1 Samuel 22:19

_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._ Nob ... smote he with the edge of the sword. The barbarous atrocities perpetrated against this city seem to have been designed to terrify all the subjects of Saul from affording either aid or an asylum to David. But they proved ruinous to Saul's own interest, as they alienated the priesthood, and disgusted all good men in the kingdom, (see the notes at 2 Samuel 21:1.)...

6-19 See the nature of jealous malice and its pitiful arts. Saul looks upon all about him as his enemies, because they do not just say as he says. In Ahimelech's answer to Saul we have the language of conscious innocence. But what wickedness will not the evil spirit hurry men to when he gets the dominion! Saul alleges that which was utterly false and unproved. But the most bloody tyrants have found instruments of their cruelty as barbarous as themselves. Doeg, having murdered the priests, went to the city, Nob, and put all to the sword there. Nothing so vile but those may do it, who have provoked God to give them up to their hearts' lusts. Yet this was the accomplishment of the threatenings against the house of Eli. Though Saul was unrighteous in doing this, yet God was righteous in permitting it. No word of God shall fall to the ground....

Verse 1 Samuel 22:19. _AND NOB - SMOTE HE WITH THE EDGE OF THE SWORD_] This is one of the worst acts in the life of Saul; his malice was implacable, and his wrath was cruel, and there is no motive of justice or policy by which such a barbarous act can be justified....

BOTH MEN AND WOMEN ... - The language employed in the case of the Amalekites 1 Samuel 15:3 and of Jericho Joshua 6:21. Nothing could be more truculent than Saul’s revenge....

EXPOSITION COMMENCEMENT OF DAVID'S LIFE AS AN OUTLAW. 1 SAMUEL 22:1 THE CAVE ADULLAM. According to Josephus this was situated near a city of the same name ('Ant.,' 1 Samuel 6:12, 1 Samuel 6:3), which formed one of a group of fifteen in the Shephelah (see on 1 Samuel 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

AND NOB, THE CITY OF THE PRIESTS, SMOTE HE WITH THE EDGE OF THE SWORD,.... Either Doeg or Saul; who, as Josephus i says, sent men thither to slay all the inhabitants of it: BOTH MEN AND WOMEN, CHILDREN AND SUCKLINGS; not sparing sex nor age: AND OXEN, AND ASSES, AND SHEEP, WITH THE EDGE OF THE SWORD; Saul, who was so tender hearted and merciful in the case of the Amalekites, when his orders from the Lord were utterly to destroy them, 1 Samuel 15:2, that he spared their king, and the best of their cattle, 1 Samuel 15:7; yet now so cruel to a city of the priests, as to destroy all the inhabitants of it, and cattle in it; and yet this bloody affair of Saul's is not taken notice of afterwards, only his slaughter of the Gibeonites,...

CHAPTER 22 _ 1. In the cave of Adullam (1 Samuel 22:1)_ 2. In Moab and Gad's message (1 Samuel 22:3) 3. Saul's discovery of David's visit to Nob (1 Samuel 22:6) 4. The murder of the priests (1 Samuel 22:11) 5. David and Abiathar (1 Samuel 22:20) 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 th

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 1 Samuel 21:1. 1 SAMUEL 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. 1 SAMUEL 22:3. David takes his father and mother for safety to the king of Moab at Mizpeh (not identified). According to Ruth 4:21 f., David's great-grandmother was a Moabitess, Ruth. The prophet Gad ...

Saul's vengeance on the priests of Nob 6. _that David was discovered_ Lit. "was known." Saul found out that some of his courtiers knew of David's hiding-place in the forest of Hareth. _now Saul abode_, &c. Render, NOW SAUL WAS SITTING AT GIBEAH UNDER THE TAMARISK TREE ON THE HEIGHT. We have here a vivid picture of a solemn conclave met to deliberate on affairs of state or to administer justice. The king sits in state under some venerable tamarisk (cp. 1 Samuel 14:2; Judges 4:5); his spear, the emblem of royalty (see on 1 Samuel 18:10), is in his hand; his servants, still chiefly the men of his own tribe (1 Samuel

DOEG—SLEW ON THAT DAY FOURSCORE AND FIVE PERSONS— Josephus says, that Doeg, taking to his assistance some men as wicked as himself, slew, in all, _three hundred and eighty-five_ persons. The LXX says _three hundred and five._ A robe of linen was the common dress of the priests, and it is what the historian means by a _linen ephod;_ very different from that of the high-priest. See chap. 1 Samuel 2:18. But why should all the priests have been involved in this barbarous massacre? Doeg mentions only Ahimelech as being applied to by David; and, in like manner, Saul himself, in the charge he brings against Ahimelech, accused him and David: _why have ye conspired against me, thou and the son of Jesse?_ without a syllable of any other priests. As to the priests not acquainting Saul with David's flight, why should they do it, if they were not informed of it, but believed, as David