Commentaria in I Regum (I Samuelis)
Chapter Twenty-three. Synopsis of the Chapter
David delivers Ceila from the Philistines. Saul, hearing of it, resolves to besiege and seize him there. Wherefore David, verse 9, consulting the Lord, hears that he is to be betrayed by the men of Ceila to Saul; therefore he flees to mount Ziph, where Jonathan visits and comforts him. Soon, verse 19, the Ziphites tell Saul that David is hiding among them; Saul therefore follows them with his forces and surrounds David; and when he was about to take him, a messenger comes, saying that the Philistines had invaded Judea; whence Saul, to resist them, ceases to pursue David.
1. And they told David, saying: Behold the Philistines fight against Ceila, and rob the barns. 2. Therefore David consulted the Lord, saying: Shall I go and smite these Philistines? And the Lord said to David: Go, and thou shalt smite the Philistines, and shalt save Ceila. 3. And the men that were with David said to him: Behold we are in fear here in Judea, how much more if we go to Ceila against the armies of the Philistines? 4. Again therefore David consulted the Lord. And he answering, said to him: Arise, and go to Ceila; for I will deliver the Philistines into thy hand. 5. So David and his men went to Ceila, and fought against the Philistines, and drove away their cattle, and made a great slaughter of them; and David saved the inhabitants of Ceila. 6. Now at that time when Abiathar the son of Achimelech fled to David to Ceila, he came down having an ephod with him. 7. And it was told Saul that David was come to Ceila, and Saul said: God hath delivered him into my hands, and he is shut in, being come into a city that hath gates and bars. 8. And Saul commanded all the people to go down to battle to Ceila, and to besiege David and his men. 9. And when David knew that Saul secretly prepared evil against him, he said to Abiathar the priest: Bring hither the ephod. 10. And David said: O Lord God of Israel, thy servant hath heard a report that Saul designeth to come to Ceila, to destroy the city for my sake. 11. Will the men of Ceila deliver me into his hands? and will Saul come down, as thy servant hath heard? O Lord God of Israel, tell thy servant. And the Lord said: He will come down. 12. And David said: Will the men of Ceila deliver me and the men that are with me into the hands of Saul? And the Lord said: They will deliver thee. 13. Then David arose with his men, about six hundred, and departing from Ceila, they wandered up and down uncertain; and it was told Saul that David was fled from Ceila, and was saved; wherefore he forbore to go out. 14. And David abode in the desert in strong places, and he remained in a mountain of the wilderness of Ziph, in a woody mountain; yet Saul sought him always: but the Lord delivered him not into his hands. 15. And David saw that Saul was come out to seek his life. Now David was in the desert of Ziph in a wood. 16. And Jonathan the son of Saul arose, and went to David into the wood, and strengthened his hands in God; and said to him: 17. Fear not, for the hand of Saul my father shall not find thee, and thou shalt reign over Israel, and I shall be next to thee; yea, and Saul my father knoweth this. 18. So they two made a covenant before the Lord, and David remained in the wood; and Jonathan returned to his house. 19. Then the Ziphites went up to Saul in Gabaa, saying: Is not David hidden with us in the strongest places in the woods, in the hill of Hachila, which is on the right hand of the desert? 20. Now therefore as thy soul desired to come down, come down; and it shall be our part to deliver him into the king’s hands. 21. And Saul said: Blessed be ye of the Lord, for you have pitied my case. 22. Go therefore, I pray you, and prepare diligently, and make more careful inquiry, and consider the place where his foot is, and who hath seen him there; for he thinketh of me that I lay snares for him craftily. 23. Consider and see all his lurking places, wherein he lieth hid; and return to me with a sure account, that I may go with you: and if he be gone into the earth, I will search him out in all the thousands of Juda. 24. And they arose and went to Ziph before Saul; but David and his men were in the desert of Maon, in the plain on the right hand of Jesimon. 25. So Saul and his men went to seek him, and it was told David, and immediately he went down to the rock, and abode in the desert of Maon; which when Saul heard, he pursued after David to the desert of Maon. 26. And Saul went on the one side of the mountain; but David and his men were on the other side of the mountain: and David despaired of being able to escape from the face of Saul; so Saul and his men encompassed, as in a circle, David and his men, to take them. 27. And a messenger came to Saul, saying: Make haste and come, for the Philistines have poured themselves in upon the land. 28. So Saul returned, leaving off to pursue after David, and went to meet the Philistines; therefore they called that place the Rock of Division.
