The Slaughter at Nob

David fled from the king and from the death he was in danger of at his hands, and came to the city of Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. When Ahimelech saw him coming all alone, with neither a friend nor a servant with him, he was surprised, and wanted to learn from him why no one was with him. David answered that the king had ordered him to do something that was to be kept secret, and since he wanted it kept unnoticed, he had no need of anyone to go with him. And he said, “However, I have ordered my servants to meet me at such-and-such a place.” He asked him to let him have something to eat, saying that if he would supply him, he would be acting as a friend and helping in the business he was now about. When he had obtained what he wanted, he also asked him whether he had any weapons with him, either sword or spear. Now there was at Nob a servant of Saul, a Syrian by birth, whose name was Doeg, who looked after the king’s mules. The high priest said that he had no such weapons, but he added, “Here is the sword of Goliath, which you dedicated to God when you had killed the Philistine.” [a]

When David had received the sword, he fled out of the country of the Hebrews to Gath of the Philistines, over which Achish reigned. The king’s servants recognized him, and he was made known to the king himself, the servants telling him that this was the David who had killed many tens of thousands of the Philistines. David was afraid that the king would put him to death, and that he would meet the same danger from him that he had escaped from Saul. So he pretended to be out of his mind and mad, so that his spittle ran from his mouth, and he did other such things in front of the king of Gath that might make him believe they came from such an illness. The king was very angry with his servants for bringing him a madman, and gave orders for David to be thrown out at once.

Having escaped from Gath in this way, David came to the tribe of Judah and stayed in a cave near the city of Adullam. Then he sent to his brothers and told them where he was. They came to him with all their kin, and as many others as were either in need or in fear of King Saul came and formed a company together and told him they were ready to obey his orders; there were about four hundred of them in all. With such a force and support now come to him, he took courage. He moved on from there and came to the king of the Moabites, and asked him to receive his parents in his country while the outcome of his affairs was so uncertain. The king granted him this favor, and showed David’s parents great respect all the time they were with him.

As for David himself, when the prophet told him to leave the wilderness and to go into the territory of the tribe of Judah and stay there, he did so; and coming to the city of Hereth, which was in that tribe, he remained there. When Saul heard that David had been seen with a crowd around him, he was greatly disturbed and troubled. Knowing that David was a bold and courageous man, he suspected that something extraordinary would come from him, and openly too, that would make him weep and put him in distress. So he called together his friends, his commanders, and the tribe he himself came from, to the hill where his palace was; and sitting at a place called Aroura, with his courtiers who held high rank and his bodyguards with him, he spoke to them as follows: “You men of my own tribe, I take it that you remember the benefits I have given you: that I have made some of you owners of land, and made you commanders, and given you posts of honor, and set some of you over the common people and others over the soldiers. So I ask you: do you expect greater and more gifts from the son of Jesse? For I know that you are all inclined toward him; even my own son Jonathan is of that opinion and persuades you to be of the same. I am not unaware of the oaths and covenants between him and David, and that Jonathan is an adviser and helper to those who conspire against me; and none of you cares about these things, but you keep silent and watch to see how all this will turn out.” When the king had made this speech, none of the others present made any answer; but Doeg the Syrian, who fed his mules, said that he had seen David when he came to the city of Nob to Ahimelech the high priest, and that David had learned future events from Ahimelech’s prophesying; that he had received food from him and the sword of Goliath, and had been escorted by him safely to the people he wished to reach. [c]

So Saul sent for the high priest and all his kin, and said to him, “What terrible or ungrateful thing have you suffered from me, that you have received the son of Jesse and given him both food and weapons, when he was plotting to seize the kingdom? And further, why did you give him oracles about the future? For you could not have been unaware that he had fled from me and that he hated my family.” The high priest did not try to deny what he had done, but boldly admitted that he had supplied him with these things, not to please David but to please Saul himself. He said, “I did not know he was your adversary, but took him for a servant of yours who was very faithful to you, and a commander over a thousand of your soldiers, and, what is more than these, your son-in-law and kinsman. Men do not choose to grant such favors to their adversaries, but to those who are thought to bear them the highest goodwill and respect. Nor is this the first time I have prophesied for him; I have done it often, at other times as well as now. And when he told me that you had sent him in great haste to do something, if I had given him nothing of what he asked for, I would have thought that I was opposing you rather than him. So do not think badly of me, and do not let what you are now told of David’s attempts against you make you suspicious of what I then thought an act of kindness; for I treated him then as your friend and son-in-law and commander of a thousand, and not as your adversary.”

The high priest’s words did not persuade Saul, for fear is a terrible thing and will not believe even a true defense. So he ordered the armed men standing around him to kill him. But since they did not dare touch the high priest, and were more afraid of disobeying God than the king, he ordered Doeg the Syrian to kill them. Doeg took to help him wicked men like himself, and killed Ahimelech and all his family, about three hundred and five in all. Saul also sent to Nob, the city of the priests, and killed everyone there, sparing neither women nor children nor any other age, and burned it. Only one son of Ahimelech, named Abiathar, escaped. These things came to pass as God had foretold to Eli the high priest, when he said that his descendants would be destroyed because of the sin of his two sons. [f]

By committing so barbarous a crime, murdering the whole family of high-priestly rank, having no pity on the infants nor respect for the aged, and overthrowing the city that God had chosen to belong to the priests and prophets who lived there and to support them, and had appointed as the only city set apart for the training of such men, this King Saul lets everyone see and consider what men are like. While they are private persons and in a low condition, because it is not in their power to indulge their nature or to venture on what they wish for, they are fair and moderate, pursue nothing but what is just, and bend their whole minds and efforts that way. At that time they hold this belief about God: that he is present in all the actions of their lives, and that he not only sees the deeds that are done but clearly knows the thoughts from which those deeds arise. [i]

But once they rise to power and authority, they put off all such notions. Like actors on a stage, they lay aside their assumed parts and manners and take up boldness, insolence, and contempt for both human and divine laws, and this at the very time when they most need piety and righteousness, because they are then most exposed to envy, and everything they think and everything they say is in the view of all men. It is then that they become so insolent in their actions, as though God no longer saw them, or were afraid of them because of their power. Whatever they fear from the rumors they hear, or hate by inclination, or love without reason, seems to them reliable, firm and true, and pleasing both to men and to God; but for what will come afterward they have not the least regard. They raise to honor those who have taken great pains for them, and after giving them that honor they envy them; and when they have brought them to high rank, they deprive them not only of what they had gained but, on that very account, of their lives as well, on wicked accusations which are incredible because they are so outrageous. They also punish men, not for deeds that deserve condemnation, but on slanders and accusations made without examination; and this reaches not only those who deserve punishment but as many as they are able to kill.

This reflection is plainly confirmed for us by the example of Saul the son of Kish, the first king to reign after our aristocracy and our government under the judges had come to an end. He showed it by his slaughter of three hundred priests and prophets because of his suspicion of Ahimelech, and by the further wickedness of overthrowing their city, as though he were trying in some way to leave the temple without either priests or prophets. He showed this aim by killing so many of them and by not allowing even the city that belonged to them to remain, so that others might succeed them.

But Abiathar the son of Ahimelech, who alone could be saved out of the family of priests killed by Saul, fled to David and told him of the calamity that had fallen on their family and of the slaughter of his father. David said that he had not been unaware of what would follow for them when he saw Doeg there; for he had suspected then that the high priest would be falsely accused by him to the king, and he blamed himself as the cause of this misfortune. But he asked Abiathar to stay there and remain with him, as in a place where he could be better hidden than anywhere else.