ has “all power in heaven and in earth,” and he will assuredly be “a hiding place from the wind and a covert from the tempest.”

1. Because of his love to them.

2. Because of his regard for his kingdom, to which they belong, and which they represent.

3. Because of his express and faithful promise. “Fear not.” If the worst that can befall them should happen, even then

“Thou, Saviour, art their charmed Bower,
Their magic Ring, their Rock, their Tower.D.

HOMILIES BY D. FRASER

1Sa 22:1, 1Sa 22:2

The cave of Adullam.

David knew well that he could nevermore live in safety at the court of Saul. He would not raise a hand against his king and father-in-law, but he would not place himself again within his reach. Better a free life even in deserts and caves of the earth than a life in constant peril in ceiled houses. Behold him then in the cave of Adullam.

I. THE CAPTAIN OF THE REFUGEES. No question arises here respecting the right of revolt against a perverse, tyrannical king. We entirely believe in such a right, because the king exists for the good of the people, not the people for the service of the king. We have no misgiving as to the right of the British nation to rid itself of King James II, or that of the people in the kingdom of the Two Sicilies to drive away King Francis II. But the case of Saul’s royalty over Israel was unique. The people had chosen him by acclamation, and there was no proof as yet that the mass of the people wished to dethrone him. Even if they had so wished, David was not the man to lead their revolt; for it was one of the tests of his fitness for the succession that he should not snatch at the honour to which he was destined, but wait the evolution of the Divine purpose, recognising God only as the true and absolute King of Israel. Therefore, what he did at this period was simply for preservation of himself and his relatives. The times were “out of joint,” and he had no protection of law or civil order against the mad suspicions of the king. So he took refuge in a cavern, waiting for God and hoping in his word. The hero raised no standard of revolt, and drew no followers by prospect of plunder or revenge. Yet he did draw hundreds of the men of Israel to his place of refuge. These must not be likened to the riotous and desperate followers of Catiline, or even to the “empty persons” who attached themselves to Jephthah. Doubtless there may have been among the young men some who were more adventurous than devout, and cared for their leader’s sword and spear more than for his psalms; but they were in general young men of patriotic temper who had suffered damage through the misrule of the time, and found the public disorder and tyranny intolerable. They turned their wistful eyes towards one who had borne himself wisely in the station he had occupied, and from whom they hoped for a just and prudent administration of public affairs. There are parallels to this position in the history of other nations; but most worthy of our thought is the parallel of the great Son of David, our Lord Jesus Christ. When he was a young man in Galilee the people were distressed under their rulers. The civil government was oppressive; the religious surveillance by the chief priests and elders was worse. Heavy burdens were imposed without pity, and grievous abuses of power and office were committed. The eyes of many had failed them, looking long for a deliverer who should be the Consolation of Israel. Then appeared Jesus of Nazareth, raising no standard of revolt, indeed refusing to be made a king by the voice of the multitude, while himself under the evident displeasure of the authorities, and exposed to frequent risks of arrest and death. But to him followers repaired, and they were welcome. Jesus called to him the labouring and heavy laden. He had powerful attraction for all who were distressed. And from the day when he took up a position apart from the rulers of the Jews, though he headed no movement of resistance, it became more and more obvious that those rulers had lost the favour of Jehovah, and had nothing before them but thickening disaster and a final collapse of their power like that of Saul on Mount Gilboa. The only hope of Israel thenceforth was with and in the despised and rejected One who had been born in David’s city and of David’s line. So it is still. It is Jesus Christ, as rejected of men, humbled, crucified, who appeals to human hearts. Who will go out to him, “without the camp, bearing his reproach”? Who will repair to him at the cave of Adullam? Not the proud, nor the thoughtless, nor the self-satisfied; but the distressed, the ruined, and the bereaved will go; and over such he is willing to be Captain. Let them come to him, and his life is thenceforward bound up with theirs, and theirs with his. With him they are “in safeguard” till the end of the tribulation; and when the King appears in his great power these will appear with him in glory; the trials of Adullam more than recompensed by the joys of New Jerusalem.

II. THE POSITION OF SEPARATION. When is it justified? David and his followers went apart from the common life of their countrymen, and renounced all idea of rendering service or occupying any post of honour under Saul. Jesus Christ and his disciples broke with the course of the Jewish and Galilean world in which they lived, and took up a position quite aloof from the priests, elders, and scribes. What is the duty of modern Christians towards the society around them? Are they to come out and be separate? Some persons have almost a craze for separation, and support it on this story of Adullam. They hold it to be the duty of Christians to stand aloof from all the existing order of things, and all the plans and occupations of society; to accept no office in the State, and be subject to the powers that be only in the sense in which David continued subject to Saul; and to come out from all organised historical Churches, on the ground that they contain worldly elements and principles, and are therefore impure and ready to perish. All this seems to us extravagant in theory and uncharitable in spirit. Separation from evil does not mean alienation from every place and every institution in which a fault can be found. For good men to hold aloof from public affairs is simply to play into the hands of evil doers; and to separate from every Church that has a faulty element in it is to disintegrate Christian society, and miserably embitter it in the process. But we must hold the balance true. It may be one’s duty to separate himself from institutions of both Church and State under which he was born. As to civil institutions, this is plain enough. As to ecclesiastical relations, there are critical times when, as it was right for Israelites to separate from Saul and go over to David, so it has been and is right for Christians to withdraw from positions which they could not correct or amend, and go over to some simpler and purer expression of their faith and hope. On this ground we justify without hesitation the erection of reformed Churches in the sixteenth century apart from the unreformed. The Papal system had a long trial, and was found wanting. Such men as Wickliffe, Savonarola, and Huss tried to correct its errors and rouse a new spirit within its pale, just as David played on his harp to cure the mania of King Saul. It was labour lost. That which was evil grew worse. The tyranny which hung over Western Christendom became intolerable. Then they did wisely and well who threw off the yoke and began afresh, with the word of God for their directory, and the Son of God, who became Son of David, for their Captain. On the same ground we justify those who now a days break away from the same Papal infallible, and therefore incurable, system to join or to organise a reformed Church. And we add that those who do so in a Roman Catholic country, like Spain or Italy, to worship with some small evangelical congregation in a hall, mocked and despised, show a courage not at all inferior to that of the four hundred who defied the power of Saul, and flocked around David in the cave of Adullam. Those men did not lift their swords against Saul. David did not desire them to do so. He saw something still to honour in that king, and knew that the throne would be vacated without any assistance from him. So, in that system of infatuation and spiritual tyranny which centres at Rome, there is something of that common Christianity which we must reverence, and against which we may not fight.

While we expose its errors, let us always acknowledge whatever of the truth of God it contains, and be patient. Ultimately that system must perish. As the Philistines, and not the followers of David, made an end of Saul, so the democratic infidelity, not the reformed Church, is likely to make an end of the Papacy, and all the religious delusion and oppression of the Latin Church. Happy they who are in a fellowship which gives them direct access to the Lord Jesus, and has in him the living centre and the joy of all. O Saviour, draw us to thyself, and be thou a Captain over us!F.

1Sa 22:18-23

Massacre and safeguard.

The tragic interest of this passage groups itself about four men:

(1) the furious king;

(2) the cruel officer;

(3) the innocent priest;

(4) the self-reproaching hero.

I. SAUL AND HIS MAD TYRANNY. How much allowance may be made for actual insanity in the king God only knows. But it must not be forgotten that the disorder of his mind was largely due to his own indulgence of fierce and arrogant passions, and his wilful refusal to obey the commands of the Lord and the guidance of his prophet. He had now become quite furious in his jealousy of David and in his suspicion of all around him as plotting his downfall. Unable to capture David, he turned fiercely on those whom he supposed to be aiding and abetting him in rebellion; and the homicidal mania which he had already betrayed in hurling his javelin at David, and even at Jonathan, now broke out against the innocent priests. When one begins to indulge a bad passion, how little he can tell the length to which it may carry him! We remember how Saul at the outset of his reign would not have a man in Israel put to death on his account. But now he had no pity on the innocent. Nothing can be more shocking than the hardness of heart which disregarded the noble defence of the priests against unjust accusation, and condemned them and their families to immediate death. By this Saul forfeits all claim to our sympathy. He is a bloodstained tyrant. Nero on his accession to the imperial dignity at Rome showed a similar reluctance to sign a legal sentence of death on a criminal, and yet broke forth into horrid cruelty at the age of seventeen. Saul was not so precocious in cruelty, and seems to have been free from other vices that made Nero infamous. But it should be considered, on the other hand, that Saul had knowledge of Jehovah, while Nero knew only the gods of Rome; and that though Nero had a great teacher in Seneca, Saul had a still greater in Samuel. There is no palliation of his conduct admissible unless on the plea of disease of the brainan excuse which may also be advanced in behalf of such wretches as Antiochus Epiphanes and the Emperor Caligula. The lesson of admonition is that wickedness has horrible abysses unseen at first. Stop short at the beginnings of evil. Check your peril, calm your anger, correct your suspicions, hold back your hasty javelin; for if you lose self-control and a good conscience there is hardly any depth of injustice and infatuation to which you may not fall.

II. DOEG AND HIS RUTHLESS SWORD. Cruel masters make cruel servants. Tyrants never lack convenient instruments. Caligula, Nero, and Domitian had favourites and freedmen ready to stimulate their jealous passions and carry out their merciless commands. At Saul’s elbow stood such a wretch, Doeg the Edomite. The repeated mention of this officer’s extraction seems to imply that he was actuated by the hereditary jealousy of Israel which filled the descendants of Esau, and took a malicious pleasure in widening the gulf between Saul and David and slaying the priests of Israel’s God. With his own hand he cut them down, when the Israelite officers shrank from the bloody deed; and no doubt it was he who executed the inhuman sentence against the women and children at Nob, and smote the very “oxen, asses, and sheep with the edge of the sword.” Doeg has had many followers in those who have with fiendish relish tortured and slain the servants of our Lord and of his Christ. And indeed all who, without raising the hand of violence, take part with malicious purpose against servants of God, who misrepresent them and stab their reputations,, are of one spirit with this Edomite whose memory is cursed.

III. AHIMELECH IN HIS INTEGRITY. How fine the contrast between the calm bearing of the chief priest on the one hand, and the unreasoning fury of Saul and truculent temper of Doeg on the other! How straightforward was the vindication of Ahimelech! If Saul had not been blind with passion he must have seen its transparent truth and noble candour. When it became known through the land that Ahimelech and the priests had been killed by the king’s order on a mere suspicion of disaffection which was false, a thrill of horror must; have run through many bosoms, and those who feared the Lord must have had sore misgiving that he had forsaken his people and his land. Under such mishaps in later times similar fears have been awakened. Indeed men have been tempted to question whether there be any God of righteousness and truth actually governing the world; for the virtuous suffer, the innocent are crushed, might overrules right, victory seems to he to the proud and not the lowly. It is useless to deny that there are strange defeats of goodness and truth, and that blows fall on heads that seem least to deserve them. All that we can do is to cleave to our belief, firm on its own grounds, that God is, and to say that the calamities complained of have his permission for some good ends in his far reaching purpose. At all events we can go no further into the mystery on a survey of this present life. But there is another, and in it lies the abundant recompense for present wrongs. It seems strange that a life so precious as that of Paul should have been assailed, bruised, and finally taken by violence for no crime, but for the name of Jesus. But Paul himself has given us some clue to the compensation: “our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” Ahimelech and the priests, we may be sure, though they suffered not directly for Christ, but on account of his human ancestor, lost nothing, but gained much, by forfeiting their lives in innocence.

IV. DAVID AND HIS SELF–REPROACH. News of this massacre must have shocked all thoughtful men in Israel, and deepened the distrust with which Saul was now regarded. David, when he heard of it, felt, besides horror and indignation, a bitter pang of self-reproach. It was he who had played on the simplicity of the priests at Nob, and so had given occasion to Doeg to accuse them. Would that he had gone without bread, whatever the consequence to himself, rather than have exposed so many innocent persons to such a cruel fate! And now the horrid deed was done, and quite past remedy. What a lesson against crafty strokes and plausible pretexts! One may gain his point at the time by such devices, but after consequences little expected may fall on some innocent head; and surely there is no sting so sharp in the conscience of an honourable 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. In this respect he failed to typify Christ. Our Lord had no self-reproach to bear. He never had recourse to subterfuge, and no guile was found in his mouth. Those who have suffered for his sake have not been led into the risk of death unwittingly. It was of some comfort to David that he could give protection to Abiathar. “He that seeketh my life seeketh thy life.” We have a common enemy. Thy life is in peril on my account; therefore stay with me; “thou shalt be in safeguard.” Here we do seem to hear the voice of Christ in a figure. “If the world hate you, ye know,” etc. (Joh 15:18-20). Our Lord gives his people safeguard with himself. “Abide in me.” “Continue in my love.” Such words are dear to mourners. As David gave to Abiathar immediate and sympathetic attention, so the Son of David hearkens at once to those who repair to him with the tale of their mishap and grief. He will take them all under the guarantee of his faithful safeguard. Whatever solace it is possible to have in this world they have who abide with him. And no one can pluck them out of his hand.F.

Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary

1Sa 22:1. To the cave Adullam Which was in the tribe of Judah, and to the east of Eleutheropolis: a place fortified by nature, and so fitted for the security of persons in distress, that we are told it has frequently given a refuge from the Turks to Christians, who fled thither with their families, flocks, and herds. See the note on chap. 1Sa 24:3.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

IV. Davids fugitive life in Judah and Moab. Sauls murder of the priests at Nob

1Sa 22:1-23

1David therefore [And David] departed thence, and escaped to the cave1 Adullam; and when his brethren and all his fathers house heard it, they went down 2thither to him. And every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented [embittered in soul] gathered themselves unto him, and he became a [om. a] captain over them; and there were with him 3about four hundred men. And2 David went thence to Mizpeh3 of Moab, and he [om. he] said unto the king of Moab, Let my father and my mother, I pray thee, 4come forth4 and be with you, till I know what God will do for [to] me. And he brought5 them before the king of Moab, and they dwelt with him all the while that 5David 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 [And] David departed and came into the forest6 of Hareth [Hereth].

6When [And] Saul heard that David was discovered, and the men that were with him; [om. parenthesis] now [and] Saul abode in Gibeah under a tree in Ramah [the tamarisk-tree7 on the height], having [and] his spear [ins. was] in his 7hand, and all his servants were standing about him. Then [And] Saul said unto his servants that stood about him, Hear now, ye Benjaminites, will the son of Jesse give every one [all] of you fields and vineyards, and 8 make you all captains of 8thousands and captains of hundreds, That all of you have conspired against me, and there is none that showeth9 me that my son hath made a league10 with the son of Jesse, and there is none of you that is sorry for me, or showeth unto me that my son hath stirred up [set up] my servant against me to lie in wait [as a waylayer], 9as at this day? Then answered Doeg the Edomite, which [who] was set over the servants11 of Saul, and said, I saw the son of Jesse coming [come] to Nob to Ahimelech 10the son of Ahitub. And he inquired of the Lord [Jehovah]12 for him, and gave him victuals, and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine.

11Then [And] the king sent to call Ahimelech the priest the son of Ahitub, and all his fathers house, the priests that were in Nob; and they came all of them to 12the king. And Saul said, Hear now, thou son of Ahitub. And he answered 13[said], 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 inquired of God for him, that he should rise against me to lie in 14wait [as a waylayer] as at this day? Then [And] Ahimelech answered the king and said, And who is so faithful among all thy servants as David [And who among all thy servants is as David trusty], which is [om. which is, ins. and] the kings son-in-law, and goeth at thy bidding [and hath thy private ear],13 and Isaiah 15 honorable in thine house? Did I then begin to inquire14 of God for him? be [Be] it far from me; let not the king impute anything unto his servant, nor15 to all the house of my father, for thy servant knew nothing of all this, less or more [little or 16much].And the king said, Thou shalt surely die, Ahimelech, thou and all thy 17fathers house. And the king said unto the footmen [runners] that stood about him, Turn and slay the priests of the Lord [Jehovah]; because their hand also is with David, and because they knew when [that] he fled, and did not show it to me. But the servants of the king would not put forth their hand to fall upon the 18priests of the Lord [Jehovah]. 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 19slew on that day fourscore and five16 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.