1. THE PHILISTINES FIGHT AGAINST CEILA.—“Ceila,” say St. Jerome, Eusebius and Adrichomius in the Hebrew Places, “is a city in the tribe of Juda, once the seat of David; and now the little village of Ceila, to the east, for those going from Eleutheropolis to Hebron, about the eighth mile; in which the tomb of the prophet Habacuc is shown.”
AND ROB THE BARNS.—Vatablus: the granaries; that is, they plunder the harvest and the grain stored in the threshing-floors and granaries.
2. THEREFORE DAVID CONSULTED THE LORD,—through the Pontiff Abiathar, who had fled to him, as is plain from verse 6.
5. AND DAVID SAVED THE INHABITANTS OF CEILA,—as his tribesmen and fellow-citizens; for both were of the tribe of Juda. David therefore deserved here a civic crown for freeing his fellow-citizens from the Philistines, and therefore a little later, Saul being dead, David was raised by the tribe of Juda to the kingdom, 2 Kings 2.
6. HAVING AN EPHOD WITH HIM,—as though to say: Abiathar, fleeing Saul, came to David carrying the pontifical vestment, in which was the Ephod with the Urim and Thummim, so that, his father Achimelech having been already slain by Saul, he might succeed to the Pontificate in his place, and consult God for David by the Ephod.
9. AND (DAVID) SAID TO ABIATHAR THE PRIEST: BRING HITHER THE EPHOD,—that is, unfold it and put it on, that by its Urim and Thummim thou mayest consult the Lord what I must do in so great danger and so close a persecution by Saul. Hence Abiathar in Hebrew is the same as “father of inquiry or contemplation,” because by praying he consulted the Lord, and searched out his will and counsel for David’s safety. See here David’s piety: toward God, in that in straits he fled to God; also toward his fellow-citizens of Ceila, in that he freed them from the Philistines; still toward Saul, in that he fled his fury as a subject, not resisting him, but sparing him when he had him in his hands, chapter 24, verse 5. Wherefore you may rightly ascribe to David, perfected in all virtues, this eulogy which Boniface Vannozzi lately assigned in his Miscellaneous epistles to Stephen Báthory, the distinguished king of Poland: “In the temple he was more than a Priest. In the state, more than a King.
In giving his opinion, more than a Senator.
In judgment, more than a Jurist.
In the army, more than a Commander.
In the battle-line, more than a soldier.
In bearing adversities and forgiving injuries, more than a man.
In defending public liberty, more than a citizen.
In cherishing friendship, more than a friend.
In company, more than an intimate.
In hunting and taming wild beasts, more than a lion.
In all the rest of his life, more than a Philosopher.”
12. WILL THE MEN OF CEILA, ETC., DELIVER ME INTO THE HANDS OF SAUL? AND THE LORD SAID: THEY WILL DELIVER THEE,—certainly and infallibly. For such is God’s knowledge and foreknowledge, whereas men’s is uncertain and fallible; and therefore in fact often fails. Hence Suarez, Vasquez, Molina and other eminent Theologians gather that God knows future contingents not only absolute but also conditional, e.g. what I should do if I were at Jerusalem, Alexandria, Antioch, etc., given such and such circumstances and conditions, even if those are never actually to be posited. So here God foreknew and foretold that the men of Ceila would deliver David, though their fellow-citizen and deliverer, to Saul, from fear of being killed by him, as the citizens of Nobe had been killed: although in fact they did not deliver him, because David, hearing from God that he would be delivered by them, forestalled the betrayal and fled. See what I said on Jeremias.
