Shmuel Alef 22:18

18 And HaMelech said to Do’eg, Turn thou, and strike the Kohanim. And Do’eg the Edomi turned, and he struck the Kohanim, and slaughtered on that day fourscore and five ish that did wear ephod bad (linen robe).

Shmuel Alef 22:18 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 22:18

And the king said to Doeg, turn thou and fall upon the
priests
For determined he was they should die; if one would not put them to death, another should, and who so fit for this bloody work as the false accuser of them, and false witness against them? and Doeg the Edomite turned;
immediately, he at once obeyed the king's orders, as brutish as they were: and fell upon the priests;
with his sword in hand: and slew on that day fourscore and five persons that did wear a linen
ephod;
not the ephod of Urim and Thummim, which was only worn by the high priest, but a garment wholly linen, worn by common priests; the Targum is,

``who are fit to be clothed with a linen ephod;''

not that they were clothed with it, but were deserving of it; or it designs the great and more honourable among the servants of the Lord, as Kimchi observes, for such were clothed with this garment, as Samuel and David; and he thinks it suggests, that more were slain than these; and the Septuagint version makes them to be eight hundred five, and Josephus ^F8 three hundred eighty five; in the slaying of whom, as the same writer says, Doeg was assisted by some wicked men like himself; and the slaughter did not end here, as the ( 1 Samuel 22:19 ) shows.

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FOOTNOTES:

F8 Antiqu. l. 6. c. 12. sect. 6.

Shmuel Alef 22:18 In-Context

16 And HaMelech said, Thou shalt surely die, Achimelech, thou, and kol Bais Avicha.

17 And HaMelech said unto the footmen that stood about him, Turn, and slay the Kohanim of Hashem; because their yad also is with Dovid, and because they knew when he fled, and did not reveal it in my ear. But the avadim of HaMelech would not put forth their yad to strike the Kohanim of Hashem.

18 And HaMelech said to Do’eg, Turn thou, and strike the Kohanim. And Do’eg the Edomi turned, and he struck the Kohanim, and slaughtered on that day fourscore and five ish that did wear ephod bad (linen robe).

19 And Nov, the Ir of the Kohanim, he struck with the edge of the cherev, both ish and isha, olel and nursing infants, and shor, and chamor, and seh, with the edge of the cherev.

20 And ben echad of Achimelech Ben Achituv, shmo Evyatar (his name Evyatar [Abiathar]), escaped, and fled after Dovid.