20And one of the sons of Ahimelech the son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped, 21and fled after David. And Abiathar showed David that Saul had slain the Lords 22[Jehovahs] priests. And David said unto Abiathar, I knew it [om. it] that day, when Doeg the Edomite was there that he would surely tell Saul; I have occasioned 23the death17 of all the persons of thy fathers house. Abide thou with me, fear not; for he that seeketh my life seeketh thy life;18 but [for] with me thou shalt be [art] in safeguard.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

1Sa 22:1-5. David a fugitive in Judah and in Moab.19

1Sa 22:1. His flight to the cave of Adullam in Judah. In the uncertainty as to this locality our best plan is to look to the city of the same name. Adullam, an ancient place (Gen 38:1), according to Jos 12:15 a Canaanitish royal city, was situated (Jos 15:35) near Jarmuth and Socho, now Shuweikeh, under the mountains of Judah (different from the Shuweikeh [Socho] in these mountains, Jos 15:48) in the lowland of Judah, about sixteen miles [English] south-west of Jerusalem, and twelve miles south-east of Gath. As the present Jarmuth lies on the eastern border of the Wady Sumt, that is, on the declivity of the Judah-mountain towards Philistia, and as there are many caves in the neighborhood, it is a probable conjecture that one of these caves took the name Adullam from the neighboring city. Perhaps we may regard the great cave Deir Dubban near Jarmuth (Rob., Amer. ed., II., 23, 5153; Ritter, XVI., 136), as Davids retreat (so v. d. Velde, Reise, II., p. 163 sq.). However, there are other caves near in the western declivity of the mountain. Tobler locates Adullam in the present village Bat-Dula, about fifteen miles southwest of Bethlehem. The great caves on the western declivity of the mountain are dry and roomy enough to hold a larger number of men than is here mentioned. Since it is expressly said that the place was in the lowland of Judah, the statement of Euseb. and Jerome that it was ten (twelve) miles east from Eleutheropolis, is decidedly wrong, as the cave would in that case be in the mountains (see Winer, R.-W., s. v.). The supposition (from 2Sa 23:13-14) that it was near Bethlehem (Thenius) is opposed by the fact that David would then have cast himself into Sauls hands unprotected. Similarly the traditional site near the village Khureitun, five miles southeast of Bethlehem, is incompatible with the geographical and historical situation of the narrative (Rob., I., 481, 482). As the combat between David and Goliath occurred in the Terebinth-vale (in Wady Sumt) between Socho and Azekah, David, in there seeking a fit refuge from Saul and the Philistines, might see in this experience a pledge of the further protection and deliverance of the Lords hand.20Thence, not from Nob (Then.), but from Gath, whence the place of refuge was not far.That Davids family must already have had proofs of enmity from Saul is clear from the statement that his brethren and all his fathers house went to him in his retreat at Adullam. For Saul looked on them as sharers in Davids presumed conspiracy against him, and they had therefore every reason to fear for themselves a repetition of the tragedy of Nob. See the statement in Clericus from Marcell. 23, 6, as to the procedure of oriental princes, according to which the whole family perished for the fault of one person.

1Sa 22:2. But along with his family a constantly increasing number of other persons gathered around David. They are described as partly those who were externally in distress, especially through debt, and therefore seeking to escape their creditors, partly those who were internally discontented, embittered in soul. He became their captain, leader, so that they were not a wild and lawless rabble, but a community controlled by and obedient to one will. The number at present was about four hundred, but afterwards rose to six hundred (1Sa 23:13).The comparison of this body with Catilines followers (Cler., Then.) supposes that Davids retinue was of similar character with Catilines, a riotous, adventure-seeking rabble. But there is nothing in the narrative to support such a supposition, and Davids position as to them and to Saul is decidedly against it. He is far from making insurrection against Saul. His past history and his after-life up to Sauls death absolutely excludes such a view. With such a position towards Saul he could not be the head or captain of a seditious band, and with such a head these people could not be rebels and seditious. Hengstenberg (on Psa 7:10) rightly remarks: Davids war with Saul was one not of individuals, but of parties; the wicked espoused Sauls side, the righteous Davids; comp. the much-misunderstood passage, 1Sa 22:2. The distressed persons were those who were persecuted by Sauls government on account of their love for David. The debtors were such as, under Sauls arbitrary misrule, were oppressed by their creditors, and received from the government no protection against the violation of the law of loan and interest (Exo 22:25; Lev 25:36; Deu 23:19). They were bitter of soul,21 not as desirous of new things, not as merely dissatisfied with their present condition (Cler.), but as those whose anxiety of soul over the ever-worsening condition of the kingdom under Saul drove them to a leader, from whom for the future they might hope for better things (Ew.).Comp. Jephthahs fugitive life and retinue of poor, empty persons, Jdg 11:3.

1Sa 22:3. Without further statement concerning Davids life here with his family and his band, it is next related that he went thence (answering to the thence of 1Sa 22:1) to Mizpeh of Moab. David betook himself to the king of Moab, and asked him: Let my father and my mother come [out] to thee and abide with thee till I know what God will do to me. It is remarkable, in the first place, that he here mentions only father and mother; the reason obviously is that in his present dangerous condition he could not afford these aged, helpless persons secure protection. For in this continuation of the narrative it is clearly supposed that the caves at Adullam had become an uncertain and dangerous residence through Sauls hostile attempts against Davids family. His choice of Moab as refuge for his parents was probably based on the relations of his great-grandmother, the Moabitess Ruth, to this country. Whether the come forth refers to Bethlehem or Adullam as point of departure is uncertain; in any case the road to Mizpeh of Moab passed through Bethlehem, because this was the shortest way; for this Mizpeh of Moab, which is to be taken as a proper name, undoubtedly lay not in the Moabitish territory proper south of the Arnon, but far north of it, probably a city above the araboth of Moab (Num 22:1; Deu 34:1; Deu 34:8; Jos 13:32) opposite Jericho, whither by way of Bethlehem and the Dead Sea one might come in little time (Then.), perhaps on the mount Abarim or Pisgah (Deu 34:1). Saul had also to wage war with the Moabites (1Sa 14:47); at this time, therefore, the latter had possession of the southern portion of the transjordanic territory of the Israelites. From Davids taking his parents to the king of Moab, it is probable that there was now no war between the latter and Saul. The pregnant construction of the verb come forth, followed by the Prep. with, is not to be rejected as unsuitable, but to be retained as example of the frequent connection of a verb of motion with a predicate of rest. The renderings of the Sept. let them be with thee, and the Vulg. let them remain, are explanations, not signs of a different original text.22

1Sa 22:4. Bunsen, after Jerome, renders: left them in the presence of the king (), against which Thenius remarks that no change in the vocalization to avoid harshness is required, and refers to Ew., 217, 1.In regard to the length of his parents stay with the king of Moab, David says (1Sa 22:3): till I know what God will do to me, appropriately using to the king the divine name Elohim.23 According to this David did not remain with his parents, but went back to his life of motion and danger. Whither? The narrator says afterwards (1Sa 22:4) that the parents remained in Moab all the while that David was in the mountain-fastness or hold. But this fastness on which David intrenched himself (Bunsen) is not a height near the cave of Adullam (Bunsen); still less is it the retreat in the cave (Sthelin, Then.), or elsewhere in the wilderness; but, as David had to carry his parents to Moab for safety, we shall be justified in supposing that he had to find temporary shelter also for himself and his band in Moab. The refuge which he here found was no other than that Mizpeh24 of Moab; Mizpeh signifies watch-place, mountain-height; here David made himself a strong position, which became a mountain-fastness (). For this meaning see Job 39:38. Here he would await what the Lord would further do to him. The danger threatening his parents was the Lords factual hint to him to go where it would be safer not only for them, but also for him. To these humble, trustful words corresponds the further statement that God gave him directions concerning his further way through the prophet Gad. Through this prophet he is commanded (1Sa 22:5) to go into the land of Judah; whence it clearly appears that he was now not in that land, in which, however, Adullam lay, and therefore he could be only in the land of Moab. The prophet Gad is undoubtedly the same who is called Davids seer in 1Ch 21:9, announces to him Gods punishment for his sin in numbering the people, 2Sa 24:11 sq., and according to 1Ch 29:29, wrote down Davids acts. How Gad came into connection with David, is never said. Probably Davids intimate relation and here presupposed acquaintance with him date from the formers close connection with Samuels prophetic communities. It is not clear whether Gad had gone to him at the cave of Adullam, or now came for the first time to him in Moab. It is equally uncertain whether he remained with him permanently from now on. In short, Gads sudden entrance on the scene in Moab suggests many unanswerable questions, which Sthelin excellently states: How came he among such people? Was he always with David? Was he consulted by David as Samuel by Saul, 1 Samuel 9.? Was Gad connected with Samuel, or not? We cannot suppose that the expression and Gad said refers to a message which he sent to David (Then.). The answer to the question why David was not to stay in the hold, but go to Judah, is not that he ought not to have fled anew to a foreign nation, as before to the Philistines, to the displeasure of God (Brenz., S. Schmid, Keil); for it does not appear that his stay in Philistia was in itself displeasing to God; and if his journey to Moab had been displeasing to God, he might have been restrained therefrom beforehand by divine direction. The reason for this prophetic direction is rather to be found in the circumstances; according to 1Sa 23:1 the Philistines were now making plundering incursions into the south of Judah, help and protection against them was needed, and this David with his valiant band could give. He was commanded to go into Judah and free it from its enemies, and thus fulfil part of the theocratic calling, in respect to which the distracted, arbitrary rule of Saul was now impotent. Of this new divine direction in Davids life Grotius well remarks: God shows great care for David, instructing him now by prophets, now by Urim and Thummim. Proceeding on the supposition that David goes from the king of Moab to the cave of Adullam, Thenius, in order to account for the prophetic direction to go into the land of Judah, where also the city Adullam was situated, is obliged to say that probably the cave of Adullam was in Benjamin on the border, and, as his retreat might thus, being near Gibeah, easily be betrayed to Saul, Gad advised him to go to Judah. This explanation stands and falls with its unfounded geographical basis, which also O. v. Gerlach adopts.By this direction to go to Judah for the above end, the prophet Gad gave David, in divine commission, instructions as to his further course; in this interval of suffering and trial between his call to be king and his actual entrance on the duties of the office, he was to be not only passive but also active, serving his people and his God against the enemies of the theocracy.He went into the forest of Herethan unknown region, probably according to 1Sa 23:1 in the western part of Judah. [Sept. and Josephus have city of Hereth (Sarik). Lieut. Conder, of the Palestine Exploration Fund, says (Dec., 1874) that there are now no trees in this district, and argues from the geological conditions that there never could have been. He is disposed to adopt the Sept. reading city, and to identify Hereth with a site called Kharas (near Keilah), which name is substantially identical with Hereth.Tr.]

1Sa 22:6-23. Sauls savage vengeance on Nob. While David goes the way shown him by Gods prophet the terrible consequences of his self-willed conduct at Nob, which did not accord with the Lords will, are accomplished.

1Sa 22:6-10. In a formal council, in which Saul expresses his suspicion in relation to a conspiracy made against him by David and his son, Doeg betrays the proceeding of Ahimelech towards David.

1Sa 22:6. It is first stated that the abode of David and his men was known at Sauls court, and that Saul received information of his servants acquaintance with this circumstance. It is this fact, that Saul heard, received information of their knowledge of Davids position, that is the ground of his charging them (1Sa 22:7) with complicity in the supposed conspiracy of David and Jonathan. In 1Sa 22:6 the words: And Saul heard . with him belong syntactically and logically to 1Sa 22:7, and the rest of 1Sa 22:6 forms a parenthesis [so Eng. A. V., but it is better to preserve in the translation the simple, direct form of the Hebrew.Tr.]. And Saul abode in Gibeah (not, as Sept., on the hill) under the tamarisk,the Article indicates that this place was the appointed and usual one for such councils. On the height (not with Luther [and Eng. A. V.] in Ramah) points out the elevated situation, in keeping with the solemnity of the occasion, as it is hereafter described.His spear in his hand,the spear, as well as the sceptre, was the symbol of royal power. All his servants stood about him, it was, therefore, a full assembly of the whole personnel of the Court. Bunsen: He held a formal court, surrounded by all the magnates (chiefly Benjaminites) of his kingdom.

1Sa 22:7. The address: Hear, ye Benjaminites, is in keeping with the importance of the solemn scene (so vividly sketched in a few strokes) as a sort of judicial assembly [Bib. Com. Parliament.Tr.], and at the same time has a particularistic-partisan tone, as Saul was himself of the tribe of Benjamin. Sauls question: Will the son of Jesse give you all fields and vineyards? make you all captains of hundreds and captains of thousands? is noteworthily and characteristically prefixed to the words which express his complaint and suspicion of the courtiers, on which only a question so spiteful and so tinged with venomous savagery could be based. In thus putting things hindmost first and upside down, Saul again exhibits himself as a man, who, through burning hatred to David and blind suspicion, has lost his mental control.Also to you [Heb. literally: also to you all will the son of Jesse give? etc.Tr.]; the Heb. text is to be maintained against the groundless change proposed by Thenius in truth will the son, etc. ( after the merely elucidatory Sept. and Vulg.). This phrase does not mean to you all also, besides the others to whom he has already given, since it is nowhere said of David that he provided for his adherents, nor was he in condition to do so. According to the rule that the Heb. particle [] expresses reciprocal relation, the thought here is: will David also by gifts show himself so grateful to you all for your making common cause with him against me? The word (as here) is toneless [with maqqeph.Tr.] in questions, to indicate reciprocity.25 Saul imagines that his courtiers all secretly hold with David, hence his question: will he also give you all?=will he then give? etc. In Sauls words there is the latent sense: Will he, of another tribe, reward you, as I have done to you, my fellow-tribesmen? Will he not rather favor his tribesmen, the men of Judah? Will it not be to your interest to stand on my side? Seb. Schmid: Ye have received the greatest benefits from me, such as ye could not expect from him, and yet ye are more attached to him than to me. These words give us an insight into Sauls partisan and particularistic mode of governing, in which he preferably filled court-offices with persons of his own tribe. From landed possessions (fields and vineyards), Saul goes on to refer to places of honor in the now organized army. The before the second all of you is not to be exchanged for and (so Then, [and Eng. A. V.] after Sept. and Vulg., which indeed give the sense correctly), but is to be taken either in the sense of as regardswill he (also) as regards you all make captains? etc., that is, take account of you all in filling these offices (Ew., 310 a), or, in the distributive sense, which it sometimes has (Ew., 217 a, 277 e)=will he make all and each of you (Ewald)? The sense is given correctly by Maurer: Will he make as many tribunes and centurions as may be necessary in order that each of you may have such an office?

1Sa 22:8. In his mental derangement and passionate excitement Saul takes it as certain that they have all conspired against him: because, as he says, they told him nothing of the covenant which his son had made with David against him. These words pre-suppose that he had learned something of the occurrence related in 1Sa 20:12-17 [the covenant between David and Jonathan], for they are too definite [made (Heb. cut) a covenant] to refer merely to the friendship of Jonathan and David. He assumes that his court-officials knew of this covenant, and then concludes that they had conspired against him with these two men. The words: there is none that is sorry for me, express the opinion that they had abandoned him in their hearts. His charge passes to the factually false assertion that his son had set his servant (David) as a lier in wait against him. (Sept. enemy = , without ground, Vulg. appropriately insidiantem mihi.) There is herein a two-fold false accusation: 1) as to David, that he was lying in wait to take his throne and life; and 2) as to Jonathan, that he was the cause of this insurrectionary and insidious conduct of David. Saul fancies himself in the meshes of a conspiracy against his person and kingdom organized by his own son, and accuses his courtiers of knowledge thereof and active participation therein. To such a pitch had the darkening and wasting of his inner life grown through hate and suspicion.As is now evident [=as it is this day], comp. Deu 8:18. In proof Saul points to Davids concealment and retinue. He was, therefore, not without information concerning this fact. S. Schmid: as is proved by this day, in which David gathers an army, and from the forest lays snares for me.

1Sa 22:9. Here we must especially note in the psychological point of view, how Doegs information about Davids visit to Ahimelech and the latters inquiring of the Lord for him and providing him with food and the sword of Goliath (comp. 1Sa 21:8), turns Sauls dark thoughts away from the courtiers, and directs all his energy to the person of the high-priest, so that he now thinks only of taking vengeance on him. Doeg is said to be set over (or, standing with) Sauls servants; why the version of the Sept.: set over the mules (), should be the only appropriate one [Then.], it is hard to see. The rendering of the Heb.: set over the servants of Saul (Chald., Kimchi, Vulg., Syr.)=highest court-official, court-marshal, minister of the household, does not agree with the description in 1Sa 21:7 : overseer of the herdsmen (as was natural in this first stage of the development of the kingdom, and in accordance with the position of his family, Sauls possessions consisted chiefly in herds). Rather the words answer to the statement (1Sa 22:7): all his servants stood by (around) him, and are to be rendered: And (or, also) he stood with the servants of Saul (Arab., De Wette, Buns. [Philipps.]). As chief overseer of the herds Doeg was in a sort one of the dignitaries of the kingdom (Bunsen). There is no superfluous statement here; the narrator declares that he was now here present, having in 1Sa 21:8 (7) described him as being in the sanctuary at Nob. From the connection it is clear that Doeg gave his information with evil purpose, in order to turn the kings suspicion from the courtiers to the high-priest. In Sauls frame of mind the mere statement of actual fact, of which he was ear and eye-witness, had all the more powerful effect on him. S. Schmid: Far better, therefore, did Sauls other servants, who kept silence. Hengstenberg (Introd. to Psalms 52.) absolves Doeg from enmity to David, observing that he merely stated the fact, to which the malicious interpretation was given by Saul alone; but this does not agree with what Saul had just before said against David and his courtiers, nor with Doegs bloody proceeding against the priests at Nob, nor with what is said in Psa 52:3-5 of the tongue like a sharp razor, of the wickedness, falsehood, calumny and deceit of the enemy, all of which applies to Doeg, but not to Saul. Rightly Grotius: see the description of Doeg in Psalms 52. That Ahimelech inquired of the Lord for David is here by Doegs assertion added to the account in 1Sa 21:7-10 [69], and confirmed by Ahimelech himself, 1Sa 22:15.26

1Sa 22:11. On this treacherous and slanderous statement of Doeg, Saul straightway sends for Ahimelech and all his fathers house, that is, all the priests in Nob, because these all belonged to the one family of Aaron (Then.). In Nob, therefore, dwelt the whole priestly family with the high-priest.

