Scripture Daily

Context No. 906 of 4322 · 1 Samuel

Context · Reflection

1 Samuel 22:16-23: in context

16The king said, “You shall surely die, Ahimelech, you and all your father’s house.” 17The 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 because they knew that he fled and didn’t disclose it to me.” But the servants of the king wouldn’t put out their hand to fall on the priests of the LORD. 18The king said to Doeg, “Turn and attack the priests!” Doeg the Edomite turned, and he attacked the priests, and he killed on that day eighty-five people who wore a linen ephod. 19He struck Nob, the city of the priests, with the edge of the sword—both men and women, children and nursing babies, and cattle, donkeys, and sheep, with the edge of the sword. 20One of the sons of Ahimelech the son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped and fled after David. 21Abiathar told David that Saul had slain the LORD’s priests. 22David said to Abiathar, “I knew on that day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul. I am responsible for the death of all the persons of your father’s house. 23Stay with me. Don’t be afraid, for he who seeks my life seeks your life. You will be safe with me.”

This is a brutal scene in the story of Saul. The priest Ahimelech had unknowingly helped David when David was fleeing, giving him bread and a sword. Saul, consumed by paranoia, condemns Ahimelech and his whole priestly family to death. His own guards refuse to raise a hand against the priests of the LORD, so Saul turns to Doeg the Edomite, an outsider, who slaughters eighty-five priests and then puts the entire town of Nob to the sword, men, women, children, and nursing infants. One son, Abiathar, escapes and flees to David, who says: I am responsible for the death of all your father's house. Stay with me; you will be safe.

This is the bible, and it records the horror without softening it, a king murdering God's own priests and a whole town of innocents because his fear had curdled into rage. It shows how far Saul has fallen: the guards, ordinary soldiers, have a conscience their king has lost, and it takes a foreigner with no reverence to carry out the crime. But the piece that stops you is David's response. He does not say Saul is to blame, though Saul plainly is. He says I am responsible; I knew Doeg was there that day, I brought this on your house. David takes the weight of a slaughter he did not order because his choices set it in motion, and then he does the one thing he can, he shelters the survivor. There is a kind of integrity in refusing to hide behind we all know who really did this and instead owning your part in a chain of harm, even while offering the one protection you have to give.

Where have I hidden behind who is really to blame, when the honest thing is to own my part in a harm and then do what I can for the one left hurt?

Sources