Commentaria in I Regum (I Samuelis)
15. HAVE I BEGUN TODAY TO CONSULT GOD FOR HIM?—as though to say: Already often before I consulted the Lord for him, with thy consent and command, namely when David was about to lead thy forces into battle, whether it would be with happy or adverse success; so it is not now for the first time that I have begun to consult for David, now suspected and hated by thee, as I gather from thy words, nor to do anything against David, shortly before so friendly and faithful to thee: wherefore impute not to me and my house as a fault and a penalty that I gave him loaves and a sword: for I did not give those to him except that he might use them in thy service (which he himself affirmed he was doing). For of thy offence against him I knew nothing at all, little or great, until now.
16. AND THE KING SAID: THOU SHALT DIE THE DEATH, ACHIMELECH, THOU AND ALL THY FATHER’S HOUSE.—See here the supreme cruelty, impiety and barbarity of Saul against the innocent pontiff and priests; nay, against all the citizens of Nobe, whom he ordered to be slaughtered, though guiltless, with all the little ones, women and herds, verse 19.
These things, says Theodoret, Question 53, and Cedrenus, eternal. If you are Abel in innocence, it is necessary that envious Cain prove and exercise it. If you are Jacob in simplicity, hairy Esau must goad you. If you are Joseph in chastity, an unchaste mistress must tempt you. If you are Moses in meekness and generosity, it is fitting that your Pharaoh harass you, raise you up, perfect you.
to fashion for thyself a crown of glory and the diadem of a kingdom, that Saul’s slaughter was more impious than all his other sins. Whence Josephus, book 6, last chapter, among the causes of Saul’s death sets down this also, and at length the author of the Traditions in St. Jerome, book 2 Kings chapter 1.
Wherefore Saul was here a type and forerunner of Herod, slaying the little ones in Bethlehem on account of Christ. Here was fulfilled the oracle of God uttered against Heli, chapter 2, verse 33. For all these Priests were descendants or kinsmen of Heli.
17. AND THE KING SAID TO THE MESSENGERS,—that is, the runners, who as Saul’s guards had summoned Achimelech and the priests from Nobe and brought them to Saul at Gabaa.
FOR THEIR HAND IS WITH DAVID,—as though to say: They favour and help David, my enemy and rival for the kingdom.
BUT THE KING’S SERVANTS WOULD NOT.—These servants are to be praised, because they refused to obey Saul and to stain their hands with the blood of the priests. So Theodoret. St. Chrysostom, however, on Psalm 134, blames them because they did not positively and effectively plead the priests’ cause with Saul, to prevent their slaughter; as in chapter 14 they had interceded for Jonathan and averted his death. But the case of Jonathan, Saul’s son, was one thing, that of the priests, whom Saul had determined to slay as favourers of David, another.
18. AND DOEG (Doeg in Hebrew is the same as “urging,” namely urging Saul to the death of David and the priests) THE EDOMITE TURNED, AND FELL UPON THE PRIESTS, AND SLEW IN THAT DAY EIGHTY-FIVE (so the Hebrew, Chaldee, Roman text, Septuagint, Complutensian. The Vatican Septuagint less correctly number 305; Theodoret worse still numbers 390) MEN THAT WORE THE LINEN EPHOD,—that is, Priests and Levites; for these wore the linen Ephod, while the Pontiff wore the jewelled and many-coloured Ephod.
Behold Doeg, the accuser and slanderer of David and Achimelech, advanced in crime, and became the sacrilegious executioner of him and the priests, to complete the crime he had begun. So the wicked man slips from one crime to another, from a lesser to a greater. Moreover Angelomus, book 2, chapter 21, relates that the two little sons of Saul, Armoni and Miphiboseth, by Respha the concubine, brought hands to Doeg, and for that reason also were crucified by the Gabaonites.
Wherefore Philo the Biblical writer asserts that Doeg received this sad oracle from God: “To Doeg the Syrian the Lord says this: Behold, the days come quickly, and a fiery worm shall ascend into his tongue, and shall make him waste away, and his dwelling shall be with Cain in the fire that is always unquenchable.” It is more true that David at that time composed Psalm 51: “Why gloriest thou in malice, thou that art mighty in iniquity? All the day long thy tongue hath devised injustice, etc. Therefore will God destroy thee for ever.” For the title of that psalm is this: Unto the end, understanding for David, when Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul: David is come to the house of Achimelech. Hence Doeg, say Eucherius and Angelomus, was a type and forerunner both of Judas the traitor and of Antichrist, who will persecute Christ’s priests most of all, and afflict them with martyrdom.
HE SLEW IN THAT DAY EIGHTY-FIVE MEN.—The Rabbis assert, or rather fable, and Philo the Biblical writer after them, that these Priests and Levites, descendants or kinsmen of the Pontiff Heli, had imitated the crimes of Heli’s sons and violated the sacrifices, and were therefore destined by God to this slaughter.
It is more true that Heli and his wicked sons were punished in these their innocent descendants, and that here was fulfilled that oracle of God against them, chapter 2, 33: “The greatest part of thy house shall die when they come to man’s age.” For these Priests and Levites, killed by Saul through Doeg, seem to have escaped as martyrs; because they were slain for the virtue of mercy and charity, which they had shown to David, holy but wretched, a fugitive and hungry, by giving him loaves. For as he who is killed for chastity becomes a martyr, so also he who is slain for charity or another virtue is a martyr. Whence St. Bachiarius, in volume 1 of the Library of the Holy Fathers, reckons these priests slain for the innocent David in the Catalogue of martyrs, and Bede in his Allegories places among the martyrs not only the priests but all the citizens of Nobe slaughtered on account of David: “The city of Nobe,” he says, “for having received David with all his, suffered martyrdom.”
19. AND NOBE, THE CITY OF THE PRIESTS, HE SMOTE (that is, he ordered to be smitten and slain, namely impious Saul in hatred of David) WITH THE EDGE (in battle) OF THE SWORD, BOTH MEN AND WOMEN, CHILDREN AND SUCKLINGS, AND OX AND ASS AND SHEEP.—He therefore set it under the cherem, or anathema, because he plainly doomed it to destruction and ruin: and from rage and fury against David, with which the evil spirit, or the devil by whom he was possessed and ruled, goaded him.
20. BUT ONE OF THE SONS OF ACHIMELECH ESCAPED, ETC., WHOSE NAME WAS ABIATHAR, AND FLED TO DAVID.—This “Abiathar” succeeded his father Achimelech in the Pontificate, which he filled during the whole time of David; but he was deprived of it by Solomon, because he had favoured Adonias seizing the kingdom against him: and therefore Solomon transferred the Pontificate from Abiathar, who was of the family and descendants of Heli and Ithamar, and restored it to Sadoc, who was of the descendants of Eleazar, 3 Kings chapter 2.
22. I AM GUILTY OF ALL THE SOULS OF THY FATHER’S HOUSE,—as though to say: I was not the cause but the occasion (so the Chaldee, Hebrew and Septuagint) of the death of the sons and kinsmen of thy father; namely, in that the soul, that is the life, of each was taken away by Saul. The occasion, I say, but involuntary and against my intention, and therefore without fault of mine: for I took care for them and their lives as far as I could, by pretending before them that I was not a fugitive but sent by Saul: whence, although I knew Doeg would report it to Saul, yet I probably believed or hoped that Saul would not be angry with innocent priests, or at least would not attempt so cruel a deed as the slaughter of priests. David therefore was guilty not formally but materially: because he gave the matter and occasion; for he did not intend that Saul should kill them, but besides, even against his intention, driven by the necessity of hunger. For the proper and direct cause of their death was the wickedness of Saul.