1Sa 22:12 sq. The council now becomes a solemn tribunal with pleading and verdict.Saul assumes that Ahimelech is guilty, adducing the three facts mentioned as in themselves proofs of guilt.

1Sa 22:14 sq. The high-priests answer has the stamp of quiet, clearness and a good conscience. First, he affirms that he was justified in unsuspiciously trusting to David. And who among all thy servants is as David trusted (De Wette)? that is object of confidence; in proof of which he refers to three things: Davids position at court as the kings son-in-law, as his trusted privy-councillor and as an honored man in his house. The word [Eng. A. V. bidding]=audience; so in Isa 11:14, as Bttcher has shown, they are their (Israels) audience, that is, they are of those who seek audience of Israel, pay court to Israel, come with homage, not who obey them [as in Eng. A. V., and so J. A. Alexander.Tr.]The word has the same signification also in 2Sa 23:23 and 1Ch 11:25, where it is said: And David set Benaiah for his audience [Eng. A. V.: over his guard], appointed him privy councillor.[In 1Ch 11:25 the Preposition is , over, in 2 Samuel it is , to.Tr.] = to withdraw, turn aside, for a definite purpose, for example, to see (Exo 3:3; Rth 4:1), here withdrawing to thy audience [Eng. A. V. goeth], as having interior admission (Bttch.); so Maurer: who turns aside (from the other courtiers) that he may hear thee, that is, who has access to the interior of thy palace, and there takes part in thy more weighty counsels. Schultz: Leaving all else, listening to thee and doing thy will. This explanation is here confirmed by the phrase among all thy servants (Bttch.). Thenius takes the word as = obedience in the special sense, as meaning the devotedly obedient body-guard (so also Ewald and Bertheau on 1Ch 11:25) and renders captain over the body-guard (reading for and, after Sept. and Chald., for ). Against this Bttcher rightly remarks that the traces [of a different reading] in the versions are altogether uncertain, that Thenius reading is not Heb. ( is found with , instead of the Gen., only where it is dependent on a verb), that according to 1Sa 18:5; 1Sa 18:13, David had command not of the body-guard, but of other more distant troops, that, as the other designation of David in the verse (even son-in-law) are moral marks of confidence, the mention of a military position would be strange, and the very question Who is among thy servants captain over thy body-guard as David? would sound somewhat queerly.27Ahimelech says, therefore, that he could have done nothing less than in good conscience trust a man so trusted and honored by the king, as a faithful subject of the king (Keil) giving David bread and arms on his assertion that he had a secret commission from the king.Further, in the question: Did I that day begin to inquire of God for him? he insists on the fact that David had often before received from him in the sanctuary divine direction in important undertakings. [This interpretation is denied by some (so Bib.-Com.) on the ground that nothing is said in 1 Samuel 21 of such an inquiry by Ahimelech for David. The Midrash also says that counsel was given by Urim and Thummim only to the king or his public ambassador (Philipps.); but Rashi agrees with the common interpretation, and Abarbanel gives both that and the direct form that was the first day that I inquired of God for him, and I did not know that it was displeasing to thee. Some, taking the phrase to mean simply to inquire, find a negative sense in the question: did I inquire? Nay, I did not. But this weakening of is not justified by usage; the idea of beginning must be expressed here. This being so, the choice is between the two interpretations above given, the interrogatory and the direct, and of these the former (that of Erdmann) seems more in keeping with Ahimelechs dignity of character. The omission of the fact in chap. 21 must then be attributed to the curtness of the narrative. Yet this omission is surprising, and, while Ahimelechs somewhat obscure words here scarcely admit of any other satisfactory translation than that given by Erdmann, there is room for doubt as to his meaning.Tr.].On this statement of facts Ahimelech founds his affirmation: Far be it from me, that is, such a crime as he is accused of, that he was party to a conspiracy against the king.In respect to this accusation, his defence culminates in the request: Let not the king impute anything to his servant, to the whole house of my father, wherein the absence of the copula [nor, supplied in Eng. A. V.] is to be referred with Keil to the excitement of the speaker. Finally he adds as reason: For thy servant knows nothing of all this, little or great, that is, nothing at all. The all this refers not to what David had told him, as if he intended to say that he knew nothing of Davids false assertion, but to what Saul had charged him with.This answer of the high-priest supposes certainly that he knew nothing of the unhappy condition of things in respect to David, or of his flight with its causes and circumstances.

1Sa 22:16. Sauls arbitrary, precipitate judgment as contrasted with the innocence of the high-priest and of the whole body of priests.

1Sa 22:17. The order for its immediate execution is given to the runners, who were either servants for running on messages, or guards who ran before or beside the king in his public appearance, [Eng. A. V., footmen]. Comp. 1Sa 9:11; 2Ki 10:25. As court-officials they stood also in this solemn assembly by the king. For the expression stood by or about, see 1Sa 22:6; 1Sa 22:9 [on 1Sa 22:9 see the Exposition.Tr.]. According to Sauls decision not only the high-priest, but also the whole priesthood should die for alleged participation in Davids conspiracy. For their hand also is with David, they make common cause with him against me. This assertion he bases on the unproved fact: they knew that he fled, and did not show it me. (Instead of Kethib his ear read with Qeri my ear, for such a sudden transition to indirect discourse and (as he said) did not show him, is impossible).The guards refuse to obey Sauls order, a proof of the disorder which his blind rage produced. This refusal reminds us of the scene in 1Sa 14:45, where Sauls sentence of death against Jonathan is opposed. Sauls servants will not lay their hands on the sacred persons of the priests; this is indicated in the expression the priests of the Lord. [Wordsworth: Thus they were more faithful to Saul than if they had obeyed his order, which was against the commandment of the Lord. Theodoret (in Wordsw.): The heinousness of Sauls sin is made more conspicuous by his servants refusal.Tr.].

1Sa 22:18. Sauls choice of Doeg as the executor of his order is a proof of the savageness which was combined with wickedness and guile in this Edomite. On the form of his name Doyeg (as in 1Sa 22:22) see Ew. 45 d. The pron. he [he fell] emphasizes Doegs willingness in contrast with the refusal of the guards. As above by the expression priests of the Lord, so here the wickedness of this act is brought prominently out by the significant reference to the official dress of the priests, who wore a linen ephod, the sign of the holiness of their persons. On the wearing of the ephod see 1Sa 2:18. Linen; the common priests, therefore, wore a linen over-garment similar in form to the high-priestly cape or ephod (Buns.).

1Sa 22:19. Nob is here expressly called the city of the priests. The whole city, as such, with all living things therein, is devoted to destruction by Saul in his fury. It is treated by him as a city under the ban (Cherem), which is polluted by idolatry and therefore devoted to destruction. The wrong alleged to be done to him by the priests is laid on the whole city as an idolatrous wrong against the Lord Himself, which is therefore thus to be avenged. Comp. Deu 13:13 sq. [Saul does not seem to have had the theocratic cherem or ban in mind, but in an access of rage did what was not uncommon among ancient oriental princes.Tr.].

1Sa 22:20. Only one son of Ahimelech, Abiathar, escaped the slaughter. How that happened is not said. Perhaps he was not present at this trial, and hastened away from Nob while it was being destroyed. After David, that is, to the retreat of the fugitive David, This is another proof of the intimate relations between David and the high-priestly family.

1Sa 22:21-23. Through Abiathar David received information of Sauls bloody vengeance on Nob. David said to Abiathar: I knew that day (comp. chap, 1Sa 21:7-8) that, because Doeg the Edomite was there, he would certainly tell Saul. So Vulg. and Then.; not (Keil): I knew that day that Doeg that he, etc., nor (De Wette): I knew that Doeg and that. David confesses himself guilty of the blood shed in Nob, because his flight thither and conduct there, while he knew of Doegs presence, gave occasion to it. Vulg.: I am guilty of all the souls. This confession of David shows the strictness of his self-judgment. ( here = to be guilty of a thing, see Ges. Lex. s. v. In the Talmud cause).

1Sa 22:23. The consequence of Davids invitation to Abiathar to abide with him is that the high-priesthood goes over to David and to the new future kingdom, though David entered into no rebellion against Saul for this end. Fear not,namely, Sauls snares and power. For he that seeketh my life, etc.Certainly the converse assertion would be natural here: He that seeks thy life seeks mine; but we are not therefore with Then, (after the Sept., whose translation seeks to get rid of this difficulty) to change the text, so that it would read: for whatever place I seek for myself, that will I (also) seek for thee, but we must explain it from the reference that David therein has to Saul. As against Saul David binds the fate of the fugitive high-priest to his own in an indissoluble covenant under the protection of God. The sense is: The persecution which I suffer, touches thee also. But I stand under Gods protection as one that suffers injustice; so art thou, because thy life like mine is threatened, safely kept in company with me. The second for [Eng. A. V. but ] is also dependent on the fear not. This consolatory assurance is based first, on the reference to their common enemy, and on the reference to the protection which Abiathar will enjoy with him, who knew that, as regarded Saul, he was under Gods special protection, preservation (Exo 12:6; Exo 16:33 sq), abstract for concrete, a precious deposit or trust (Ewald).

[During this first period of Davids life as outlaw several incidents occurred which are not mentioned in this narrative. We learn from 2Sa 23:13 that three of his chief heroes came to him in the cave of Adullam, one of whom was his nephew Abishai, afterwards a famous general. A little after (1Ch 11:15-19) occurred that noble act of loving daring, when the three mightiest broke through the Philistine army and brought their leader water from the well of Bethlehem, for which he longed. This was while he was in the hold; and at this time apparently came to him the stout band of lion-faced, gazelle-footed Gadites, who swam the Jordan when its banks were overflowed, and scattered all enemies before them (1Ch 12:8-15), and an enthusiastic body of men of Judah and Benjamin, for whose friendship Amasai answered in his passionate speech (1Ch 12:16-18). As to whether David was at Keilah when Abiathar came to him, see Erdmann on 1Sa 23:6. For fuller accounts of this period see Chandler (1 Samuel 7) and Stanleys Lectures, 22Tr.]

HISTORICAL AND THEOLOGICAL

1. Whether Psalms 57, whose title is: By David, when he fled from Saul in the cave, refers to the case of Adullam or to Engedi (1 Samuel 24) is uncertain. Certainly, however, the situation here, the condition of his inner life as fugitive, and his experience of divine help, form the basis of the thought of the Psalm, in which first believing hope (founded on experience) of speedy and sure divine help out of great peril of life from violent men, shows itself in the prayer for a new manifestation of divine grace, whereby Gods truth and trustworthiness will be shown by deeds, and then, after a short description of the snares, which resulted in the destruction of the enemies themselves, the certain assurance of victory is expressed in the invocation of the authors own soul to praise God in all the world on the ground of His self-revelation in His glory (Moll).Psalms 52 certainly in its essential content agrees with Davids position as indicated by the reference in the title to Doegs treachery. But, from the general nature of the didactic content of the Psalm, we must also suppose a reference to the hate and persecution of Saul, whose tool Doeg was.

2. David is the representative of the theocratic principle, for which he suffers and endures. The uninterrupted tribulation which he experiences from now till he enters into the theocratic kingly office, he bears, for the sake of the Lord, who has chosen him for this office and the calling therewith conjoined for all Israel; it serves to humble and purify him, and its precious fruit is that he yields himself more absolutely into Gods hands, and treads solely the path which the divine providence points out; he will know only what God will do for him; he listens only to what God says, and obeys unconditionally Gods command announced by the mouth of the prophet. So, in the development of his inner and outer life under the many testing and purifying sufferings sent by God, David becomes more and more a shining type of the humble faith, which bows unmurmuringly under the Lords afflicting hand, accepts unconditionally Gods hidden providences, is attentive to the Lords word, and yields joyful obedience to His commands.Saul has become the representative of the antitheocratic principle; conscious that the kingdom is justly taken from him for his self-willed apostasy from God, he suffers pain and anguish in the fear of losing the throne through David, and, his look distorted by this inner unrest, sees everywhere only conspiracy and treachery against his throne and life; the more he shuts his eyes to the divine leadings in Davids life, and obstinately withstands Gods known will concerning David, the more does he harden his heart against Gods word and instructions, the deeper does he sink into the abyss of wretched fear of man, and the farther from his heart recedes true fear of God, the more irretardably rushes on his inner life, pursued by the terrors of the angry God, and of a conscience pressed down by the burden of unforgiven sin, which yet leads him not to pure self-knowledge and humble subjection to Gods almighty hand, towards the abyss of doubt and the judgment of inner hardening of heart.

3. While apparently under Sauls sharply-sketched despotic and cruel rule (a horrible caricature of the theocratic government) the three pillars of Gods kingdom in Israel break downthe theocratic kingdom in David hunted to the death, prophets oppressed and silenced, the priesthood exterminatedyet just here this threefold office appears in most significant facts under the protection of the almighty, faithful God, who will not let His covenant fail, as factual divine promise or prediction: about David, as the Lords chosen king, is grouped His family as representatives of Israels hope of salvation, and is gathered the root of the theocratic congregation, in Gad appears prophecy in Gods name, and with the light of His word pointing the way out of the gloom, and in Abiathar the high-priesthood is rescued from Sauls purposed destruction into the safe-keeping of the future king.

[4. It is hardly necessary now to discuss the question, whether David was a rebel against Saul. As he never lifted his hand against his king, as he always cherished love for him, as his military enterprises were all against the enemies of Israel, as his efforts were confined to the saving of his life from Sauls attempts, it is clear that he was not a traitor and a rebel. He was an outlaw, but a patriotic, God-fearing, loyal outlaw. See Chandlers elaborate defence of David against Bayle in chs. 7 and 8 of his Life of David.Tr.]

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

1Sa 22:1. S. Schmid: When God has rescued us from danger, we should make such a use of it as to grow wiser thereby.Osiander: It makes our cross much heavier to see that evil comes upon our dearest friends and kindred for our sake.

1Sa 22:2. Berl. Bible: Though thou findest thyself without refuge, yet thou becomest a refuge for all the distressed.All who find themselves in distress are even in the midst of their pains filled with joy, when they meet with other men who have to bear the same oppressions. This at once forms a very close union among them.[1Sa 22:4. Descendants of Ruth compelled by civil strife to leave Jehovahs country, and seek shelter in Moab.Tr.]

1Sa 22:6-10. Schlier (Saul): Saul is filled with fear of men, because he lacks true fear of God.O how much fear and anxiety there is, and so often it has no other ground than in an evil conscience; how much fear of man there is, and the fountain is in sins unforgiven; how much despondency there is, and yet all might be so far otherwise if people would only humble themselves and confess their sins.

1Sa 22:8. Starke: That is the way with the ungodly, that with their evil behaviour they yet want to have their rights.Berl. Bible: Perturbation and distrust are constantly the companions of malevolence and sin, while tranquillity stands by the side of persecuted innocence.[1Sa 22:9. A ruler who wants informers can always find them.Tr.]

1Sa 22:11-15. Schlier (Saul): O how unkingly stands King Saul before us, how dignified, how truly kingly stands Ahimelech! So true is it that he that ruleth his spirit is better than he that taketh a city!It is manliness to place the truth above everything, and go security for the truth, and defend the truth, even unto death. Let us learn from this royal manliness of an Ahimelech; who also confessed the truth even unto death.[1Sa 22:13. It is so easy for the passionate to cheat themselves with hasty inferences.Tr.]

1Sa 22:16 sq. Doeg and Saul were also men like ourselves, both had also a conscience, both were also yielding and receptive, and Saul was once even in good ways, he had learned to fear and love God, and yet both were now so deep-sunken, both were now hardened, and to human eyes irrecoverably lost. The reason is, they trifled with Gods word, they were not willing to obey the truth, they wilfully lived on in their sins.No man is sure that he will not fall into sin, nor is any man sure that he will remain in a good way; it holds good for all that they must always work out their salvation with fear and trembling.[1Sa 22:17. The best friends of an angry man are those who refuse to aid him in doing wrong.

1Sa 22:16-19. Henry: See the desperate wickedness of Saul, when the Spirit of the Lord was departed from him. Nothing so vile but they may be hurried to it, who have provoked God to give them up to their hearts lusts. He that was so compassionate as to spare Agag and the cattle of the Amalekites, in disobedience to the command of God, could now, with unrelenting bowels, see the priests of the Lord murdered, and nothing spared of all that belonged to them. For that sin, God left him to this.There are many historical cases in which sentimental humanity has become transformed into savage cruelty.

1Sa 22:18. So often in what calls itself the administration of justice, many innocent men are punished because the one man who did the wrong has escaped.God makes the wrath of man to praise Him (Psa 76:10). The punishment foretold against the house of Eli (1Sa 2:31) is executed through the madness of Saul and the baseness of Doeg.Hall: It was just in God, which in Doeg was most unjust. Sauls cruelty, and the treachery of Doeg, do not lose one dram of their guilt by the counsel of God, neither doth the holy counsel of God gather any blemish by their wickedness. If Saul and Doeg be instead of a pestilence or fever, who can cavil?

1Sa 22:19. A madly passionate man in authority (despot, parent, teacher) often seeks to justify his cruel conduct by still greater cruelty.Tr.]