15. NOW DAVID WAS IN THE DESERT OF ZIPH IN A WOOD.—“Ziph” was a city in the tribe of Juda, situated on a woody and shady mountain, planted with thickets and unfruitful trees; near the city was therefore the “desert of Ziph,” wooded, with wooded passes, penetrated by wild beasts and ibexes, full of dens and caves, and very cavernous, in which David, a wanderer and fugitive from the face of Saul, lay hid and concealed himself. So Brocardus, Bredenbach and Adrichomius.
16. AND JONATHAN THE SON OF SAUL AROSE, AND WENT TO DAVID INTO THE WOOD, AND STRENGTHENED HIS HANDS IN GOD.—The Chaldee: in the word of the Lord, namely because God had said and foretold that David would succeed Saul in the kingdom, when he anointed him by Samuel as king; as though to say: Jonathan bade David be of good and strong heart, since he had God as his protector, against whom Saul could do nothing. “Hands” here therefore signify the strength and fortitude both of mind and of body; for this is exerted and shown by the hands.
19. AND THE ZIPHITES WENT UP TO SAUL,—announcing to him that David was hiding among them, and that they would deliver him into his hands. See here how all the Jews persecute David, as they persecuted Christ his antitype. Whence David then, fleeing to God, the one refuge of the desolate, composed Psalm 53: “Save me, O God, by thy name, etc. For strangers have risen up against me, and the mighty have sought after my soul.”
That it is so is plain from the title of the psalm, which runs thus: For understanding, in hymns, of David, when the Ziphites came and said to Saul: Is not David hidden with us?
ascertained, which you can report to me, namely where David lies hid, and how he can be taken by me; that I may not wander uncertain, and lead out my forces in vain at great cost of expense, and weary myself with hunger and
25. SAUL PURSUED AFTER DAVID TO THE DESERT OF MAON,—“Maon,” as St. Jerome says in the Hebrew Places, and Adrichomius after him, was a city in the tribe of Juda, situated in the plain on the right hand of Jesimon, towards the sunrising of Daroma: near the city was a desert, wooded and full of caverns, in which David lay hid: it borders on the desert of Carmel, and the desert of Pharan. Wherefore some less correctly think that Maon was in Arabia, and that David, leaving Judea for fear of Saul, fled to the Arabs, and that this is signified in Psalm 119:3, when he says: “Woe is me, that my sojourning is prolonged; I have dwelt with the inhabitants of Cedar,” that is, with the Cedarenes or Agarenes, that is, Arabs.
26. AND DAVID DESPAIRED OF BEING ABLE TO ESCAPE FROM THE FACE OF SAUL,—by his own virtue and wisdom; yet David hoped to escape by God’s help. For he knew that he was anointed king by God, to succeed Saul in the kingdom.
27. AND A MESSENGER CAME TO SAUL, SAYING: MAKE HASTE AND COME, FOR THE PHILISTINES HAVE POURED THEMSELVES IN UPON THE LAND.—See here how opportunely God in straits helps his faithful and frees them from dangers: which is commonly called “a god from the machine.” Whence Philo, sent by the Jews to the Emperor Caius that he might not compel the Jews to adore him as a god, when he was despised by Caius, turning to his companions said: “Take courage, friends; for then the help of God is near when human help is lacking”; and so it came about; for a little after Caius perished, as he himself reports in his Embassy to Caius. Behold here David surrounded on every side by Saul, and just about to be taken by him, delivered by God in a wonderful way, namely by sending Saul a messenger and the thought of repelling the Philistines, and so turning him aside from David and turning him to pursue the Philistines. God therefore did as the Spaniards do in the baiting of a bull: for while the bull furiously pursues someone to gore him, at once another from behind pricks the bull with a goad and forces it to turn back. So God did here to Saul, who raged like a bull against David.
The greatest security and an impregnable wall is the grace of God. Let us see how David, passing from place to place and wandering as a vagabond, was fortified by a hand from on high; while Saul, though in the midst of cities, and leading so great an army with him, and having guards and armour-bearers, daily feared and trembled at the snares of enemies, 1 Kings chapter 17, verses 19 and 29. And he indeed, who was alone, had no need of human protection; but the other, crowned and clothed in purple, needed his help; and the king had need of the shepherd’s service; and he who was bound with the diadem had need of the help of a private man.