And Nob, the city of the priests, smote he with the edge
of
the sword
Either Doeg or Saul; who, as Josephus F9 says,
sent men thither to slay all the inhabitants of it: both
men and women, children and sucklings;
not sparing sex nor age: and oxen, and asses, and sheep,
with the edge of the sword;
Saul, who was so tender hearted and merciful in the case of the
Amalekites, when his orders from the Lord were utterly to destroy
them, ( 1 Samuel
15:2 1 Samuel
15:3 ) , that he spared their king, and the best of their
cattle, ( 1
Samuel 15:7-9 ) ; yet now so cruel to a city of the priests,
as to destroy all the inhabitants of it, and cattle in it; and
yet this bloody affair of Saul's is not taken notice of
afterwards, only his slaughter of the Gibeonites, ( 2 Samuel
21:1 ) ; and Abarbinel is of opinion, that the inhabitants of
this place were Gibeonites, who were hewers of wood, and drawers
of water, to the house of the Lord here, ( Joshua 9:23 Joshua 9:27 ) . Now
Saul was the more severe this city, to deter others from joining
with David, who, if they did, must expect the same treatment.