[1Sa 22:22. Taylor: Behold how impossible it is to arrest the consequences of our evil actions. I have no doubt that when David heard of all this, he would willingly have given all that he had, ay, even his hopes of one day sitting on the throne of Israel, if he could have recalled the evil which he had spoken, and undone its dismal consequences. But it was impossible. The lie had gone forth from him; and having done so, it was no longer under his control, but would go on producing its diabolical fruits. And so it is yet. We may, indeed, repent of our sin; we may even, through the grace of God for Christs sake, have the assurance that we are forgiven for it; but the sin itself will go on working its deadly results.Tr.]

[Ch. 22. David struggling upward, Saul sinking downward. (Comp. Hist. and Theol., No. 2.)

[1Sa 22:3. Our Future. 1) Our future will be determined by God. Comp. Psa 31:15. 2) Our future cannot be clearly foreseen by us, and this is well. Comp. Pro 27:1. 3) We must provide as wisely as we can for our future, and then wait. 4) Whatever God may do to us in the future, we must try to receive it as from Him.

[1Sa 22:5. Danger and Duty. 1) Where no duty calls, let us keep away from danger. Comp. Gen 13:12-13; Exo 2:15; 1Sa 23:13; Joh 4:1; Joh 11:53-54. 2) But often, to keep away from danger is to be out of the reach of success. If David had remained in Moab, he would never have become king of Israel. Nothing venture, nothing have. Comp. Mat 16:25; Act 21:13; Joh 12:23. 3) How can we tell when duty calls us into danger? Not now by special revelation, but by keeping our minds familiar with the written word, watching the leadings of Providence, seeking counsel from the wise and good, striving to judge calmly even amid perturbations, and praying all the while for the guidance of Gods Spirit. Comp. 1Ch 28:9; Pro 3:6.

[1Sa 22:17. Three scenes in the life of Saul, 1Sa 11:13; 1Sa 15:22-23; 1Sa 22:16-19.

[1Sa 22:6-23. Pictures of Human Nature. 1) A man in authority, whose misfortunes, though due to his own fault, make him suspicious (1Sa 22:8) and cruelly unjust (1Sa 22:16). 2) A basely ambitious man who seeks to build himself up by ruining others (1Sa 22:9-10; 1Sa 22:18, comp. Psalms 52). 3) An innocent man accused, who defends himself both with forcible argument (1Sa 22:14) and with dignified denial (1Sa 22:15). 4) A good, but erring man who mournfully sees that his sin has brought destruction on his friends (1Sa 22:22).Tr.]

Footnotes:

[1][1Sa 22:1. Wellhausen proposes to read , hold, on the ground of the identity of the locality with the of 1Sa 22:4. But, in addition to the uniform support which the VSS. give to the Heb. text, the same locality might be called from one feature of it a cave, and from another a mountain-hold.Tr.]

[2][1Sa 22:3. It has been questioned whether 1Sa 22:3-4, belonged to the original narrative, because they carry David to Moab, and say nothing of his return. But this omission is not against the habit of these ancient narratives. However, supposing this paragraph to be an insertion from another source by the editor, this does not affect the genuineness of the narrative as a whole. That Davids parents are mentioned here, and not in 1Sa 22:1, or in 1Sa 20:29, accords with the circumstances; there is occasion here to mention them, there was none before.Tr.]

[3][1Sa 22:3. Sept., Syr., Arab., Vulg., write this with a in the first syllable, which is perhaps an old pronunciation. Some Greek VSS. render .Tr.]

[4][1Sa 22:3. One MS. has , dwell (with you), and so Sept., Syr., Arab., Vulg.; this is probably the correct reading, the , go out, not suiting the following preposition with, and a construct. pregn. being improbable here.Tr.]

[5][1Sa 22:4. Sept. takes this from stem , and renders: he persuaded [or appealed to] the king, which is contrary to the meaning of this verb, and against the other VSS. Wellhausen prefers the pointing (from ), he settled or left them with the king, as better agreeing with the following , and so read Chald., Syr., Arab., Vulg. This seems the better rendering, though after the usage would lead us to expect either simple , with, or , before. Possibly we have here a blending of the two prepositions.Tr.]

[6][1Sa 22:5. So the VSS. except Sept., which has , city ( instead of ), and this is approved by Lieut. Conder, of the Palestine Exploration Fund on topographical grounds. As to this we must await further explorations.Tr.]

[7][1Sa 22:6. On the various and apparently arbitrary treatment of this word in the VSS. see Ges., Thes. s. v. The of 1Sa 31:3 is in 1Ch 10:12, and Gesen. suggests that the word may have come to have the general signification tree. See Stanleys Sinai and Pal., App., 79. There is no ground for doubting the correctness of the Heb. text here.Tr.]

[8][1Sa 22:7. The is strange, perhaps an Aramaism after (the Chald. and Syr. have it), perhaps by error for , and.Tr.]

[9][1Sa 22:8. Literally that uncovereth my ear.Tr.]

[10][1Sa 22:8. Omission of as in 1Sa 20:16.Tr.]

[11][1Sa 22:9. Sept. mules, as in 1Sa 21:8 (7). Or: was standing with the servants of Saul.Tr.]

[12][1Sa 22:10. One Heb. MS. and Grk., Syr., Arab., have Elohim.Tr.]

[13][1Sa 22:14. On this difficult phrase see Erdmanns exposition.Tr.]

[14][1Sa 22:15. The Kethib has the full form , which before Maqqeph the Qeri reduces to the slenderer .Tr.].

[15][1Sa 22:15. Heb. simply , in, before which a has probably fallen out.Tr.]

[16][1Sa 22:18. Heb. 85, Sept. 305. Josephus 385. Thenius suggests that Sept. 300 is for 400 represented in Heb. by , which was mistakenly read for (80), to which Wellh. objects that the final is not 80, but 800.The Kethib has where Qeri has , a not unfrequent interchange in Heb. The Syriac usage is according to the Kethib.Tr.]

[17][1Sa 22:22. Literally: I am cause as to all the souls. On this use of in the sense of cause, occasion, see Ges., Thes. s. v. But Then, after Sept. , reads , I am guilty; this stem occurs only once in Old Test. in Dan 1:19 in Piel as causative; it is frequent in later Heb.Tr.]

[18][1Sa 22:23. On this reading see Erdmanns Expos.Tr.]

[19][Comp. 2Sa 23:13-17; 1Ch 12:8-19.Tr.]

[20][On Adullam see Smiths Bib.-Dict.; Stanleys Lectures, II., 69; Thomson, Land and Book, II., 424427. The latter decides for Khureitun, and gives a vivid description of its labyrinthine intricacies and its strength.Tr.]

[21][The same phrase is used of Hannah, 1Sa 1:10; of David and his companions, 2Sa 17:8; and of Davids followers, 1Sa 30:6. Hence the phrase here denotes those who are exasperated by Sauls tyranny (Bib.-Com.) It is not necessary to suppose in all these men a theocratic feeling or love for David.Tr.]

[22][On this reading see Text. and Gramm.Tr.]

[23][As distinguished from Jehovah. Yet that the name Jehovah was not unknown in Moab is made probable by its occurrence on the Inscription of Mesha, dating about one hundred and fifty years after this time.Tr.]

[24][Syr. here has Mizpeh. Wordsworth (on 1Sa 22:4) strangely derives from , rock.Tr.]

[25][This rule (Ew., 352) hardly applies here; =together (Psa 133:1), and can express reciprocity only when the connection affirms something to be true of two or more persons; here it would apply to the courtiers only, excluding David. It is better to take it as qualifying the whole sentence,=yet (Ew., 354 a), or as qualifying son of Jesse, as it may do, though it stands at the beginning of the sentence.Tr.]

[26][This is not certain. See on 1Sa 22:15.Tr.]

[27][The passage 1Ch 11:25, nevertheless, makes a difficulty and the differences of the vss. suggest a corruption of the text. Here the rendering of Bttcher and Erdmann (and Philippson and Bib. Com.) seems the best, though we can hardly sever this passage from 1Ch 11:25.Tr.]

Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

CONTENTS

David’s distresses are still continued, and form the subject of this Chapter. He is constrained to leave Achish, and gets to the cave of Adullam. His relations now seek to him: many persons in desperate circumstances join him: Saul’s rage against him breaks out with more and more violence: Doeg the Edomite, having informed Saul of Ahimelech the priest’s kindness to David, Saul causeth the priests of Nob to be slain, and the city of Nob is destroyed by him. Abiathar, one of the sons of Ahimelech, escapes, and flees to David. These are the principal matters contained in this Chapter.

1Sa 22:1

(1) David therefore departed thence, and escaped to the cave Adullam: and when his brethren and all his father’s house heard it, they went down thither to him.

It is an observation that meets us at every part of David’s history, and ought to be marked down by the Reader with a particular mark, that but for the many and multiplied troubles of David, the Church of the Lord would have wanted those precious things which his book of Psalms contains. It is indeed a Book of rich experiences. And the Holy Ghost hath furnished for the Church, from this man’s history, a great variety to suit most cases of his people. The title of Psa 142 marks this as the period, in David’s life, when it was written. And a most precious Psalm it is. I beg the Reader to turn to if, in order to behold the workings of David’s mind. But, while I do this, in order that the Reader may have the more lively idea of David’s history, I beseech him to be always looking beyond David to behold him whom David so strikingly typified. One example in proof will be sufficient to justify this request, and may serve to throw light upon many others. In that Psalm David saith, I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there was no man that would know me. Now the Reader cannot fail, I should hope, to recollect that Jesus was precisely in this state, when all the disciples forsook him and fled; when one denied him and another betrayed him.

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

1Sa 22

1. David therefore departed thence, and escaped to the cave Adullam [in the great valley of Elah which forms the highway from Philistia to Hebron]: and when his brethren and all his fathers house heard it, they went down thither to him.

2. And every one that was in distress [persecuted by Saul and his house], and every one that was in debt [notwithstanding such passages as Exo 22:25 ; Lev 25:36 ; Deu 23:19 ], and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him; and he became a captain over them [for they were not an undisciplined band]: and there were with him about four hundred men.

3. And David went thence to Mizpeh [mentioned nowhere else] of Moab: and he said unto the king of Moab [David was descended from Ruth the Moabitess], Let my father and my mother, I pray thee, come forth, and be with you, till I know what God [Elohim, not Jehovah] will do for me.

4. And he brought them before the king of Moab: and they dwelt with him all the while that David was in the hold.

5. And the prophet Gad [probably a fellow-student of David’s in the Naioth of Samuel by Ramah] said unto David, Abide not in the hold [in the land of Moab]; depart, and get thee into the land of Judah. Then David departed, and came into the forest [city] of Hareth.

6. When Saul heard that David was discovered, and the men that were with him, (now Saul abode in Gibeah [his own royal city] under a [tamarisk] tree in Ramah, having his spear in his hand, and all his servants were standing about him;)

7. Then Saul said unto his servants that stood about him, Hear now, ye Benjamites [Saul suspects even the chosen men of his own tribe]; will the son of Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards, and make you all captains of thousands, and captains of hundreds;

8. That all of you have conspired against me, and there is none that sheweth me that my son hath made a league with the son of Jesse, and there is none of you that is sorry for me [” It may be there were some of them that were sorry for his malice and madness against innocent David, but durst not show it, lest Saul should have used them, as afterwards Cambyses, king of Persia, did some of his servants, whom in his rage he commanded to kill Croesus, who was left as a counsellor to him by his father Cyrus, and had now by reproving him for his cruelty, fallen under his displeasure. His servants thinking that he would afterwards repent it, hid Croesus, and slew him not; and when Cambyses shortly after wanted Croesus for his faithful counsel, and wished for him again, his servants expecting a great reward, brought him forth. Cambyses was glad that Croesus was alive: but yet he put his servants to death, for sparing him contrary to his command.”] or sheweth unto me that my son hath stirred up my servant against me, to lie in wait, as at this day?

9. Then answered Doeg the Edomite, which was set over [who stood with] the servants [mules?] of Saul, and said, I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahimelech the son of Ahitub.

10. And he enquired of the Lord for him, and gave him victuals, and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine.

11. Then the king [probably with a view to a wholesale massacre] sent to call Ahimelech the priest, the son of Ahitub, and all his father’s house, the priests that were in Nob: and they came all of them to the king.

12. And Saul said, Hear now, thou son of Ahitub. And he answered, Here I am, my lord.

13. 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 enquired of God for him, that he should rise against me, to lie in wait, as at this day?

14. Then Ahimelech answered the king, and said, And who is so faithful among all thy servants as David, which is the king’s son in law, and goeth at thy bidding, and is honourable in thine house?

15. Did I then begin to enquire of God for him? be it far from me: let not the king impute any thing unto his servant, nor to all the house of my father: for thy servant knew nothing of all this, less or more.

16. And the king said, Thou shalt surely die, Ahimelech, thou, and all thy father’s house.

17. And the king said unto the footmen [runners] that stood about him, Turn, and slay the priests of the Lord; because their hand also is with David, and because they knew when he fled, and did not shew it to me. But the servants of the king would not put forth their hand to fall upon the priests of the Lord.

18. And the king said to Doeg, Turn thou, and fall upon the priests. And Doeg the Edomite turned, and [with the assistance of his servants] he fell upon the priests, and slew on that day fourscore and five persons that did wear a linen ephod [clothed officially in honour of the king],

19. And Nob [whose only offence was that Ahimelech the priest had shewn kindness to David], 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.

20. And one of the sons of Ahimelech the son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped, and fled after David.

21. And Abiathar [the one priest who had escaped the general massacre] shewed David that Saul had slain the Lord’s priests.

22. And David said unto Abiathar, I knew it 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.

23. Abide thou with me, fear not: for he that seeketh my life seeketh thy life: but with me thou shalt be in safeguard.

David an Outlaw

1Sa 22

REMEMBERING that David was specially called to high honour, it is curious and instructive to notice through what distressing processes he is obliged to pass. All our ideas of a divine vocation are upset by this process. Foremost amongst those ideas would have been the assurance that a man called of heaven would have before his feet a smooth and sunny road, and that every day would witness to the concurrence of nature and society in the sacred appointment. Had a man rushed upon this destiny, we should not have been surprised if his audacity had been punished in the most exemplary manner. Where, then, is the law of just recognition and retribution? Here we have a man divinely called to the highest position, yet he is chastised with whips and scorpions night and day; on the other hand, we have a man who rushes in a spirit of usurpation into lofty dignities, and he also is punished in like manner. Who can say which is the divinely elected and which the self-elected man? Not only so; sometimes the usurper seems to carry everything his own way and to be aided in his riotous progress by legions of angels, whilst the man who is known to have been divinely called is baffled and perplexed at every turn. All these circumstances show that the judgment does not lie within narrow limits, and certainly does not lie within the immediate day. Large breadths of time are essential to a correct criticism of the providence of God. The whole circle of the divine purpose must be completed before men can pronounce upon it any solid and rational opinion. We are now, then, in the midst of a most harrowing and vexatious process, and can only patiently work our way through it, and steadfastly believe that in the end God will vindicate his own methods of education.

The great valley of Elah is notable for the number of its natural caves, some of such great extent that Dean Stanley has characterised one of them as “a subterranean palace, with vast columnar halls and arched chambers.” It is supposed that the name Adullam was given to the largest of the caverns on account of its nearness to the old royal Canaanitish city of Adullam, referred to in Jos 15:35 . A curious picture is presented by the gathering in the cave of Adullam: “And every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented [bitter of soul], gathered themselves unto him; and he became a captain over them. and there were with him about four hundred men” ( 1Sa 22:2 ). It is not to be supposed that all these persons were incapable outlaws, without knowledge of military operations and without any claim to personal integrity. In many instances they simply represented the gloominess and hopelessness of the age in which they lived. The kingdom had gone down under the administration of Saul, and everything being out of course, the people who under other circumstances would have been socially foremost were thrown into poverty and driven into momentary despair. Under such circumstances men are only too thankful to constitute themselves into a band under able captaincy; and David was in all respects pre-eminently the man to lead and inspire a host which had been demoralised and dispirited. But this picture certainly contributes a feature of interest to the story, which is of a most painful kind. Surrounded by such a discontented band, who could suppose that David was the chosen instrument of Heaven? His very followers appeared to discredit his divine vocation. On the other hand, even an arrangement of this kind is in strict accord with the great line of providence which has in many an instance passed by the proud, the noble, the strong, and the wealthy, and brought into irregular but successful service elements and forces which society had regarded as outcast or unavailable. There is no straining of the meaning in discovering in all this picture a type of the position of Jesus Christ in the world. He was despised and rejected of men; he had not where to lay his head; and the people who immediately surrounded him were characterised by unaccountable expectations, personal inferiority, social degradation, and also by need of every description: surely it was no valiant or brilliant host that gathered around the Son of God whilst he tenanted this Adullam cave which we call the earth; but we must await the completed issue before we pronounce upon the improbabilities, and even incredibilities, of the position and claims sustained by Jesus Christ.

“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 for me. And he brought them before the king of Moab: and they dwelt with him all the while that David was in the hold” ( 1Sa 22:3-4 ).

