1 Samuel 22:6 - Meaning and Application

We have already seen David’s troubles grow worse. Now we see Saul’s wickedness grow deeper. He seems to have put aside all other business and given himself entirely to hunting David down. At last he heard, through the common talk of the land, that David had been found, meaning that he had appeared in public and was gathering men into his service.

Saul then called all his servants around him and sat under a tree or grove at the high place in Gibeah. He held his spear in his hand like a scepter, showing the kind of rule he meant to use. It also showed the present state of his heart, or rather the sickness of it, since he was ready to kill anyone who stood in his way. In this bloody court of inquiry, Saul first looked for charges against David and Jonathan, and then against Ahimelech the priest.

Saul wanted to believe two things, so that he could pour out his hatred on two of the best men he had. First, he wanted to think that David was lying in wait for him and seeking his life, which was completely false. In truth, Saul was the one seeking David’s life, yet he pretended the opposite, though he had no real proof at all. Second, he wanted to think that his son Jonathan had stirred David up and was in the same plot to kill the king. That was also clearly false.

There was friendship between David and Jonathan, but no evil conspiracy. Nothing in their agreement pointed toward harm to Saul. If Jonathan had agreed that David should take the throne after Saul’s death, because that was God’s revealed will, what injury would that do to Saul? Still, the best friends of a prince and a nation have often been slandered as enemies of both. Even Christ himself was treated that way. Saul assumed Jonathan and David were plotting against him, his crown, and his honor. He was angry that his servants had not told him, as if they must surely have known. But there was no such thing.

This shows the nature of jealous hatred, and its poor tricks for forcing out things that do not exist. Saul saw everyone around him as an enemy because they did not repeat his own opinion. He told them, first, that they were unwise and acting against the good of their tribe and families. They were Benjamites, and if David rose higher, the honor would pass from Benjamin to Judah. He also said David would never reward them as Saul had, with fields, vineyards, and high places like captains and commanders.

Second, Saul said they were unfaithful. “You have plotted against me,” he told them. What constant unrest and misery come to those who give themselves to jealousy. If a ruler listens to lies, all his servants seem wicked to him (Proverbs 29:12). That is, they appear that way in his eyes, whether they are or not. Third, Saul said they were unkind. He tried to move them by saying, “Is there no one among you who is sorry for me, or concerned for me?” This kind of talk was meant to stir them up and make them serve his hatred, so he could quiet his suspicions about them.

Though Saul could learn nothing from his servants against David or Jonathan, he did get information from Doeg against Ahimelech the priest. Doeg, a wicked man and Edomite servant of Saul, brought an accusation against Ahimelech and served as a witness himself. Perhaps he would not have done this unless Saul had pressed him. If he had been eager to accuse, he would have done it earlier. But now Saul acted as if all must be considered traitors unless they became accusers. So Doeg told Saul what kindness Ahimelech had shown David, which he had seen with his own eyes.

He said that Ahimelech had asked God for David, something a priest did not usually do except for public leaders and public matters, and that he had given David bread and a sword. All of this was true, but it was not the whole truth. Doeg should also have said that David had made Ahimelech believe he was on the king’s business. So the help Ahimelech gave was meant to honor Saul, whatever later came of it. That would have cleared Ahimelech, who was in Saul’s power, and placed the blame where it belonged, on David, who was beyond Saul’s reach.

Ahimelech was then seized, or rather summoned, to appear before the king. On this accusation he was put on trial. Saul sent for him and for all the priests who served at the sanctuary, whom he assumed were helping David. Since they felt no guilt, they feared no danger, and so they all came to the king (1 Samuel 22:11). None tried to flee, and none ran to David for protection, as they might have done now that David had gathered followers, if they had truly been on his side as Saul imagined.

Saul then charged Ahimelech with great contempt and anger (1 Samuel 22:12). He said, “Listen now, son of Ahitub,” not even calling him by name, much less showing him any honor. This showed that Saul had given up fear of God. He no longer respected his priests at all, and he seemed to enjoy insulting them. Ahimelech answered as a man standing ready before the court: “Here I am, my lord, ready to hear my charge,” knowing he had done nothing wrong.

He did not challenge Saul’s court, and he did not claim special protection because he was a priest, even though he was the high priest. The office of high priest had once been joined to the judge, or chief ruler, but Saul now held the kingly power. So, in matters that belonged to the king, even the high priest stood level with ordinary Israelites. Let every soul be subject to the higher powers, even those in church office.

Then Saul read out the charge against him (1 Samuel 22:13). He accused Ahimelech of joining with the son of Jesse, that is, David, in a plot to remove the king and kill him. “His plan,” Saul said, “was to rise up against me, and you helped him with food and weapons.” This shows how badly innocent acts can be twisted. It also shows how unsafe life is under a cruel ruler, and why we should thank God for the good government we enjoy.

Ahimelech answered the charge and pleaded not guilty (1 Samuel 22:14, 1 Samuel 22:15). He admitted the facts, but denied that he had acted with treason or malice, or with any intent against the king. He said he had no idea there was any quarrel between Saul and David. In fact, he had believed David was still in Saul’s favor at court just as before.

Notice that Ahimelech does not defend himself by saying David deceived him, though that was true. He will not expose David’s weakness, even to protect himself, especially before Saul, who was looking for excuses to attack David. Instead, he points to David’s long, faithful service to Saul, the honor Saul had given him by marrying him to the king’s daughter, and the trust Saul had often placed in him.

Ahimelech also says that he had often sought guidance from God for David when Saul sent him on missions, and that he had done so now with the same honesty as before. He denies any part in a plot against the king: “Far be it from me. I take care of my own work and do not meddle in public affairs.” Then he asks for mercy, “Do not charge your servant with any crime,” and ends with a plain statement of innocence: “Your servant knew nothing of all this.”

He could hardly have spoken with more signs of sincerity. If he had stood before an honest Israelite court, he would surely have been cleared, for who could find fault in him? Yet Saul himself gives the verdict in (1 Samuel 22:16): “You shall surely die, Ahimelech,” as if he were a traitor, and with him all his father’s house. This was deeply unjust. “I saw under the sun the place of judgment, that wickedness was there” (Ecclesiastes 3:16).

It was wrong for Saul to judge his own case with no appeal to a judge, prophet, council, or council of war. It was also wrong to reject such a fair defense without any reason or any attempt to prove it false. He moved too quickly, not giving himself time to think, and not giving the prisoner time to answer further. Worse still, the sentence fell not only on Ahimelech, who had been accused by Doeg, but on his whole family, though nothing was said against them. Children should not be put to death for their fathers. And the sentence was spoken in rage, not in the service of justice, but to feed his own savage anger.

Saul then sends out a verbal order for immediate execution. He tells his footmen to kill the priests, but they refuse (1 Samuel 22:17). He wanted to add shame to the killing. He would not have them die by soldiers or by his usual officers of justice, but by his own servants, so they would seem to be trampled in disgrace. Never was a ruler’s command more wickedly given: “Turn and kill the priests of the Lord.” There is something shocking in the way he says it.

If he had left out their holy office and their relation to God, that would at least have shown some shame. But to call them “the priests of the Lord” while ordering their murder made his hatred even clearer. God had rejected Saul and chosen another to replace him, and Saul seems glad for a chance to strike at the Lord’s priests, since he cannot reach God himself. Evil can drive a man far when Satan gains control. Saul also justified the order with something false and unproved, saying they knew when David fled, though they knew nothing about it. Malice and murder are often propped up by lies.

The footmen’s refusal was noble. They showed more sense and more reverence than their master. They may have expected to lose their jobs, or even their lives, for disobeying, yet they would not touch the priests of the Lord. They respected the priestly office and believed the priests were innocent. Never was a command more honorably disobeyed.

Saul then turns to Doeg, the informer, and orders him to do it. Doeg obeys. One might have hoped the footmen’s refusal would have awakened Saul’s conscience, or at least made him stop and think before pressing on with such cruelty. But his mind was blinded and his heart hardened. If the witnesses would not do it, then, as the law later allowed in another case, the witness himself would strike the blow (Deuteronomy 17:7). Bloodthirsty rulers can always find servants as cruel as themselves.

Doeg wastes no time. When Saul commands him to attack the priests, he does it gladly. With no resistance, he kills eighty-five priests that same day, men who were old enough for priestly service, between twenty and fifty years old, since they wore a linen ephod (1 Samuel 22:18). They may even have appeared before Saul in their priestly garments and been slain in them. That would have been enough for the most violent man, but persecution is like a leech that keeps crying, “Give, give.”

After killing the priests, Doeg, by Saul’s order, went to Nob and killed everyone there, men, women, children, and even the livestock (1 Samuel 22:19). It is cruel beyond words, and one can hardly think of it without horror. It is hard to believe such wickedness could enter the human heart.

This shows the desperate evil of Saul after the Spirit of the Lord had left him. Those who have given themselves over to their own sinful desires may be driven into anything vile. The man who once showed mercy to Agag and the Amalekite cattle, against God’s command, now watched the priests of the Lord murdered with no pity at all, and nothing was spared that belonged to them. Because of that earlier sin, God left him to this one.

It also fulfilled the long-standing warning against Eli’s house, for Ahimelech and his family were descended from Eli. Though Saul acted wrongly, God was still righteous in allowing it. What God had spoken to Eli came to pass, just as he had warned, and no word of God will fall to the ground (1 Samuel 3:11-13). And this may also be seen as a great judgment on Israel, the fitting result of their desire for a king before the time God had planned for them.

How sad the state of religion was in Israel at this time. The ark had long been hidden from sight, but it was still some comfort that they had the altar and priests to serve there. Now, however, they saw their priests lying in their own blood, and the heirs to the priesthood as well. The city of the priests was laid waste, so that the altar of God had to be neglected for lack of servants.

This came from the unjust and cruel order of their own king, given to satisfy his wild anger. It must have cut deeply into the hearts of every godly Israelite, and made them wish a thousand times that they had been content with the rule of Samuel and his sons. The worst enemies of their nation could not have done them greater harm.