1Samuel chapter 21 comments

1Samuel 21:1 ¶  Then came David to Nob to Ahimelech the priest: and Ahimelech was afraid at the meeting of David, and said unto him, Why art thou alone, and no man with thee? 2  And David said unto Ahimelech the priest, The king hath commanded me a business, and hath said unto me, Let no man know any thing of the business whereabout I send thee, and what I have commanded thee: and I have appointed my servants to such and such a place. 3  Now therefore what is under thine hand? give me five loaves of bread in mine hand, or what there is present. 4  And the priest answered David, and said, There is no common bread under mine hand, but there is hallowed bread; if the young men have kept themselves at least from women. 5  And David answered the priest, and said unto him, Of a truth women have been kept from us about these three days, since I came out, and

the vessels of the young men are holy, and the bread is in a manner common, yea, though it were sanctified this day in the vessel. 6  So the priest gave him hallowed bread: for there was no bread there but the shewbread, that was taken from before the LORD, to put hot bread in the day when it was taken away. 7  Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the LORD; and his name was Doeg, an Edomite,

the chiefest of the herdmen that belonged to Saul. 8  And David said unto Ahimelech, And is there not here under thine hand spear or sword? for I have neither brought my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king’s business required haste. 9  And the priest said, The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom thou slewest in the valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod: if thou wilt take that, take it: for there

is no other save that here. And David said, There is none like that; give it me.

 

Ahimelech is the son of Ahitub and brother of Ahijah according to John Gill.

 

1Samuel 22:9  Then answered Doeg the Edomite, which was set over the servants of Saul, and said, I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahimelech the son of Ahitub.

 

1Samuel 14:3  And Ahiah, the son of Ahitub, Ichabod’s brother, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eli, the LORD’S priest in Shiloh, wearing an ephod. And the people knew not that Jonathan was gone.

 

David misleads the priest saying he was on the king’s business. Of course, this is a lie but Ahimelech was afraid of meeting David seeing as he was on the outs with Saul so he used this lie to calm the priest’s fears and get his cooperation. We’ll see how David’s guilt in this weighs heavily on his mind in the next chapter.

 

Psalm 119:28 ¶  My soul melteth for heaviness: strengthen thou me according unto thy word.

29  Remove from me the way of lying: and grant me thy law graciously.

 

David demands food but the only thing available is the shewbread. Jesus refers to this event.

 

Matthew 12:1 ¶  At that time Jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn; and his disciples were an hungred, and began to pluck the ears of corn, and to eat. 2  But when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto him, Behold, thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the sabbath day. 3  But he said unto them, Have ye not read what David did, when he was an hungred, and they that were with him; 4  How he entered into the house of God, and did eat the shewbread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only for the priests?

 

The priest was concerned that the young men not have had relations with women possibly in a reference to Exodus 19:15.

 

David here also obtains Goliath’s sword as he continues in his lie. Unfortunately for the priest one of King Saul’s officials, Doeg the Edomite, chief of his herdsman, witnessed the scene.

 

1Samuel 21:10 ¶  And David arose, and fled that day for fear of Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath. 11  And the servants of Achish said unto him, Is not this David the king of the land? did they not sing one to another of him in dances, saying, Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands? 12  And David laid up these words in his heart, and was sore afraid of Achish the king of Gath. 13  And he changed his behaviour before them, and feigned himself mad in their hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down upon his beard. 14  Then said Achish unto his servants, Lo, ye see the man is mad: wherefore then have ye brought him to me? 15  Have I need of mad men, that ye have brought this fellow to play the mad man in my presence? shall this fellow come into my house?

 

Interestingly, in this complicated web of political intrigue unrivalled by any modern spy novel David flees to the mortal enemy of the Israelites, the Philistines. David feigns madness to keep himself from harm and whether they perceive him as being insane or possessed of a disease like epilepsy we don’t know.

 

Madness often plays a role in premodern societies as akin to being afflicted by the gods. Insane people sometimes had special roles in societies. Jewish sources claim that Achish’s wife and daughter were both insane and David was not harmed. David fled to the country of his enemy to be safe from the harm threatened by his own king. This was also done by other historical characters after this such as the Athenian Greeks Themistocles to the Molossians, and Alcibiades to the Spartans. David cannot and dare not stay there at this time.