In these verses it is beautiful to observe that amidst all the tumult and distress of the times the filial spirit of David was unquenched. Having left the cave of Adullam, David came to Mizpeh of Moab, a place which is not mentioned elsewhere in the Scriptures. “Mizpeh” means a watch-tower, and was probably some mountain fortress in Moab. David was not without kindred in Moab; as we have already seen, Jesse his father was the grandson of Ruth the Moabitess, and the distance from the south of Judah, where the band was wandering, was inconsiderable. Thus are the threads of life intermingled one with another, and thus do coincidences establish themselves in unlooked-for places. “Give a portion to seven, and also to eight; for thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the earth.” David would not proceed further until he had assured himself of the divine purpose. He would first see what God would do for him. It is instructive to remember that when David addressed the Moabite king he spoke of God that is, Elohim, and not of Jehovah. The Moabites were idolaters, and they had nothing to do with the awful name by which the Most High was known to his covenant people. Jehovah is a word which no Gentile can ever properly pronounce. It was peculiarly the music of the Hebrew believer. But although the particular name, as originally uttered, has passed away from the earth, we have a Name that is above every name, which may be pronounced and loved by the mightiest and the weakest, the great angel and the little child. This unquenchable filial piety is not an indication of weakness, but a proof of strength, on the part of David. Do we strain words to unnatural meanings when we see in this filial care a type of the love which burned in the heart of Jesus Christ when on the cross he commended his mother to the disciple whom he loved? Whilst it is unwarrantable to force ancient instances into purely Christian relations, it is quite as unwarrantable to consider that in the matter of providence God had no thought of what was yet to take place in the world. Providence is a kind of parable of the Gospel. Blessed are they who have eyes to see its beauty and follow the outgoing of all its meaning.

In the fifth verse a man arises who from this point occupies a considerable space in the history of David. Gad is mentioned as the king’s seer in 2Sa 24:11 ; in 1Ch 29:29 he reappears as a narrator; and in 2Ch 29:25 he is mentioned, with his brother Nathan, as the man who had drawn up the plan of the great temple services. It has been remarked that it was Gad who in the golden days of the kingdom dared to reprove the mighty king for his deed of numbering the people. It is supposed that he had been a fellow-student and friend of David’s in the Naioth of Samuel by Ramah. The conjecture which sees in Gad a messenger from the old prophet Samuel to his beloved pupil David, the anointed of the Lord, is supported by strong evidence. Gad now becomes the adviser of the greatest man in Hebrew history. Wonderful is the distribution of talent in the kingdom of God! Kings need advisers. The mightiest soldiers can do nothing without their rank and file. It is good that the highest man in society should have to turn aside to ask the advice of one who has no wealth but wisdom, the chiefest wealth of all. It is well also that wise men, who might be inclined to abstract study, even to lose themselves in metaphysical inquiries, should be called upon to consider practical problems and to give counsel in seasons of danger and panic. Thus does the hand that balances all things bring into relation men who are the counterparts of each other, and who indeed are necessary to each other, and thus is society held together like a boundless constellation, no star falling out of its place and no collision occurring amid all the mighty rush of incalculable forces.

Now we turn from David to Saul, who was in his royal city of Gibeah, and heard there respecting the movements of his supposed enemy. Abiding under a tamarisk tree on the height with a spear in his hand, Saul addressed the servants that stood about him. Saul’s love of trees was a remarkable feature in his character; there is something, therefore, harmonious in his holding this council under the spreading tamarisk branches. All the men who are round about him belong to his own tribe of Benjamin with one exception, the exception being his wicked counsellor the Edomite Doeg. This council is noticeable as one of the earliest of which there is any definite account in the history of the whole world. Saul has resolved on murder. Saul accuses his own fideles of conspiracy against him; he complains that his own son had made a league with the son of Jesse; and his greatest complaint of all is that not one man in all his band was sorry for him. These were sad words as uttered by King Saul; the evil spirit was then working mightily within his diseased mind; the words are full of tragedy and pathos. If Saul could have seen a tear in the eyes of his followers, it would have encouraged him, as showing that sympathy was still alive on his behalf. But every eye was tearless; in no face was there a trace of sorrow; in no voice was there a tone of condolence.

Truly a most vivid and impressive picture is that of the great king standing under the tamarisk tree complaining bitterly that no one had told him of the machinations of Jonathan and David. In that sad hour Doeg the Edomite came to the aid of the king, a man upon whom we need not spare more time than to remark that he became the instrument of Saul’s wrath in turning upon the priests and slaying in one day fourscore and five persons that did wear a linen ephod. The execration of ancient Jewish history followed the Edomite, and Jewish imagination was even strained to depict the horrible destiny to which that evil man was driven: we read that Doeg the Edomite was encountered by three destructive demons, one of whom deprived him of his learning, a second burned his soul, and a third scattered his dust in the synagogues. When the story was related by Abiathar, who alone escaped to David, David said, “I knew it 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.” David was a discerner of spirits. He knew that Doeg could never be associated with any noble thought or generous deed. There are men who carry their spirit in their countenances and whose every action shows how mean are their purposes. A sad thing indeed, and lamentable almost beyond all others, that the very spirit of fate seems to have decreed that some names can never be associated with justice, beauty, or generosity. There are men who have done unwisely and even wickedly in whose character there have been redeeming features of great attractiveness, but in the whole build and character of Doeg the Edomite there is not one line which honest men can admire, or one aspect which can fascinate an honourable mind.

Thus the troubles of David were increased by incidental occurrences in which he was not immediately concerned. Not only on the broad line distinctively his own, but in a hundred collateral lines, dangers thickened upon David, and accumulated into an evidence which, judged in a purely earthly light, would show that he must rather be opposing the will of Heaven than carrying out its high and sacred purpose. Is our way blocked up in this manner? Are we hunted and persecuted whilst we are endeavouring to carry out the designs of Providence? Are we in utter perplexity as to the sorrows which befall us, and the difficulties which are heaped upon all who take part and lot with us? Have we not only our own troubles to bear, but the troubles of which we are the indirect cause or occasion in others? Under such circumstances we can but go back into the venerable sanctuary of history, and learn there something of the astounding methods of divine discipline and culture, and consider whether even in the midst of tumult, danger, and anguish, we may not be steadfastly pursuing the upward way which will end in heaven and in rest.

Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker

XII

SAUL’S MURDEROUS PURSUIT OF DAVID

1Sa 19:18-22:23

Let us trace in the Old Testament the usage of the word, “teraphim,” which occurs in 1Sa 19:13 : “And Michal took the teraphim, and laid it in the bed, and put a pillow of goat’s hair at the head thereof and covered it with the clothes,” answering this fivefold question: (1) Is the word, “teraphim,” ever used in a good sense? (2) What was it? (3) Was its use a violation of the first or the second commandment? (4) What the meaning of such an image being in David’s house? (5) Show how in history the use of images became a dividing line between Protestants and Romanists, and what the danger of their use even as a help toward the worship of God.

We find the first use of it in Gen 31:19 ; Gen 31:26 ; Gen 31:31 ; Gen 31:34 . That chapter shows how Jacob and his wives and children and property left his father-in-law, Laban, on their return to the Holy Land, and that Rachel stole her father’s “teraphim;” and when Laban pursues, as we find in the same chapter, it is one of his accusations against Jacob that he had stolen his household gods. Jacob invites him to make a search and Rachel puts them under a camel saddle and sits down on the saddle and won’t get up, and so Laban can’t find them. Then, in Gen 35:2 Jacob orders all of his family to put away those false gods.

The next use of the word comes in Judges 17-18. The history is this: Micah, in the days of the judges, makes to himself molten and graven images and teraphim and puts them in a separate room in his house, i.e., has a little temple, and consecrates his own son to be a priest, but eventually there comes along a Levite, who is a descendant of Moses through Gerghom, and Micah employs this Levite on a salary to be his priest and to conduct his worship through these images graven, molten and the teraphim, using an ephod. A little later the Danites on their migration capture all these household gods of Micah, and the priest as well. Micah pursues and complains that they robbed him of his gods. The Danites advise him to go home and keep his mouth shut, and in the meantime they capture Laish in the northern part of the Holy Land and set up these same images and use that same descendant of Moses with the ephod to seek Jehovah through those images. The next time we find the word is in this section, where Michal took a teraphim and put it in David’s bed and made it look like somebody asleep. The next usage of the word is found in 2Ki 23:24 , in the early part of the great reformation led by King Josiah, who, after the law of the Lord had been found, causes all Judah to put away the teraphim and everything that was contrary to the Mosaic law.

We find it next in order of time in Hos 3:4 , where a prediction is made that Israel for a long time shall be without king or ephod or teraphim, and the last use is in Eze 21:22-23 . Ezekiel in exile shows how the king of Babylon came to the forks of the road and used divinations, etc., by the use of teraphim.

The word is never used in a good sense. Jehovah appoints his own way of approach to him and of ascertaining the future) condemning the use of teraphim in approaching him. Even that passage in Hosea only shows that after the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, the Jews for a long time the present time included will have no king, no ephod, no teraphim. That is, they would in no sense be idolaters, and yet their worship of Jehovah for this long period including the present time will be empty and vain until just before the millennial times, when they in one day accept the long-rejected Messiah.

A teraphim is an image, but it is distinguished from graven or molten images in two particulars: (1) it is carved out of wood; (2) it always represented a human form, whereas the graven and molten images were always of metal and oftenest took the form of the lower animals, like the calf that Aaron made at Sinai, and the calves set up by Jeroboam at Dan and Bethel. To make the distinction clearer by a passage in the New Testament, the image of the great goddess Diana at Ephesus (Act 19 ), which was said to have fallen down from heaven, was a teraphim; that is, was a wooden image in human form and a very ugly one, but the little silver shrines of the temple of Diana made by Demetrius, the silversmith, and other silversmiths, were either graven or molten images. Another distinction is that the graven and the molten images were oftenest worshiped as gods, the teraphim oftenest used as a method of approach to their gods, and both of them were violations of the Second Commandment.

The teraphim in David’s house was Micah’s, not David’s, as the stolen teraphim of Laban’s was Rachel’s and not Jacob’s. There is no evidence that either Jacob or David ever resorted to teraphim or favored their use.

Coming now to the last part of the question, one of the chief issues between the Protestants and the Romanists in the Reformation was that the Romanists multiplied images in their worship metallic or wooden images. For instance, an image of Jesus on the cross, an image of the virgin Mary, the cross itself, or the image of some saint when carved out of wood representing human form, were teraphim, but when they were made out of metal were graven or molten images. While the better and more learned class of the Romanists only use these images as objective aids to worship, the masses of the people become image worshipers, bowing down before the image of the virgin Mary and ascribing adoration to her and praying to her, and ascribing all the grace of salvation to her. Even the pope himself says, in one of his proclamations, that the fountain of all grace is in Mary. In this way they violate that fundamental declaration of our Lord that God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. The Greek word, eikon , an image, equals in sense the Hebrew word, ” teraphim, ” and other images, so when the Protestants, in their fury against what they called idolatry, would break up these images wherever they found them they were called “iconoclasts,” i.e., “breakers of images.” Hence, when Charles I wrote that famous book, Eikon , Oliver Cromwell demanded of Milton that he write a reply to it, and he named his reply Iconoclast, a breaker of the image. The image question is a big one in history. There is a relation to that teraphim of Michal and her wifely relation to David. It showed that while indeed she loved David when he was a prosperous man, she had no sympathy with his religion, nor was she willing to share his exile and its sufferings. She could never say to him what Ruth said to Naomi: “Entreat me not to leave thee, nor cease from following after thee; for where thou lodgest I will lodge, thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God. Where thou diest I will die, and there will I be buried.” When David’s fortunes were eclipsed she readily enough consented to become the wife of another man, to whom her father gave her, and whom she loved more than she had ever loved David. When David, after he became king, sent for her to be returned to him, as we learn from 2Sa 3 , she came unwillingly, and at a still later date when David brought the ark of the covenant from Kirjathjearim to put it in Jerusalem and participated in the religious exercises of the day, Michal looked out of the window and saw him and despised him, and when he came in she broke out on him in scornful speech, mocking him for the part he had taken in that day’s religious service. When a wife differs so radically from her husband in his religion as Michal did, the marital relation is much affected by it.

The reconciliation of the declaration in 2Sa 6:23 that Michal to the day of her death had no children, with the declaration in 2Sa 21:8 that there were five sons of Michal, is this: In the second passage the word Michal should be Merab, the older sister of Michal, who was married to Adriel, the Meholathite, and bare him five sons who were gibbeted to appease the wrath of the Gibeonites.

Fleeing from Saul, David rightly seeks refuge with Samuel at Ramah, and Samuel took him to Naioth of Ramah. Being banished from the king, quite naturally and appropriately he sought the prophet, and when he came to Samuel, the prophet took him from Ramah to Naioth; that means the Seminary, buildings where the school of the prophets was assembled, as if we had said, “He went from Waco to Fort Worth and to Naioth of Fort Worth,” i.e., the Seminary of Fort Worth. That is a very important passage. It refers to the buildings in which the school of the prophets assembled for instruction. But Saul’s relentless hate toward David manifested itself in this place of refuge. Hearing that David was there, he sent messengers to take him, but when the messengers came within the orbit of influence of that school of the prophets the spirit of the prophets fell on the messengers and they prophesied. This happened three times in succession. Finally Saul came himself, and it fell on him so violently that he tore off his outer clothing and in an ecstasy of prophesying fell down in a trance before Samuel and remained in that helpless condition all night long.

The compliment to Naioth is this: A number of God’s people, together studying his word, filled with his Spirit, the spiritual atmosphere of the place becomes a bar against the approach of evil. The evil-minded who come to mock remain to pray. I have seen revival meetings get to such power that emissaries of the devil, children of Belial, who would come there to break up the meeting, would be overpowered by its force. That was notably illustrated in the early days of Methodism, and particularly in the rise of the Cumberland Presbyterians. My son has given a very vivid account of that time, and of how wicked men would be seized with jerks and finally fall helpless into a trance when they attended these revival meetings.

The main points of David’s next attempt at self-protection are as follows: Doubtless through Samuel’s advice, David, while Saul lay in that trance, left Naioth and went back to make another appeal to Jonathan. The reason that he did this was that Jonathan, in his first intercession in behalf of David, had succeeded in pacifying the wrath of his father toward him. Their meeting is graphically described in the text. There isn’t a more touching passage in any piece of history than Jonathan’s solemn promise that if his father meant evil that he would inform David, and the plan they arranged to test whether Jonathan’s second attempt would be successful.

With the Jews the new moon was a sabbath, no matter on what day of the week it came, and they had a festival, and there was one just ahead. On these new moon festivals all of the official household of Saul had to be present, so it was arranged that when Saul observed that David’s place was vacant at that festival and he made inquiry about it, Jonathan would say, “He asked me to give him permission to go to his brother’s house and partake in the new moon sacrifices at home with his family,” then if Saul manifested no anger, that would be a sign that David could return. So on the second day of the new moon festival, Saul looked around, and seeing David’s seat empty on such an important occasion, directly asked Jonathan where he was, and Jonathan told him, according to the arrangement made with David, at which Saul became furious against Jonathan and denounced him in awful language, and when Jonathan makes his last appeal, Saul hurls a Javelin at him. Jonathan, insulted, outraged, gets up and leaves the table and goes out and shows David that it will never do to return to Saul, that he must seek refuge elsewhere, and they renew their covenant. Jonathan says, “I know you will be king, and I will be next to you, and when you are king be good to my family.” We will have some sad history on that later, about whether David did fulfil his solemn pledge to Jonathan to be good to Jonathan’s family when David had the power.

David next seeks refuge at Nob, where the priests and the’ tabernacle were not the ark that was at Kirjathjearim but the priests were assembled in the village of Nob with the high priest. David came, and did not relate to the priests the malice of Saul toward him, but came worn out, exhausted, famished with hunger, and the priest gives him to eat of the shew bread, unlawful for any but a priest to eat. The priest inquires through the Ephod what David wants to find out from Jehovah, and gives to him the sword of Goliath. You know I gave you a direction to trace that sword of Goliath’s; to ascertain what became of it. It had been carried to the tabernacle at Nob, and the priest gave it to David. David left there because he saw a rascal in the crowd, Dog, the Automat, one of Saul’s “lick-spittle” followers, and he said to the high priest, “That fellow will tell all of this to Saul when he gets back home.”

The New Testament reference to that is when the Pharisees were springing questions on our Lord he showed them that the sabbath law, like other laws, always had exceptions in cases of judgment, mercy, and necessity. Though it be the sabbath day when a man found an ass crushed under his burden or an ox in the ditch, he must work to relieve that poor beast, so, while it was against the law for anybody but a priest to eat the shew bread, yet, in a case of necessity, David being famished, the priest did right to give him the shew bread and he did right to eat it.

What the result? We learn that when this Dog went back and told Saul, he sent for the whole family of the priests and they came, and he demanded why they had sheltered and fed his enemy and used the Ephod in his behalf. The high priest explained. Saul told him that everyone of them should die, but he could find no officer who would put them to death. It seemed to be sacrilegious, until Dog, this Automat, took great pleasure in killing all of them except one. Then Saul sent and destroyed, root and branch, women and children, the entire village and all the priests at Nob.

