1 Samuel 22:12-22

12 Sha'ul said, Hear now, you son of Achituv. He answered, Here I am, my lord.

13 Sha'ul said to him, Why have you conspired against me, you and the son of Yishai, in that you have given him bread, and a sword, and have inquired of God for him, that he should rise against me, to lie in wait, as at this day?

14 Then Achimelekh answered the king, and said, Who among all your servants is so faithful as David, who is the king's son-in-law, and is taken into your council, and is honorable in your house?

15 Have I today begun to inquire of God for him? be it far from me: don't let the king impute anything to his servant, nor to all the house of my father; for your servant knows nothing of all this, less or more.

16 The king said, You shall surely die, Achimelekh, you, and all your father's house.

17 The king said to the guard who stood about him, Turn, and kill the Kohanim of the LORD; because their hand also is with David, and because they knew that he fled, and didn't disclose it to me. But the servants of the king wouldn't put forth their hand to fall on the Kohanim of the LORD.

18 The king said to Do'eg, Turn you, and fall on the Kohanim. Do'eg the Edomite turned, and he fell on the Kohanim, and he killed on that day eighty-five persons who wore a linen efod.

19 Nov, the city of the Kohanim, struck he with the edge of the sword, both men and women, children and nursing babies, and oxen and donkeys and sheep, with the edge of the sword.

20 One of the sons of Achimelekh, the son of Achituv, named Avyatar, escaped, and fled after David.

21 Avyatar told David that Sha'ul had slain the LORD's Kohanim.

22 David said to Avyatar, I knew on that day, when Do'eg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Sha'ul: I have occasioned [the death] of all the persons of your father's house.

1 Samuel 22:12-22 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO FIRST SAMUEL 22

This chapter gives us an account of the flight of David from place to place, from Gath to the cave of Adullam, where his relations came to him; from thence to Mizpeh in Moab, where he got leave of the king of Moab for his father and mother to dwell there; and from thence, by the advice of Gad the prophet, departed into the land of Judah, and came to the forest of Hareth, 1Sa 21:1-5; and of the complaint of Saul to his servants of their unfaithfulness to him, and indolence and unconcern at the behaviour of Jonathan and David to him, 1Sa 22:6-8; when Doeg the Edomite informed him of David being seen by him at Nob, and of his receiving food and a sword from Ahimelech the priest, who inquired of the Lord for him, 1Sa 22:9,10; upon which Saul sent for Ahimelech and all the priests at Nob, and charged them with a conspiracy against him; and notwithstanding the defence the priest made, Saul ordered him and the rest of the priests to be slain by his guards; which they refusing, Doeg became the executioner of them, and of all the inhabitants of the city of Nob, and the cattle in it, 1Sa 22:11-19; only Abiathar a son of Ahimelech escaped and fled to David with the sorrowful news; which greatly affected David, looking upon himself to be the occasion of this sad disaster, and he took Abiathar under his protection, and promised him safety, 1Sa 22:20-23.