6 Now Saul heard that David was discovered, and the men who were with him. Saul was sitting at Gib'e-ah, under the tamarisk tree on the height, with his spear in his hand, and all his servants were standing about him. 7 And Saul said to his servants who stood about him, "Hear now, you Benjaminites; will the son of Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards, will he make you all commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds, 8 that all of you have conspired against me? No one discloses to me when my son makes a league with the son of Jesse, none of you is sorry for me or discloses to me that my son has stirred up my servant against me, to lie in wait, as at this day." 9 Then answered Do'eg the E'domite, who stood by the servants of Saul, "I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahim'elech the son of Ahi'tub, 10 and he inquired of the Lord for him, and gave him provisions, and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine." 11 Then the king sent to summon Ahim'elech the priest, the son of Ahi'tub, and all his father's house, the priests who were at Nob; and all of them came to the king. 12 And Saul said, "Hear now, son of Ahi'tub." And he answered, "Here I am, my lord." 13 And Saul said to him, "Why have you conspired against me, you and the son of Jesse, in that you have given him bread and a sword, and have inquired of God for him, so that he has risen against me, to lie in wait, as at this day?" 14 Then Ahim'elech answered the king, "And who among all your servants is so faithful as David, who is the king's son-in-law, and captain over your bodyguard, and honored in your house? 15 Is today the first time that I have inquired of God for him? No! Let not the king impute anything to his servant or to all the house of my father; for your servant has known nothing of all this, much or little." 16 And the king said, "You shall surely die, Ahim'elech, you and all your father's house." 17 And the king said to the guard who stood about him, "Turn and kill the priests of the Lord; because their hand also is with David, and they knew that he fled, and did not disclose it to me." But the servants of the king would not put forth their hand to fall upon the priests of the Lord. 18 Then the king said to Do'eg, "You turn and fall upon the priests." And Do'eg the E'domite turned and fell upon the priests, and he killed on that day eighty-five persons who wore the linen ephod. 19 And Nob, the city of the priests, he put to the sword; both men and women, children and sucklings, oxen, asses and sheep, he put to the sword.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on 1 Samuel 22:6-19
Commentary on 1 Samuel 22:6-19
(Read 1 Samuel 22:6-19)
See the nature of jealous malice and its pitiful arts. Saul looks upon all about him as his enemies, because they do not just say as he says. In Ahimelech's answer to Saul we have the language of conscious innocence. But what wickedness will not the evil spirit hurry men to when he gets the dominion! Saul alleges that which was utterly false and unproved. But the most bloody tyrants have found instruments of their cruelty as barbarous as themselves. Doeg, having murdered the priests, went to the city, Nob, and put all to the sword there. Nothing so vile but those may do it, who have provoked God to give them up to their hearts' lusts. Yet this was the accomplishment of the threatenings against the house of Eli. Though Saul was unrighteous in doing this, yet God was righteous in permitting it. No word of God shall fall to the ground.