David’s next attempt to find a refuge failed, but he succeeded later. He went to Achish, the king of the Philistines at Gath, and they were not ready to greet him. They believed that he came upon an evil mission. They said he was the man that had brought all the ruin on the Philistines, concerning whom the women sang, “Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands.” To preserve himself from the danger of death that threatened him he feigned madness, and so deceived the king. A North American Indian would have done the same thing. They never shoot or strike the insane, believing them under the hand of a spirit.

David’s next effort at self-protection was at the cave of Adullam, and the record states that everyone that was in distress or in debt or discontented gathered unto him and he became a captain over them. Quite a number of mighty men, the greatest fighters then known to the world, came to him. A company came to him from Judah and Benjamin; his father’s household came, fearing that Saul would destroy them, so that he organized a fighting force of 400 men that has never been equalled by the same number of men. A little later we will see that it had grown to 600 men by other accessions. All of them were heroes and great fighters. Then there came to him Abiathar, the last one of the high priest’s family when Saul had destroyed the village of Nob, and there came to him some of the prophets, especially Gad, who remains with him all the time, and who wrote a part of the history we are discussing.

So that cave was the scene of the change in the fortunes of David. It makes little difference now whether he stays in Judah or goes anywhere else with that crowd back of him; nobody is able to harm him. It was at this time that he took his father and mother, who were old and couldn’t move swiftly with his fighting force, over to Moab, across the Jordan, doubtless relying upon the fact that Ruth, the Moabitess, was an ancestress of his, and the king of Moab sheltered the father and mother of David; but Gad, the prophet, admonishes David to leave Moab and go back to Judah. God would take care of him in his own land if he trusted him, and so he went back to Judah.

In view of Moab’s kindness to David’s family, the Jews acquit David of the severe measures adopted by him toward the Moabites at a later day, to the history of which we will come later. They say that the king of Moab murdered David’s father and mother who had been left in his charge, and that David swept them with fire and sword for it when he got to them.

The great sermons in our day which have been preached on this part of David’s career are: (1) Melville’s sermon on David’s feigning madness at the court of Achish. A remarkable sermon. (2) Spurgeon’s great sermon on the Cave of Adullam from the text, “And every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him, and he became a captain over them.” Spurgeon used that to illustrate how a similar class of people gathered around Christ, and he became a captain over them. Everyone that was in debt, or distress, or sick, or poverty-stricken, whatever the ailment, or in despair about the affairs of life, came to Jesus and be became a captain over them. It is a great sermon.

QUESTIONS

1. Trace in the Old Testament the usage of the word, “teraphim,” which occurs in chapter 1Sa 19:13 : “And Michal took the teraphim, and laid it in the bed, and puts a pillow of goat’s hair at the head thereof and covered it with the “clothes,” answering the following questions: (1) Is the word, “teraphim,” ever used in a good sense? (2) What was it? (3) Was its use a violation of the first or second commandment? (4) What is the meaning of such an image being in David’s house? (5) Show how in history the use of images became a dividing line between Romanists and Protestants, and what the danger of their use, even as a help toward the worship of God.

2. What bearing has Michal’s teraphim on her wifely relation to David, and what the proofs in later times?

3. Fleeing from Saul, with whom does David rightly seek refuge, and what the distinction between Ramah and Naioth in 1Sa 19:18-19 ?

4. How does Saul’s relentless hate toward David manifest itself in this place of refuge, what the result, and what the compliment to Naioth?

5. Give the main points of David’s next attempt at self-protection, show why he resorted to it, and what the result.

6. With whom next does David seek refuge, what the main incidents, what the New Testament reference thereto, why did David leave that refuge, and what the results to the priests for sheltering him?

7. What was David’s next attempt to find a refuge, why did it fail this time but succeed later, what was David’s expedient to escape from the danger, and why did that expedient succeed?

8. What was David’s next effort at self-protection, what accessions came to him, and what was the result on his future fortunes?

9. In view of the Moab’s kindness to David’s family, how do the Jews acquit David of the severe measures adopted by him toward the Moabites at a later day?

10. What great sermons in our day have been preached on this part of David’s career?

Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible

1Sa 22:1 David therefore departed thence, and escaped to the cave Adullam: and when his brethren and all his father’s house heard [it], they went down thither to him.

Ver. 1. David therefore departed thence. ] Full glad he was so fairly delivered; and got to a place where he might, to the glory of God, his Sospitator, compose that most elegant and excellent thirty-fourth Psalm.

And escaped to the cave of Adullam. ] Which was in the tribe of Judah, saith Lyra: a a place fortified by nature, saith Adrichomius, insomuch as that the Christians do there still shelter and secure themselves, – namely, from the force and spoil of the Turks that come to plunder and rob them.

And when his brethren, &c. ] Who had, it is likely, suffered for his sake, by Saul’s cruelty. Christ’s friends shall be sure to be hated of all men, Mat 10:22 Joh 15:19-21 and to suffer many things for the name of Jesus: they must be conformed unto him in sufferings, that he may be the firstborn among many brethren. Rom 8:29

They went down thither to him. ] For mutual comfort, as Rom 1:11-12 .

a In trib. Jud., Num 201. In this country dwelt that hangby Hiram, Judah’s friend, or rather broker. – Gen. xxxviii.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Adullam. See Psa 57:1

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

Chapter 22

And he went from there, and he escaped to the cave at Adullam: and when his brethren and all his father’s house heard of it, they went down to him there. And every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him; and he became a captain over them: and there came about four hundred men ( 1Sa 22:1-2 ).

So from out of all the land, David began to gather together a band of men, a motley crew to be sure. Every one who was stressed, every one who was in debt, every one who was discontented. They gathered together with David down there at Adullam.

And David went from there to Mizpeh of Moab ( 1Sa 22:3 ):

So he actually crossed over in the area of the Dead Sea, went over to the other side to Moab and there he established his family. Now he knew that Saul’s anger against him would ultimately turn against his family.

So he said to the Moabites, Let my father and my mother dwell here, until I find out what God’s gonna do with me. And so he brought them before the king of Moab: and they dwelt with the king of Moab all the while that David was in the hold ( 1Sa 22:3-4 ).

Verse four. Now the word “hold” is “Masada”, and there are those who believe that actually David was there in the hold, or in the fort of Masada which of course was later really developed by king Herod as a winter palace and a fortress. So it is possible David was down in that area of the Dead Sea. It is possible that this is indeed a reference to Masada, but he was there in the hold or in the fort wherever it might have been.

Now I want you to put a little note here to read Psa 57:1-11 and Psa 142:1-7 . Both of these psalms were written at this particular time of David’s experiences. So I want you to go home tonight and read these two psalms, but I want you to be thinking now of the background of these two psalms as David writes Psa 47:1-9 , and Psa 57:1-11 rather, and Psa 142:1-7 . He’s down there, Saul is pursuing him. He’s just taken his parents to safety over in Moab. He’s hiding there in the wilderness area down near the Dead Sea.

And the prophet Gad said to David, Abide not [in the fortress, or] in the hold, [Masada] depart and get thee to the land of Judah. Then David departed, and came into the forest of Hareth. [Now a prophet by the name of Gad, whoever he was, told David not to stay there but to get into Judah.] So when Saul heard that David was discovered, and the men that were with him, (now Saul was staying in Gibeah under a tree in Ramah, having his spear in his hand, and all of his servants were standing around him;) Then Saul said to his servants that stood around him, Hear now, ye Benjamites; this son of Jesse, will he give every one of you fields and vineyards, and make all of you captains of the thousands, and captains of hundreds; That all of you have conspired against me ( 1Sa 22:5-8 ),

In other words he is saying, “Hey, you Benjamites, I’m a Benjamite. Look what I’ve done for you. If you elect me president, I’ll do this and this and this,” sort of a political speech against David. “You know if David’s elected, if David’s elected king, he’s not gonna treat you Benjamites well. He’s from the house of Judah, you know Jesse, and so forth. He’s not gonna be as nice to you as I’ve been to you. He’s not gonna make you the captains over the thousands and the hundreds. He’s not gonna give you fields and all. Here look what I’ve done for you, and you guys are turned against me. You’re in favor of David instead of me. None of you will really tell me where he is. You’ve conspired against me.”

You haven’t shown me that my son Jonathan has made a league with David, there’s none of you that’s sorry for me? Then answers this Doeg [fellow] and he said, I saw this son of Jesse come to Nob, to Ahimelech the son of Ahitub. And he inquired of the Lord for him, [That is Ahimelech the priest inquired of the Lord for David.] and gave him food, and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine. So the king sent to call Ahimelech the priest, and all of his father’s house, and the priests that were there at Nob: and they all of them came to the king. Now Saul said, Hear now, thou son of Ahitub. And he answered, Here I am, my lord. And Saul said unto him, Why have you conspired against me? thou and the son of Jesse, in that you have given him bread, and a sword, and you have inquired of God for him, that he should rise against me, to lie in wait, as at this day? And Ahimelech answered the king, and said, And who is so faithful among all of your servants as David, which the king’s son in law, and goes at your bidding, and is honourable in thy house? Did I then begin to inquire of God for him? be it far from me: let not the king impute any thing unto his servant, nor to all of the house of my father: for thy servant knew nothing of all this, less or more ( 1Sa 22:8-15 ).

“What are you talking about? I don’t know what you’re talking about, Saul. I didn’t really conspire. I’m not against you, and you don’t have any servant that’s more faithful in all of your house than David.”

And the king said, You shall surely die, Ahimelech, you, and your father’s house. And the king said unto the footmen that stood about him, Turn, and slay the priests of the Lord; because their hand also is with David, and because they knew when he fled, and didn’t shew it to me. But the servants of the king would not put forth their hand to fall upon the priests of the Lord. But the king said to Doeg, Turn thou, and fall on the priests. And Doeg the Edomite turned, and he fell upon the priests, and slew them that day eighty-five persons that wore the priest’s gown. [Terrible, terrible crime.] And Nob, the city of the priests, he smote with the sword, both men women, children, little children that nursed, oxen, asses, sheep, with the edge of the sword. [That which he wouldn’t do against the enemies of God, he is now doing against the servants of God.] And one of the sons of Ahimelech whose name was Abiathar, escaped, and he fled after David. And Abiathar shewed David that Saul had slain the Lord’s priests. And David said to Abiathar, I knew it that day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul: I have occasioned the death of all of the persons of your father’s house. Stay with me, don’t be afraid: for he that seeks my life is seeking your life: but with me you’ll be safe ( 1Sa 22:16-23 ).

So the one escaped to David from the house of Ahimelech, and David felt really responsible for the death of all of those families. He knew that he made a mistake in letting this Doeg go. He should’ve killed him. “

Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary

Leaving Gath, David took refuge in the cave of Adullam, where there gathered to him a band of the outcasts of his own people. They are graphically described as those in “distress,” in “debt,” and “discontented.” It is quite possible that the condition of these people was the, result of the oppressions they had suffered under Saul. In any case, from the standpoint of Saul’s reign, they were considered dangerous people, and were outcast. What happened to them in their contact with David is revealed in the later history, when these men became the mighty men of the new kingdom. So far as David was concerned, this was a far safer position, and a worthier occupation than that to which he had been reduced in the court of Achish.

In the meanwhile Saul filled the cup of his iniquity by ordering the slaughter of the priests because Ahimelech had helped David. One of their number, Abiathar, escaped from the slaughter, and joined David in his hiding place. It is interesting to remember that he remained with David, and was loyal to him throughout his life and reign.

All these experiences of David, both in fear and in faith, experiences as they were of adversity and trial, were undoubtedly preparing him for the responsibilities that were to fall upon him when, in fulfilment of the divine purpose, he became king of the nation.

Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible

Captain of an Outlawed Band

1Sa 22:1-10

What a striking analogy there is between the gathering of these outlawed men to David, and the attraction of publicans and sinners, in all ages, to Christ! He also is outlawed by the prince of this world. To find Christ, we must go outside the camp, where He has set up the standard of His cross. How many of those who were in distress or in debt, or who were bitter of soul, 1Sa 22:2, r.v. margin, have gathered to Him and have been received! Rejected by all others, they have found an asylum in his heart of love, and out of such refugees He is founding a kingdom that can never be moved, and forming an army that will break forever the power of evil.

Notice Davids care for his parents. Our love to God should make us not less but more attentive to those to whom we are bound by natures ties. It is probable that Davids descent from Ruth, the Moabitess, may have suggested Moab as a suitable asylum; but in any case it was a wise precaution to shield the aged pair in the land of a neutral nation. In our experience, the warning of the prophet Gad has its counterpart in the gracious impressions of the Holy Spirit.

Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary

1Sa 22:1

Notice:-

I. David’s escape to the cave of Adullam. Sudden preferment is often followed by unexpected reverses. (1) It was a place of safety. (2) It was a place of comparative seclusion. (3) It was a place of earnest supplication. In that cave David sought forgiveness, protection, deliverance. There is a cave of Adullam in every life. Doubt, persecution, sickness, bereavement, any of these may be our cave.

II. David’s associates in the cave of Adullam. (1) It was an affectionate association. (2) It was a mixed association. (3) It was a faithful association.

III. David’s thoughtfulness in the cave of Adullam. He proved his ardent attachment to his parents. (1) By his dangerous journey to promote their comfort. “David went thence to Moab.” (2) By his earnest intercession to obtain protection for his parents. “Let my father and mother, I pray thee, come forth to be with you.” (3) By his special endeavour to secure respect for his parents, “He brought them before the king.”

IV. David’s departure from the cave of Adullam. (1) Good men receive timely direction from God. “Abide not in the hold.” (2) Good men receive minute direction from God. “Get thee into the land of Judah.” (3) Good men promptly obey the direction of God. “Then David departed.” We dare not resist the leadings of Divine Providence. There is a time coming when we must all depart. We must depart from our work, and wealth, and friends, and home, and life.

Parker, The City Temple, vol. i., p. 341.

References: 1Sa 22:1, 1Sa 22:2.-F. W. Krummacher, David the King of Israel, p. 131. 1Sa 22:1-5.-Homiletic Magazine, vol. vii., p. 211. 22:5-23:28.-W. M. Taylor, David King of Israel, p. 79. 1Sa 22:22.-T. Coster, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xx., p. 393.. 1Sam 22-Parker, vol. vii., p. 28. 1Sa 23:14.-F. W. Krummacher, David the King of Israel, p. 149. 1Sa 23:16.-J. Thain Davidson, Talks with Young Men, p. 247. 1Sa 23:19.-Parker, vol. vii., p. 76. 1Sa 23:19, 1Sa 23:20.-J. M. Neale, Sermons for the Church Year, vol. ii., p. 112. 1Sa 23:28.-J. Van Oosterzee, Year of Salvation, vol. ii., p. 439. 1Sam 23-Parker, vol. vii., p. 34. 1Sam 24-R. Lorimer, Bible Studies in Life and Truth, p. 231; W. M. Taylor, David King of Israel, p. 95.

Fuente: The Sermon Bible

CHAPTER 22

1. In the cave of Adullam (1Sa 22:1-2)

2. In Moab and Gads message (1Sa 22:3-5)

3. Sauls discovery of Davids visit to Nob (1Sa 22:6-10)

4. The murder of the priests (1Sa 22:11-19)

5. David and Abiathar (1Sa 22:20-23)

Next we find him in the cave of Adullam (a witness). Here a strange company gathers around the rejected king. It consisted of 400 men. He became their captain. Some of them were in distress, others in debt, and discontented. Such were attracted to the rejected David. It was a blessed scene foreshadowing Him to whom all can gather who are in distress, who feel their debt, their sinfulness, their sorrow and their need. And a greater One than David is here. Our Lord rejected, but owned by those who acknowledge their need, has power to meet it all in the riches of His grace. They with their captain, the Lords anointed were outside of the camp. Such a place there is today for all who know Him, who is rejected of men and so much dishonored in that which claims and bears His name. Let us go forth therefore unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach (Heb 13:13). And later those who had gathered around David in the cave, and suffered with him, were specially remembered (2Sa 23:8-39). If we suffer we shall reign with Him (2Ti 2:12). Psalm 57 was written by David when he fled to the cave. And when he was in the cave he prayed. This prayer is embodied in Psalm 142. It was answered too when the Lord sent to him the 400 men. What food for meditation and reflection is here!

Then he came to Moab. His father and mother were there with him. He thought of making his nest there, yea, more than a nest, a hold; it was not according to the mind of the Lord. His ancestress of blessed memory, Ruth, the Moabitess, had left the land of Moab to dwell in Israel; her great-grandson David leaves the land to dwell in Moab. Again it was unbelief. He tried to escape the troubles which were in store for him. He had to learn patience and endurance. Therefore the Lord sent the prophet Gad with the message to depart. In all his unbelief and failures the Lord did not forsake him, but His watchful, loving eye followed His rejected servant. He cared and provided for him. No harm could reach him. He was not in Sauls hands but in the hands of the Lord. And this is our happy lot. In a psalm he saith Thou tellest all my wanderings.

A frightful scene follows. Doeg the Edomite tells Saul of what happened at Nob. Saul, demonized Saul, orders the slaughter of the priests and while the servants of Saul refused the bloody work, the Edomite executed the command. Abiathar the son of murdered Ahimelech told David. He knew of Doegs words to Saul about the shelter Ahimelech had given him. At that time David wrote Psalm 52. Prophetically Doeg, the Edomite, is the type of that cunning man of sin.

