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enough. As he put it, his son had made a league with David, of which the only object
could be to deprive him of his throne. This could only be accomplished by violence.
Everyone was aware that David and his men then held a strong position. A
conspiracy so fully organized must have been known to his courtiers. If they had no
sympathy with a father betrayed by his own son, at least what profit could they as
Benjamites hope to derive from such a plot? It was to defend the courtiers from
guilty knowledge of such a plot that Doeg now reported what he had seen and heard
at Nob. David's was a conspiracy indeed, but one hatched not by the laity but by the
priesthood; and of which, as he had had personal evidence, the high-priest himself
was the chief abettor.
The suggestion was one which would only too readily approve itself to a mind and
conscience like Saul's. There could be nothing in common between Saul and the
ministers of that God Who by His prophet had announced his rejection and
appointed his successor. A priestly plot against himself, and in favor of David, had
every appearance of likelihood. It is only when we thus understand the real import of
Doeg's account to the king, that we perceive the extent of his crime, and the meaning
of the language in which David characterized it in Psalm 52. A man of that kind was
not likely to shrink from any deed. Saul summoned Ahimelech and all his father's
house to his presence. In answer to the charge of conspiracy, the priest protested his
innocence in language the truth of which could not have been mistaken by any
impartial judge.^206
But the case had been decided against the priesthood before it was heard. Yet,
callous as Saul's men-at-arms were, not one of them would execute the sentence of
death against the priests of Jehovah. It was left to the Edomite to carry out what his
reckless malice had instigated. That day no fewer than eighty-five of the priests in
actual ministry were murdered in cold blood. Not content with this, the king had "the
ban" executed upon Nob. As if the priest-city had been guilty of idolatry and
rebellion against Jehovah (Deuteronomy 13:15), every living being, both man and
beast, was cut down by the sword. Only one escaped the horrible slaughter of that
day. Abiathar, the son of Ahimelech,^207 had probably received timely warning.
He now fled to David, to whom he reported what had taken place. From him he
received such assurance of protection as only one could give who in his strong faith
felt absolute safety in the shelter of Jehovah's wings. But here also the attentive
reader will trace a typical parallel between the murder at Nob and that of the children
at Bethlehem - all the more striking, that in the latter case also an Edomite was the
guilty party, Herod the king having been by descent an Idumaean.
(^)