David at Nob - Observed b y Doeg - Flight to Gath - David feigns Madness - The Cave of Adullam - Shelter

in Moab - Return to the land of Israel - Jonathan's Last Visit - Persecutions by Saul. (1 SAMUEL 21-23)

AMIDST the many doubts which must have beset the mind of David, one outstanding fact, however

painful, was at least clear. He must henceforth consider himself an outlaw, whom not even the friendship of

a Jonathan could protect. As such he must seek some shelter - best outside the land of Israel, and with the

enemies of Saul. But the way was far, and the journey beset by danger. On all accounts - for refreshment of

the body, for help, above all, for inward strengthening and guidance - he would first seek the place whither

he had so often resorted (1 Samuel 22:15) before starting on some perilous undertaking.

The Tabernacle of the Lord was at that time in Nob, probably the place that at present bears a name which

some have rendered "the village of Esau" (or Edom) - reminding us of its fatal celebrity in connection with

Doeg the Edomite. The village is on the road from the north to Jerusalem - between Anathoth and the Holy

City, and only about one hour north-west from the latter. Here Ahimelech (or Ahiah, 1 Samuel 14:3), the

great-grandson of Eli, ministered as high-priest - a man probably advanced in years, with whom his son

Abiathar (afterwards appointed high-priest by David, 1 Samuel 30:7) was, either for that day or else

Nob was only about an hour to the south-east of Gibeah of Saul. Yet it was not immediately on parting with

Jonathan that David appeared in the holy place. We can readily understand that flight along that road could

not have been risked by day - nor, indeed, anywhere throughout the boundaries of the district where Saul's

residence was. We therefore conclude that David lay in hiding all that night. It was the morning of a Sabbath

when he suddenly presented himself, alone, unarmed, weary, and faint with hunger before the high-priest.

Never had he thus appeared before Ahimelech; and the high-priest, who must, no doubt, have been aware

of dissensions in the past between the king and his son-in-law, was afraid of what this might bode. But

David had a specious answer to meet every question and disarm all suspicion. If he had come unarmed, and

was faint from hunger, the king's business had been so pressing, and required such secrecy, that he had

avoided taking provisions, and had not even had time to arm himself. For the same reasons he had

appointed his followers to meet h im at a trysting-place, rather than gone forth at the head of them.

In truth, David's wants had become most pressing.194 He needed food to support him till he could reach a

place of safety. For he dared not show himself by day, nor ask any man for help. And he needed some

weapon with which, in case of absolute necessity, to defend his life. We know that it was the Sabbath,

because the shewbread of the previous week, which was removed on that day, had to be eaten during its

It affords sad evidence of the decay into which the sanctuary and the priesthood had fallen, that Ahimelech

and Abiathar could offer David no other provisions for his journey than this shewbread; which, according

to the letter of the law, only the priests might eat, and that within the sanctuary (Leviticus 24:9). But there

was the higher law of charity (Leviticus 19:18), which was rightly regarded as overruling every merely

levitical ordinance, however solemn (comp. Matthew 12:5; Mark 2:25). If it was as David pretended, and the

royal commission was so important and so urgent, it could not be right to refuse the necessary means of

sustenance to those who were engaged on it, provided that they had not contracted any such levitical

defilement as would have barred them from access to the Divine Presence (Leviticus 15:18). For, viewed in

its higher bearing, what were the priests but the representatives of Israel, who were all to be a kingdom of

priests? This idea seems indeed implied in the remark of David (21:5): "And though the manner" (the use to

which it is put) "be not sacred, yet still it will be made" (become) "sacred by the instrument," - either

referring to himself as the Divine instrument about to be employed,195 or to the "wallet" in which the bread

was to be carried, as it were, on God's errand. By a similar pretense, David also obtained from the high-priest

the sword of Goliath, which seems to have been kept in the sanctuary wrapt in a cloth, behind the ephod, as