Beautiful are Davids words to Abiathar (verse 23). They suggest the blessed assurance of salvation and preservation all receive who in faith turn to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)

David: 1Sa 21:10-15, Psa 34:1, Psa 57:1,*titles

the cave: Jos 12:15, Jos 15:35, 2Sa 23:13, 2Sa 23:14, 1Ch 11:15, Psa 142:1, *title Mic 1:3, Mic 1:15, Heb 11:38

Adullam: Adullam was a city of Judah; and, according to Eusebius, ten miles – Jerome says eleveneastward from Eleutheropolis.

Reciprocal: Gen 38:1 – Adullamite 2Sa 17:9 – he is hid 1Ch 11:16 – in the hold 2Ch 11:7 – Adullam Job 30:6 – dwell Psa 56:8 – tellest Eze 33:27 – in the caves

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

THE CAVE OF ADULLAM

David escaped to the cave Adullam.

1Sa 22:1

So well did David play his part that King Achish is deceived, and dismisses him, humorously remarking to his servants that he has enough mad men around him already, and does not care to increase their number.

Thus liberated, David flees to the cave of Adullam, not many miles from Gath; and as soon as it is known that he is again in the country, his father, his mother, and brethren join him, fearing, it may be, that Saul would kill them on suspicion, as he had the priests. Others also, who were in distress, or in debt, or discontented, gathered around David in this cave, until there was quite a company, about four hundred men, over whom he became captain.

I. Davids wild, rough soldiers were not freebooters, but seem to have acted as a kind of frontier guard against southern Bedouins and western Philistines for the sheep-farmers of the border, whom Sauls government was too weak to protect. In this desultory warfare, and in eluding the pursuit of Saul, against whom it is to be observed David never employed any weapon but flight, several years were passed. The effect of such life on his spiritual nature was to deepen his unconditional dependence on God; by the alternations of heat and cold, fear and hope, danger and safety, to temper his soul and make it flexible, tough and bright as steel. It evolved the qualities of a leader of men; teaching him command and forbearance, promptitude and patience, valour and gentleness. It won for him a name as the defender of the nation, as Nabals servant said of him and his men, They were a wall unto us, both by night and by day. And it gathered round him a force of men devoted to him by the enthusiastic attachment bred from long years of common dangers, and the hearty friendships of many a march by day, and nightly encampment round the glimmering watchfires, beneath the lucid stars.

II. Observe how tender and considerate David was of his mother and father.Deeming the cave of Adullam not a very safe or comfortable place for the old couple, he makes the long journey to Mizpeh of Moab, away on the other side of the Dead Sea to interview the king of Moab, and obtain permission for his parents to remain under his protection until his own affairs should be more settled. One of Davids ancestors was the Moabitess, Ruth; hence he experiences no difficulty in getting the king to agree to this arrangement. David was in bitter straits himself, but he had provided for his father and mother. How this reminds us of our blessed Lord, Who, even while hanging on the cross, remembered to provide for His mother.

Illustrations

(1) During the present age, Saul is on the throne, and the true David in hiding. But around him there is gathering in secret a host, before which the kingdoms of this world will be ultimately subdued. His recruits are drawn from those who are in distress and debt, bitter of soul. But He sends none of them away. He sympathises with their sorrows, pays their debts, and turns their bitterness to sweetness; and out of them raises an army of mighty men, all of whom are welded to Him by indissoluble ties. What the world counts as its dregs and riff-raff, its neer-do-wells, Jesus transmutes into saints, and his saints are all heroes.

(2) How sweetly David cared for his father and mother, and how tenderly God cared for him, yet nothing could avert the terrible results of his misdoings. As he had sown, so was he to reap. There is nothing to alleviate the lurid horror of this scene, except those encouraging words with which David welcomed Abiathar, when as a fugitive he fled to him for protection. Are they not addressed by the Lord Jesus to all who escape to Him? Abide with Me, may be rendered abide in Me. The binding the two lives into one bundle is so exactly the relationship between Him and us. Because He lives, we live also; indeed He is our life. With Him there is safeguard for us here and hereafter.

(3) These Adullamites formed the nucleus of the company which with David at their head established the greatest kingdom Israel ever knew. Meanwhile, in these years when his kingship was not acknowledged, and his followers were pilgrims enduring persecution and hardship, he was teaching them, and training them in patience, self-control, war, obedience, and faith. In the whole story of the setting up of Davids kingdom we see the analogy to the setting up of Christs kingdom. Satan, who was probably originally Gods appointed representative on the earth, has been (like Saul) rejected, but still holds the throne of the world. But his time is short. The King of Gods choosing, Christ, is soon to reign supreme. Satan has tried repeatedly to kill this rightful King, and all who would identify themselves with Him, although he knows he is fighting against God in so doing.

Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary

1Sa 22:1. To the cave of Adullam Which was a strong hold in the tribe of Judah, 1Ch 11:15; Jos 15:35. This place, fortified by nature, is so fitted for the security of persons in distress, according to Dr. Delaney, that it hath frequently given a refuge from the Turks to the Christians, who fled thither with their families, flocks, and herds. As it was in the tribe of Judah, and David belonged to that tribe, he might, perhaps, flee to it in hopes of finding some friends in those parts. And his brethren, &c., went down thither to him Either to comfort him, or to secure themselves from the fury of Saul, who, they thought, might probably wreak upon them his hatred to David.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

1Sa 22:10. He enquired of the Lord for him. This was a lie, which Doeg invented to ingratiate himself with Saul: 1Sa 22:22. Psa 52:3.

1Sa 22:16. Thou shalt surely die: another rash oath, in which the words of an informer were received before the attestations of the Lords anointed. Several hundreds of persons must have perished by this stroke; eighty five priests wearing their linen ephods over their breasts and shoulders, their wives and children, labourers and servants. The LXX read three hundred and five; Josephus three hundred and eighty five persons. Innocent blood, now shed, to purge temporally the stains of Elis house. These priests came in their robes, as is still the custom of the clergy at levees. When Napoleon was in Flanders, the protestant ministers came in their robes, and were politely received; but the catholic priests came in their usual clothes, and the emperor asked them whether they were attorneys?

REFLECTIONS.

Continuing the history of the Lords anointed in exile, we follow him from Gath to the cave of Adullam, a fortress of strength, and very deep. Here valiant men resorted to him; Joab, Abishai, &c. Here he laid the foundation of his own power, not against Saul, but for the defence of his life, and the kingdom.

In this perilous and eventful situation he kept his eye on God, and on the hope of his anointing. He touched not the flocks of his neighbour, but subsisted on the spoil of his enemies, on the gifts of his friends, and what the desert would produce. The wicked who came to share in his hopes he reformed; for he declared that no liar should be near his person, and that no man should serve him who did not serve the Lord. The work of righteousness shall stand, while the counsel of the wicked is brought to nought.

We may farther add, the man who fears God will revere his parents. Jesse, now more than a hundred years of age, terrified at Sauls cruelty and crimes, durst not remain under his power, but fled to share the fortunes of his son, who discovered the utmost filial piety in soliciting a retreat for his father and mother with the king of Moab; for by Ruth they were descended from that country. David prospered in adversity. Not only valiant men, but those exposed to imprisonment for debt, and those who were oppressed with poverty and the heavy hand of power, resorted to him. What a blessing that he could afford afflicted men a refuge, and mitigate the rigours of justice, though he had scarcely a refuge for himself. So our blessed Lord, poor and despised in the world, is the sinners friend. He pays their debts, and delivers their souls from the power of Satan and the dominion of sin. Davids encrease of strength made Saul afraid. He intimated that all his servants were traitors; that none of them had discovered to him either Davids conspiracy, or Jonathans league. Guilt is jealous. Saul now seeking Davids life, naturally feared that David sought his life. Saul was afraid of himself, and of every one about his person. Surely the Spirit of God had departed from him.

Bad masters make bad servants. Sauls wickedness and fears stirred up the lurking wickedness of Doeg the Edomite. This man had eaten bread at Davids table, and was at Nob when David fled to Ahimelech, probably to purge himself from some sin. This man had never suspected David of treason till he heard Saul suspect him. Now he avails himself of the kings passion to ingratiate himself into the royal favour. He gives a false turn to every fact; he never once adds, that Ahimelech received him with fear, and altogether as Sauls friend. Nay, he adds falsehood to guile. He says that Ahimelech had enquired of God for him. David did not ask him to enquire; and the unfortunate journey to Gath shows that he did not go thither by divine appointment. How unsafe is the life of man in the hands of the wicked; how unsafe is friendship with a Judas. Well: triumph wicked man, deceive and betray thy master with the kiss of kindness. Let thy counsel succeed: smite the innocent with the sword, and God shall requite thy wickedness in full reward. Thou shalt presently fall inglorious with thy master on Gilboa; thy wife shall be a widow, and thy children vagabonds in the land.

See next the venerable Ahimelech in all his pontifical array, with eighty four sons and brethren in his train, conducted by a military escort to answer his accuser in the presence of Saul. Hear the aged man protest his innocence; and more than innocence; for in serving David he thought he was serving Saul. Hear him declare also that most of the priests never so much as knew of Davids visit till after he was gone. His tears, his language, his accents carry conviction to all that hear; so much so, that the guards hazard their own lives in the refusal to slay the priests. Doeg the accuser is compelled to be the executioner. Nor did the calamity stop here; the whole city of Nob must perish, because Saul, often guilty of rash swearing, had pronounced them accursed. And Gibeah, some way implicated, it is supposed, suffered about the same time.But, oh God, if it be lawful for a mortal to ask, Why didst thou suffer so many innocent people to fall; and why didst thou suffer the wicked to triumph, and lies to prosper? Who will serve thee; who will trust in thy word, if thou wilt not protect thine own, and the persons of thine anointed? Thou canst not, it is known in all the earth, thou canst not but be righteous; but why do clouds surround thy throne, and darkness attend thy paths? Were these a race of wicked and degenerate priests? Were they the roots of the long sentenced, the long spared, but still impenitent branches of Elis house? chap. 2. Did they still rob thee of the shoulder, and of the fat? Did they still ravish the women, and cause them to abhor the offering of the Lord? And would nothing purge thy sanctuary of crimes so foul, but the blood of the guilty? And to accomplish the terrors of thy justice, didst thou avail thyself of Davids well-intended errors; of Doegs malice, and of Sauls jealous and malignant temper! Oh adorable justice; the result of mercies long abused. Oh tragic Nob, still speak to the christian sanctuary. Let the men that handle thy covenant be sanctified by thy judgments, that all the earth may fear thy name.Meanwhile, as a nation, let England be grateful that our lives are in the hands of juries, and that the sentence of the guilty is ascertained by law.

However tremendous the ultimate vengeance on Elis house, justice was still mixed with mercy. Abiathar, a hopeful branch, escaped to David, being left behind, as is supposed, to attend the altar. Now David will rise, and Saul will sink. He has in his hand a prophet to direct his steps, and a priest with the ephod to enquire of God. Let him wait in the school of adversity, till providence, in conformity to the pledges of his anointing, shall call him to the throne.

Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

1 Samuel 22. David at Adullam and Moab: Massacre at Nob (J).The series of narratives in ch. 22 may very well come from the same ancient document, and be the continuation of 1Sa 21:1-9.

1Sa 22:1 f. David takes refuge at Adullam (p. 31), about 12 miles SW. of Bethlehem: he is joined by his clan and by various unsatisfactory characters, to the number of about 400, i.e. he becomes a captain of bandits.

1Sa 22:3-5. David takes his father and mother for safety to the king of Moab at Mizpeh (not identified). According to Rth 4:21 f., Davids great-grandmother was a Moabitess, Ruth. The prophet Gad (cf. 2Sa 24:11, 1Ch 29:29) appears, and bids David leave Mizpeh and return to Judahprobably so with Syr., instead of, Abide not in the hold, i.e. Adullam, as the latter was in Judah.

1Sa 22:6-23 (J). Saul is sitting in state at Gibeah, under a tree on the height (so with RVm, not in Ramah), with his spear sceptre-wise in his hand, and his officers and courtiers about him; he hears from Doeg what has happened at Nob. He sends for the priests, and charges Ahimelech with treason. The priest protests that in helping the kings son-in-law, the commander of his bodyguard (HK; or chief of his subjects, ICC, with LXX, not and is taken into thy council), he thought he was serving a loyal servant of the king, and, therefore, the king himself. Nevertheless, Saul bids his guard slay the priests; but they refused, regarding their persons as sacred. However, a similar command to the Edomite Doeg was obeyed, and Doeg slew eighty-five priests who could work the ephodoracle; only Abiathar, one of the sons of Ahimelech, escaped and fled to David. Doubtless Saul would still have priests of his own, but the story does not mention them, and the primitive tradition in its extant form attaches special importance to the house of Eli.

1Sa 22:18. that did wear a linen ephod: so RV, rendering the Heb. text, which makes the ephod here the priestly garment (1Sa 2:18*); the above follows the LXX.

1Sa 22:19. Saul subjects Nob to the herem (see pp. 99, 114). Some regard this verse as a late addition.

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

David wrote Psa 34:1-22 at this time, which shows that he was truly restored to the Lord. Verse 4 of that Psalm is particularly significant, “I sought the Lord and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.” His painful experience was evidently profitable for him in that it drove him to the Lord. It seems therefore that the Lord guided him to escape to the cave Adullam. He did not have to remain lonely there for long. His reputation before the people could not but influence some to seek his leadership. His brothers (who were all older than he — ch.16:11) and others of his father’s house were attracted to take part with him in his exile.

Three other classes of people are mentioned as coming to him also: those who were in distress, those who were in debt and those who were discontented. This was not an elite gathering, but it illustrates the fact that necessity is often a large factor in people being drawn to take a stand for Christ when He is rejected, as in the present dispensation of the grace of God. Though it is true that we should not be guided by circumstances, yet God often orders our circumstances in such a way that we are driven by these people just as the Lord Jesus holds the place of leadership over His redeemed saints today. About 400 men were included in this company.

The history that follows proves that this group was not formed with any intention of opposing Saul, but rather because of their being attracted by respect for David. Believers today also must remember that our business is not to fight against established government, though it may be guilty of corrupt and unjust practices but rather to follow the Lord Jesus in personal devotion to Himself and to the truth of His word. David’s parents being no longer young, would find exile with David a rigorous experience, and David was likely apprehensive that his parents would be in danger of persecution by Saul if they were in their own home. Therefore he took them to Moab (v.3), asking the king of Moab to keep them under his protection until David’s circumstances were stabilized. This was not the resource of faith, but of natural expediency.

God intended David to learn by suffering: therefore the prophet Gad told David not to dwell in “the hold,” the cave Adullam, but go into Judah, there to be more exposed to danger (v.5).

David with his 400 men could certainly not remain hidden. Saul hears of him at a time when Saul’s servants are with him (v.6). Evidently he was suspicious that his own men might be induced to follow David, so he appeals to their natural greed. Would David give them fields and vineyards and make them captains of thousands and of hundreds? He accuses them of conspiring against him because they have not taken sides against Jonathan, his own son, whom he claims has been guilty of stirring up David against Saul. His language sounds like that of a petulant child, displeased because his men have not shown themselves sorry for him! It was not David who was stirred up against Saul, but Saul who had stirred himself up against David. But such is the twisted reasoning of self-centered men.

This gives occasion to Doeg the Edomite to deceitfully seek Saul’s favor. Nor only did he inform Saul of David’s visit to Ahimelech the priest, but embellished his account by adding the falsehood that Ahimelech had enquired of God for David (v.10). The fact that Saul employed an Edomite in a responsible position indicates a serious lack of discernment on Saul’s part, and he ought to have known better than to accept his word without question. But Saul’s unreasonable prejudice against David outweighed any sensible consideration of simple facts.

He summoned not only Ahimelech, but all his relatives, the priests who were at Nob, not to enquire if Doeg’s words were true, but to unjustly accuse them all of conspiracy together with David against Saul. This was totally false, as was his assumption that what Ahimelech had done for David was with the motive of having David raise insurrection against Saul (v.13). Neither David nor Ahimelech had any such motives.

Ahimelech’s answer (vs.14-15) was straightforward and honorable. He reminded the king that David had established a reputation of being a faithful servant of Saul, willingly taking orders from him. This was reason enough that Ahimelech should give him bread and a sword. However, he denied that he had even begun to enquire of God for David, for this was not true. Nor did he know anything of any friction existing between Saul and David. On the very face of things Ahimelech was thoroughly innocent.

However, the truth had no effect on Saul’s cold blooded arrogance. He sentenced Ahimelech and all the priests to an immediate death, only because of his unreasoning fear and hatred of David. The soldiers, being ordered to kill the priests were sensible enough to disobey Saul’s foolish command, particularly so because these men were priests of the Lord (v.17). The soldiers at least realized they would have to answer to the Lord for such an atrocious action: they were engaged to fight ENEMIES, not their own people Israel.

This does not bother the conscience of Doeg the Edomite, however. When Saul orders him to kill the priests, he gladly indulges in this cowardly slaughter, for none had a weapon to withstand him, and it is likely that he would as soon kill Israelite priests as anyone else. Yet, who can doubt that Saul’s own conscience would afterward painfully accuse him for the awful guilt of the murder of 85 priests of the Lord?

However, it was not only this: Doeg’s thirst for blood did not abate until he had gone through Nob, the city of the priests, killing both men and women, little children and domesticated animals (v.19). What honorable person in Israel would not be appalled at this indiscriminate wicked rampage of cold blooded murder? Being ordered by the king only increased the horror of it.

