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Ver. 8. That all of you have conspired against me.] And why? but because they were no more eager in pursuing of David, who yet were indeed too much estranged from him, and addicted to Saul. So we read of letters sent from King Philip and Queen Mary to bloody Bonner, complaining that heretics were not so reformed as they should be, and exhorting him to more diligence, &c. 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 counseller 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. That my son hath stirred up my servant.] It was neither so nor so: but only his jealous mind made him to think so, because David was come into the land with forces; and Jonathan absented himself from court ever since Saul cast a javelin at him. (1 Samuel 20:33) Pezel, Mell. Hist.
Ver. 9. Then answered Doeg.] So soon as ever the word was out of Saul’s mouth, concerning the preferring of such as should inform him against David, Doeg answered, snapping at that bait, and not sparing maliciously and slanderously to traduce an innocent, and one that so well deserved of the public. Thus was Scipio dealt with by Carbo, Alcibiades by Hyperbolus, Cicero by Clodius, &c. Habuerunt et suos cuculos omnes docti et heroici quolibet tempore. Every Zopyrus is sure to have his Zoilus, every David his Doeg, that will seek to raise himself upon the ruins of another. Which was set over the servants of Saul.] That is, Over his herdsmen; but that seemed to him to be too low a place. Ambition, like the crocodile, groweth as long as it liveth. I saw the son of Jesse.] This language he had learned of his master, Saul, whom he striveth to humour: as princes are never without their Aiones and Negones, that will say as they say, and not stick to lick up their very spittle. Coming to Nob, to Ahimelech.] With this Ahimelech Doeg had been, in pretence of great piety, not long before, “detained before the Lord.” (1 Samuel 21:7) [See Trapp on “1Sa 21:7”] Now he impeacheth him of high treason, making the worst of everything he said or did, as done by way of conspiracy with David against Saul; whose false suspicion of David he hereby confirmed, and is therefore rightly reputed a liar, (Psalms 52:3) and because, though he told the truth, yet he wrested it to an evil intention. He is no better than a slanderer, who uttereth the truth, not for any love to it, nor for respect to justice, nor for the bettering of the hearer or the delinquent, but only to disgrace the one and to incense the other.
Ver. 10. And he inquired of the Lord for him.] Herein, saith Lyra, some think he lied; and indeed he did, though he did not in 1 Samuel 22:15. [See Trapp on “1Sa 22:9”] The truth is, God owed a revenge to the house of Eli, and now, by the delation of Doeg, taketh occasion to pay it. But they are very slight arguments that are here brought against the high priest to prove him guilty of treason; not much unlike those brought against the Lady Elizabeth in her sister Queen Mary’s days.
Ver. 11. Then the king sent to call Ahimelech.] Under a pretence of justice, but himself will needs be both his accuser and his judge; and let him make never so good an apology, he must die for it; that is resolved on. And all his father’s house.] The remnant of Eli’s house, so long since doomed to destruction. (1 Samuel 2:31) If God’s word sleep, it shall not die; but, after long intermissions, breaks forth into those effects which we had forgotten to look for and ceased to fear.
Ver. 12. Here now, thou son of Ahitub.] This is the best title he can now find in his heart to give him whom he meant to condemn to die. And yet this was better language than Stephen Gardiner gave Dr Taylor, martyr, with whom he thus began at his very first appearance before him: Art thou come, thou villain? how darest thou look me in the face for shame? knowest thou not who I am? &c. Act. and Mon., 1381.
Ver. 13. Why have ye conspired against me?] This was in Tacitus’s days, Unicum crimen eorum qui omni crimine vacabant, the usual charge brought against the most innocent men; and is still. The Protestants of France, after the massacre of Paris, were reported, but falsely, to have conspired against the king, the queen mother, the king’s brethren, the king of Navarre and the princes of the blood; but the covering proved too short. Camden’s Elisab.
Ver. 14. And who is so faithful, &c.] This, some think, was not so wisely spoken by Ahimelech—viz., thus highly to commend David, whom he saw to be under so great displeasure now, whatever he had been formerly. Others hold that he did all in the honesty and integrity of his heart; giving David his due, and tacitly taxing Saul of tyranny. Peter Martyr.
Ver. 15. Be it far from me,] viz., To have any band in a treacherous conspiracy against my sovereign. As for sedition, said Latimer, for aught that I know, methinks I should not need Christ, if I may so say: I do so abhor the very thoughts of it.
Ver. 16. Thou shalt surely die, Ahimelech.] A bloody sentence, harshly pronounced and as rashly executed, without any pause or deliberation, without any remorse or regret. This was the worst act that ever Saul did, saith Theoderet: and a great cause of his destruction, saith Josephus. Serm. iii.
Ver. 17. And the king said unto the footmen.] Heb., The runners: who had run to fetch the priests from Nob to Saul, saith A. Lapide. Turn, and slay the priests of the Lord.] His anger was bent against the Lord himself, for taking away his kingdom, and giving it to another: and because he could not come at the Lord, therefore he wreaketh his rage upon his priests; like as the devil smote Job’s servants when he might not meddle with Job’s self. This seemeth to have been the very sin against the Holy Ghost. Because their hand also is with David.] This he speaketh, that he may not seem to have been mad without reason. In the Vatican hall, at Rome, is pictured the massacre of Paris: under one side of the picture is written, Coligni et sociorum caedes: on the other, Rex Coligni caedem probat. Money, also, was thereupon coined in France, in the forepart whereof, together with the king’s picture, was this inscription, Virtus in rebelles: and on the other side, Pietas excitavit Iustitiam, Piety hath stirred up justice., But the servants of the king would not.] This was well, but not all. Chrysostom blameth them, because they did not positively and effectually plead the cause of the priests before Saul, &c. Il Mercurio Italico, p. 42. Camden’s Elisab. In Ps. cxxxiv.
Ver. 18. And Doeg the Edomite.] Not the Syrian, as the Septuagint, by a mistake of letters, renders it, but the bloody Esavite. And he fell upon the priests.] Who were privileged persons in all nations, and spared even in battle, as were the bards here. And slew on that day forescore and five persons,] viz., By the help of his hacksters and assassins. Some say that Armoni and Mephibosheth, the two sons of Saul by his concubine Rizpa, who were afterwards hanged, helped Doeg: but that is uncertain. That did wear a linen ephod.] And, as some think, came to Saul now in those clothes, to move him rather to spare them. Lyra. Osiander.
Ver. 19. And Nob, the city of the priests, smote he.] Josephus saith that he razed it, and burned it, and left the tabernacle of God, as much as lay in him, without a place, or priests to minister. Both men and women, children and sucklings.] All of them to the number of three hundred and eighty-five, saith Josephus; all whom Beda reckoneth among the martyrs: and Osiander maketh this infanticide a type and figure of our Saviour’s flight into Egypt.
Ver. 20. And one of the sons of Ahimelech.] So Merlin the admiral’s chaplain, was by a strange providence preserved in the Parisian massacre, and nourished for serveral days in a hay mow, by a hen that laid her eggs there.
Ver. 21. That Saul had slain.] Himself only was escaped, that God’s promise might be accomplished. (1 Samuel 2:33)
Ver. 22. I knew it.] His sin therefore was the greater. I have occasioned.] Though not caused, as Saul did: but I am heartily sorry that I concurred as an occasion.
Ver. 23. For he that seeketh.] Tua causa erit mean causa, Thy cause will be my cause, as Charles V said of Julius Flugius, who for his sake had been much wronged by the Duke of Saxony.