1 Samuel 22

CHAPTER 22

David at Adullam and Mizpah (22:1–5)

1–2 David next spent some time hiding in the cave of Adullam.⁸⁶ While he was there, he gathered around him many others who were in distress or in debt; some, like himself, were outlaws.

3–5 Next David went to Mizpah in Moab, east of the Dead Sea. He also sent his parents there for safety; he was afraid that Saul would try to kill them too. Moab was a logical choice; David’s great-grand-mother had been a Moabitess (Ruth 4:13,21–22). Furthermore, Saul had waged war against Moab (1 Samuel 14:47), so the Moabites would no doubt have welcomed any enemy of Saul.

David stayed in a stronghold in Moab. It is not certain whether this “stronghold” was a manmade structure or whether it was a naturally fortified area guarded by cliffs and gorges.

One of the people who gathered around David was a prophet named Gad (verse 5); God did not leave David without divine guidance. Gad told David to go back to the territory of Judah, his own tribe. In Judah he was likely to find more Israelites who would support him.

Saul Kills the Priests of Nob (22:6–23)

6–8 In these verses the writer describes Saul’s increasing paranoia. Saul was beginning to feel that everyone was conspiring against him: “No one tells me . . . None of you is concerned about me” (verse 8). He believed that Jonathan had incited David—“my servant”—to lie in wait for Saul in order to ambush him.

In order to hold on to the loyalty of his fellow Benjamites, Saul reminded them that only he as king could give them fields and vineyards and military promotions (verse7). By contrast, David could give them nothing; he was an outlaw on the run.

9–13 Doeg the Edomite⁸⁷ then told Saul that he had seen David come to Ahimelech at Nob (see 1 Samuel 21:7), and that Ahimelech had helped him in various ways. At once Saul concluded that Ahimelech and his family had joined David’s rebellion. He then sent for Ahimelech and his family, all of whom served as priests at Nob, and accused them of conspiracy.⁸⁸

14–17 Ahimelech defended David before Saul; he also assured the king that he had no knowledge of any conspiracy. (This was true; David had told him nothing.) But Saul would not listen. He ordered his men to kill Ahimelech and his family. Saul’s men, however, refused; they were not willing . . . to strike the priests of the LORD (verse 17).

18–19 Doeg, on the other hand, was more than willing; being an Edomite, he had no qualms about killing Israel’s priests. He not only killed Ahimelech and the family members with him—all of them priests who wore the linen ephod⁸⁹—but he then went to Nob and killed everyone else living there, including their animals!

In this horrible manner, the earlier prophecy given by the man of God against the house of Eli was fulfilled (1 Samuel 2:27–33); Ahimelech was Eli’s grandson (1 Samuel 14:3). However, the final fulfillment of the prophecy was still to come; one member of Ahimelech’s family escaped Doeg’s sword (verse 20).

20–23 Abiathar, one of Ahimelech’s sons, somehow escaped and fled to join David. Abiathar would serve as high priest during all of David’s reign. Only after David’s death would Abiathar be removed from office by King Solomon and replaced with the faithful priest concerning whom the man of God had prophesied (1 Samuel 2:35–36; 1 Kings 2:35).

In this way God provided David with a priest who could “inquire of the Lord” for him and thus provide David with divine guidance. Abiathar had brought the high priest’s ephod with him (1 Samuel 23:6), and using the Urim and Thummim he would inquire of the Lord many times on David’s behalf (1 Samuel 23:2,4,9; 30:7–8). So now the future king and the future high priest were fellow outlaws together. Because David felt responsible for the massacre of Abiathar’s family, he was more than happy to take Abiathar into his band and provide for his protection.

David was indeed ultimately responsible for the murder of those eighty-five priests; it was because of his lies to Ahimelech that the priest did not realize what he was doing when he assisted David. Yet David was always ready to confess his sins, as he did on this occasion to Abiathar (verse 22). This readiness to confess sin was a hallmark of David’s life. Yes, he sinned many times, but he always confessed. Surely this was one of the main reasons he was a man after [God’s] own heart (1 Samuel 13:14; Acts 7:22).