One son of Ahimelech escaped, however, and went to David, the only possible refuge at the time. When he gave the report to David of all that had transpired, David felt himself responsible for occasioning the death of the priests, for, as he said, he knew that Doeg would be an informer when he saw him at Nob (v.22). One wonders what David could have done to protect the priests, but no doubt he did not expect so great a slaughter as took place. The comforting words of David to Abiathar remind us of the Lord’s care for those who take a place of rejection with Him: “Stay with me, do not be afraid, for he who seeks my life seeks your life: for you are safe with me” (v.23).

Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible

22:1 David therefore departed thence, and escaped to the cave {a} Adullam: and when his brethren and all his father’s house heard [it], they went down thither to him.

(a) Which was in the tribe of Judah, near Bethlehem.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

David’s flight to Adullam 22:1-2

The town of Adullam (lit. refuge) stood a mile or two south of the Elah Valley, where David had slain Goliath, and about 10 miles east-southeast of Gath. There are many huge caves in the limestone hills in that area, several of which can accommodate over 400 people. Evidently David’s family was no longer safe from Saul in Bethlehem, which was 10 miles east-northeast of Adullam.

"If Saul would attack his own family (1Sa 20:33), there was no telling what he might do to David’s." [Note: Gordon, I & II Samuel . . ., p. 172.]

David now became the leader of a group of people who, for various reasons, had become discontented with Saul’s government. One cannot read 1Sa 22:2 without reflecting on how needy people later sought and now seek refuge in David’s greatest son, Jesus Christ. This growing movement of support behind David led eventually to his crowning as king of all Israel.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

CHAPTER XXIX.

DAVID AT ADULLAM, MIZPEH, AND HARETH.

1Sa 22:1-23.

THE cave of Adullam, to which David fled on leaving Gath, has been placed in various localities even in modern times; but as the Palestine Exploration authorities have placed the town in the valley of Elah, we may regard it as settled that the cave lay there, not far indeed from the place where David had had his encounter with Goliath. It was a humble dwelling for a king’s son-in-law, nor could David have thought of needing it on the memorable day when he did such wonders with his sling and stone. These “dens and caves of the earth” – effects of great convulsions in some remote period of its history – what service have they often rendered to the hunted and oppressed! How many a devout saint, of whom the world was not worthy, has blessed God for their shelter! With how much purer devotion and loftier fellowship, with how much more sublime and noble exercises of the human spirit have many of them been associated, than some of the proudest and costliest temples that have been reared in name – often little more – to the service of God!

If David at first was somewhat an object of jealousy to his own family in this the day of his trials they showed a different spirit, ”When his brethren and all his father’s house heard of it, they went down thither to him.” As the proverb says, “Blood is thicker than water,” and often adversity draws families together between whom prosperity has been like a wedge. If our relations are prospering while we are poor, we think of them as if they had moved away from us; but when their fortunes are broken, and the world turns its back on them, we get closer, our sympathy revives. We think all the better of David’s family that when they heard of his outlaw condition they all went down to him. Besides these, ”every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him; and he became a captain over them; and there were with him about four hundred men.” The account here given of the circumstances of this band is not very flattering, but there are two things connected with it to be borne in mind: in the first place, that the kind of men who usually choose the soldier’s calling are not your men of plodding industry, but men who shrink from monotonous labour; and, in the second place, that under the absolute rule of Saul there might be many very worthy persons in debt and discontented and in distress, men who had come into that condition because they were not so ready to cringe to despotism as their ruler desired. Mixed and motley therefore though David’s troop may have been, it was far from contemptible; and their adherence was fitted greatly to encourage him, because it showed that public feeling was with him, that his cause was not looked on as desperate, that his standard was one to which it was deemed safe and hopeful to resort.

But if, at the first glance, the troop appeared somewhat disreputable, it was soon joined by two men, the one a prophet, the other a priest, whose adherence must have brought to it a great accession of moral weight. The prophet was Gad (1Sa 22:5), who next to Samuel seems to have stood highest in the nation as a man of God, a man of holy counsel, and elevated, heavenly character. His open adherence to David (which seems to be implied in ver. 5) must have had the best effects both on David himself and on the people at large. It must have been a great blessing to David to have such a man as Gad beside him; for, with all his personal piety, he seems to have required a godly minister at his side. No man derived more benefit from the communion of saints, or was more apt to suffer for want of it; for, as we have seen, he had begun to decline in spirituality when he left Samuel at Naioth, and still more when he was parted from Jonathan. When Gad joined him, David must have felt that he was sent to him from the Lord, and could not but be full of gratitude for so conspicuous an answer to his prayers. It would seem that Gad remained in close relation to David to the close of his life. It was he that came from the Lord to offer him his choice between three forms of chastisement after his offence in numbering the people; and from the fact of his being called ”David’s seer” (2Sa 24:11) we conclude that he and David were intimately associated. It was he also that instructed David to buy the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite, and thus to consecrate to God a spot with which, to the very end of time, the most hallowed thoughts must always be connected.

The other eminent person that joined David about this time was Abiathar the priest. But before adverting to this, we must follow the thread of the narrative and especially note the tragedy that occurred at Nob, the city of the priests.

From the mode of life which David had to follow and the difficulty of obtaining subsistence for his troop at one place for any length of time, he was obliged to make frequent changes. On leaving the cave of Adullam, which was near the western border of the tribe of Judah, he traversed the whole breadth of that tribe, and crossing the Jordan, came to the territories of Moab. He was concerned for the safety of his father and mother, knowing too well the temper of Eastern kings, and how they thirsted for the blood, not only of their rivals, but of all their relations. He feared that they would not be let alone at Bethlehem or in any other part of Saul’s kingdom. But what led him to think of the king of Moab? Perhaps a tender remembrance of his ancestress Ruth, the damsel from Moab, who had been so eminent for her devotion to her mother-in-law. Might there not be found in the king of Moab somewhat of a like disposition, that would look with pity on an old man and woman driven from their home, not indeed, like Naomi, by famine, but by what was even worse, the shameful ingratitude and murderous fury of a wicked king? If such was David’s hope, it was not without success; his father and his mother dwelt with the king of Moab all the time that David was in the hold.

But it was not God’s purpose that David should lurk in a foreign land. The prophet Gad directed him to return to the land of Judah. It was within the boundaries of that tribe, accordingly, that the rest of David’s exile was spent, with the exception of the time at the very end when he again resorted to Philistine territory. His first hiding-place was the forest of Hareth.

While David was here, Saul, encamped in military state at Gibeah, delivered an extraordinary speech to the men of his own tribe. “Hear now, ye Benjamites; will the son of Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards, and make you all captains of thousands, and captains of hundreds; that all of you have conspired against me, and there is none that showeth me that my son hath made a league with the son of Jesse, and there is none of you that is sorry for me, or that showeth me that my son hath stirred up my servant against me, to lie in wait, as at this day?” It would have been difficult for any other man to condense so much that was vile in spirit into the dimensions of a little speech like this. It begins with a base appeal to the cupidity of his countrymen, the Benjamites, among whom he was probably in the habit of distributing the possessions of his enemies, as, for instance, the Gibeonites, who dwelt near him, and whom he slew, contrary to the covenant made with them by Joshua (2Sa 21:2). It accuses his people of having conspired against him, because they had not spoken to him of the friendship of his son with David, although that fact must have been notorious. It accuses the noble Jonathan of having stirred up David against Saul, while neither Jonathan nor David had ever lifted a little finger against him, and both the one and the other might have been trusted to serve him with unflinching fidelity if he had only given them a fair chance. It indicates that nothing would be more agreeable to Saul than any information about David or these connected with him that would give him an excuse for some deed of overwhelming vengeance. Did ever man draw his own portrait in viler colours than Saul in this speech?

There was one bosom – let us hope only one – in which it awoke a response. It was that of Doeg the Edomite. He told the story of what he had seen at Nob, adding thereto the unfounded statement that Ahimelech had inquired of the Lord for David. Ahimelech and the whole college of priests were accordingly sent for, and they came. The charge brought against him was a very offensive one; in so far, it was a statement of facts, but of facts placed in an odious light, of facts coloured with a design which Ahimelech never entertained. Oh, how many an innocent man has suffered in this way! Even in courts of justice, by pleaders whose interest is on the other side, and some- times by judges (like Jeffreys) steeped in hatred and prejudice, how often have acts that were quite innocent been put to the account of treason, or put to the account of malice, or cunningly forged into a chain, indicating a deliberate design to injure another! It can never be too earnestly insisted on that to be just to a man you must not merely ascertain the real facts of his case, but you must put the facts in their true light, and not colour them with prejudices of your own or with suppositions which the man repudiates.

The conduct of Ahimelech was manly and straight- forward, but indiscreet. He admitted the facts, with the exception of the statement that he had inquired of the Lord for David. He vindicated right manfully the faithful, noble services of David, services that ought to have excluded the very idea of treason or conspiracy. He protested that he knew nothing of any ground the king had against David, or of any cause that could have led him to believe that in helping him he was offending Saul. But just because Ahimelech’s defense was so true and so complete, it was most offensive to Saul. What is there a despot likes worse to hear than that he is entirely in the wrong? What words irritate him so much as those which prove the entire innocence of someone with whom he is angry? Saul was angry both with David and with Ahimelech. Ahimelech had the great misfortune to prove to him that in both cases there was no shadow of ground for his anger. In proportion as Saul’s reason should have been satisfied, his temper was excited. What an uncontrollable condition that temper must have been in when the death of Ahimelech was decreed, and all his father’s house! We do not wonder that no one could be found in his bodyguard to execute the order. Did this not stagger and sober the king? Far from it. His fit of rage was so hot and imperious that he would not be baulked. Turning to Doeg, he commanded him to fall on the priests. And this vile man had the brutality to execute the order, and to plunge his sword into the heart of fourscore and five unarmed persons that wore the garments which even in heathen nations usually secured protection and safety. And as if it were not enough to kill the men, their city, Nob, was utterly destroyed. Men and women, children and sucklings, oxen and asses and sheep- a thorough massacre was made of them all. Had Nob been a city of warriors that had resisted the king’s armies with haughty insolence, harassed them by sorties, entrapped them by stratagems, and exasperated them by hideous cruelty to their prisoners, but at last been overpowered, 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.

This cruel and sacrilegious murder must have told against Saul and his cause with prodigious effect. There could not have been a single priest or Levite throughout the kingdom whose blood would not boil at the news of the massacre, and whose sympathies would not be enlisted, more or less, on behalf of David, now openly proclaimed by Saul as his rival, and probably known to have been anointed by Samuel as his successor. Not only the priests and Levites, but every right-minded man throughout the land would share in this feeling, and many a prayer would be offered for David that God would protect him, and spare him to be a blessing to his country. The very presence in his camp of Abiathar, the son of Ahimelech, who escaped the massacre, with his ephod, – an official means of consulting God in all cases of difficulty,- would be a visible proof to his followers and to the community at large, that God was on his side. And when the solemn rites of the national worship were performed in his camp, and when, at each turn of public affairs, the high priest was seen in communication with Jehovah, the feeling could not fail to gain strength that David’s cause was the cause of God, and the cause of the country, and that, in due time, his patient sufferings and his noble services would be crowned with the due reward.

But if the news of the massacre would tend on the whole to improve David’s position with the people, it must have occasioned a terrible pang to David himself. There was, indeed, one point of view in which something of the kind was to be looked for. Long ago, it had been foretold to Eli, when he tolerated so calmly the scandalous wickedness of his sons, “Behold, the days come that I will cut off thine arm, and the arm of thy father’s house, but there shall not be an old man in thine house. And thou shalt see an enemy in My habitation, in all the wealth which God shall give Israel: and there shall not be an old man in thy house forever.” Ahimelech was a grandson of Eli, and the other massacred priests were probably of Eli’s blood. Here, then, at last, was the fulfillment of the sentence announced to Eli; doomed as his house had been, their subsistence for years back was of the nature of a respite; and here, at length, was the catastrophe that had been so distinctly foretold.

That consideration, however, would not be much, if any, consolation to David. If the falsehood which he had told to Ahimelech was really dictated by a desire to save the high priest from conscious implication with his affairs – with the condition of one who was now an outlaw and a fugitive, it had failed most terribly of the desire defect. The issue of the lie only served to place David’s duplicity in a more odious light. There is one thing in David, when he received the information, that we cannot but admire – his readiness to take to himself his full share of blame. “I have occasioned the death of all thy father’s house.” And more than that, he did not even protest that it was impossible to have foreseen what was going to happen. For at the very time when he was practicing the falsehood on Ahimelech, he owns that he had a presentiment of mischief to follow. “I knew it that day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul.” Nor did he excuse himself on the ground that the massacre was the fulfillment of the longstanding sentence on Eli’s house He knew well that that circumstance in no degree lessened his own guilt, or the guilt of Doeg and Saul. Though God may use men’s wicked passions to bring about His purposes, that in no degree lessens the guilt of these passions. It seems as if David never could have forgiven himself his share in this dreadful business. And what a warning this conveys to us! Are you not sometimes tempted to think that sin to you is not a very serious matter, because you will get forgiveness for it, the atoning work of the Saviour will cleanse you from its guilt? Be it so; but what if your sin has involved others, and if no atoning blood has been sprinkled on them? What of the youth whom your careless example first led to drink, and who died a miserable drunkard? What of the clerk whom you instructed to tell a lie? What of the companion of your sensuality whom you drove nearer to hell? Alas, alas! sin is like a network, the ramifications of which go out on the right hand and on the left, and when we break God’s law, we cannot tell what the consequences to others may be! And how can we be ever comforted if we have been the occasion of ruin to any? It seems as if the burden of that feeling could never be borne; as if the only way of escape were, to be put out of existence altogether!

The superscription of the fifty-second Psalm bears – “Maschil of David; when Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul, David is come to the house of Ahimelech.” There is not much in this title to recommend it, as the information that was given by Doeg to Saul is not stated accurately. We might have expected, too, that if Doeg was alone in the Psalmist’s eye, the atrocious slaughter of the priests would have had a share of reprobation, as well as the sharp, calumnious, mischievous tongue which is the chief object of denunciation. And though Doeg, as the chief of Saul’s bondmen, might be a rich man, that position would hardly have entitled him to be called a mighty man, nor to assume the swaggering tone of independence here ascribed to him. Whoever was really the object of denunciation in this psalm, seems however to have belonged to the same class with Doeg, in respect of his wicked tongue and love of mischief. It is indeed a wretched character that is delineated: the Psalmist’s enemy is at once mischievous and mighty; and not only is he mischievous, but he boasts himself in it. He is shameless and without conscience, bent on doing all the evil that he can. Let him only have a chance of bringing a railing accusation against God’s servants, and he does it with delight. But his conduct is senseless as it is wicked. God is unchangeably good, and His goodness is a sure defense to His servants against all the calumnious devices of the greatest and strongest of men. It is the tongue of this evil man that is his instrument of mischief. It is utterly unscrupulous, sharp as a razor, cunning, devouring. A liar is a serious enemy, one who is utterly unprincipled, clever withal, and who trains him- self with great skill to do mischief with his tongue. It is painful to be at the mercy of a calumniator who does not launch against you a clumsy and incredible calumny, but one that has an element of probability in it, only fearfully distorted. Especially when the calumniator is one that deviseth mischief, who loves evil more than good, to whom truth is too tame to be cared for, who delights in falsehood because it is more piquant, more exciting. To those who have learned to regard it as the great business of life to spread light, order, peace, and joy, such men appear to be monsters, and indeed they are; but it is a painful experience to lie at their mercy.

To this class belonged Doeg, a monster in human form, to whom it was no distress, but apparently a congenial employment, to murder in cold blood a very hecatomb of men consecrated to the service of God. No doubt it would appall David to think that such a man was now leagued with Saul as his bitter and implacable enemy. But his faith saw him in the same prostrate position in which his faith had seen Goliath. Men cannot defy God in vain. Men dare net defy that truth and that mercy which are attributes of God. “God shall likewise destroy thee for ever: He shall take thee .away, and pluck thee out of thy dwelling-place, and root thee out of the land of the living. The righteous also shall see, and fear, and shall laugh at him.”

What became of Doeg we do not know. The historian does not introduce his name again. Before David came to power, he had probably received his doom. Had he still survived, we should have been likely again to fall in with his name. The Jews have a tradition that he was Saul’s armour-bearer at the battle of Gilboa, and that the sword by which he and his master fell, was no other than that which had slain the priests of the Lord. As for the truth of this we cannot say. But even supposing that no special judgment befell him, we cannot fancy him as other than a most miserable man. With such a heart and such a tongue, with the load of a guilty life lying heavy on his soul, and that life crowned by such an infamous proceeding as the massacre of the priests, we cannot think of him as one who enjoyed life, but as a man of surly and gloomy nature, to whom life grew darker and darker, till it was extinguished in some miserable ending. In contrast with such a career, how bright and how much to be desired was David’s anticipated future: – “I am like a green olive-tree in the house of my God: I trust in the mercy of God forever and ever. I will praise Thy name for ever, because Thou hast done it: and I will wait on Thy name, for it is good before Thy saints.”

“Many sorrows shall be to the wicked; but he that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about.”

Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary