* Ver. 30, 81. Josephus in loco.
** Ver. 33.
*** 1 Sam. xxi. 1.
**** Ver. 9. Josephus.
Here David appears to disadvantage in point of policy: for though his carrying with him the sword of Goliah was artful enough, and likely to collect followers in Judea, since it was a continual witness of that prowess which had gained him such extraordinary reputation; yet, for him, under this circumstance, to throw himself into the power of the Philistines, among those very people from whose champion he had ravished that sword, was the highest imprudence! and we perceive he might have suffered for it, had not he made use of a stratagem to procure his release, which he effected by acting the madman.* Mankind seems to have been very easily imposed on in those days.
David, now thinking it time openly to avow his design of disputing the crown with Saul, went to a cave called Adullam, which he appointed the place of rendezvous for his partizans. Here we are told he collected together a company of debtors, vagrants, and disaffected persons, to the number of four hundred; and opened his rebellion, by putting himself at the head of this body of men:** men, whose desperate situations under the government in being, rendered them fit agents to disturb it, and proved the surest bond to connect them to a partizan thus embarked in an enterprize against it. Hither also came to him his father and all his brethren; and the first movement that he made was to go to the king of Moab, to obtain a retreat for his father and mother, until he knew the event of his enterprise.***
By the advice of the prophet Gad, David next marched into the land of Judah:**** Gad, no doubt hoped, that as the young adventurer was of that tribe, he would there meet with considerable reinforcement. When Saul heard of this insurrection, he pathetically laments his misfortune to those about him, that they, and even his son Jonathan, should conspire against him.(5)
* 1 Sam. xxi. 13.
** Ch. xxii. 2.
*** Ver. 2.
**** Ver. 6.
(5) Ver. 7, 8, 9.
Then started up one Doeg, an Edomite, who informed Saul, that he had seen David harboured by the priests in Nob. Upon this, Saul summoned all those belonging to that city before him, with Ahimelech their chief, who began to excuse himself as well as he could; but Saul remembering, without doubt, the threatening of Samuel, concerning the affair of king Agag;* and considering these priests as traitors, from this corroborating evidence against them, he commanded them all to be slain, to the number of eighty-five persons.** Moreover, agreeable to the barbarous usage of that nation, the massacre included the whole city of Nob, man and beast, young and old, without exception.
Though the king's rage in this instance exceeded not only the bounds of humanity, but also of good policy, it nevertheless serves to show how deeply the priests were concerned in the rebellion of David; since he could not be mad enough to commit so flagrant an act, without some colourable pretence;*** and shows also that Saul had not so great an opinion of their holiness as we, at this distance of time, are, by their own annals, instructed to have. Had Saul been more implicit, he might have enjoyed the name of king, have continued the dupe of the priests, have died in peace, and his children have succeeded quietly to the inheritance. But,
"Ye gods! what havoc does ambition make
Among your works!"
During this time, David rescued the city of Keilah from the Philistines,(5) who were besieging it, hoping to make it a garrison for himself.
* 1 Sam. xiii. 14, xv. 26, 28.
** Ch. xxii. 16-18.
*** Ver. 19.
**** In so small a territory as Judea, the difference
between the king and his son-in-law, so popular a man, could
not be unknown to persons in any measure removed from the
vulgar. Therefore, Ahmeleoh's pleas of ignorance did not
deserve credit.
(5) 1 Sam. xxiii. 3.