The Chosen Key Word in this Chapter is “Cave” it comes from the Hebrew Word “me’arah” which means “cave.”
David gathers a ragtag band of followers, while Saul takes brutal revenge on an innocent priest. Welcome to Bible Life Basics Chapter Reviews, I am Chris and this is 1 Samuel 22.
David escapes to the “cave,” “me’arah” in Hebrew, of Adullam, and his family joins him there. Everyone in distress, in debt, or discontented gathers around him, about four hundred men, and David becomes their captain. David arranges for his parents to stay safely with the king of Moab while he remains in a stronghold, and a prophet named Gad advises him to move into the land of Judah instead.
Saul learns that David has been located and gathers his servants, accusing them bitterly of conspiring against him and failing to inform him of Jonathan’s covenant with David. Doeg the Edomite steps forward, reporting what he witnessed at Nob, that Ahimelech the priest gave David bread, a sword, and inquired of the Lord on his behalf. Saul summons Ahimelech and his entire priestly family, accusing them of conspiracy, though Ahimelech insists honestly that he had no idea David was a fugitive from the king.
Saul orders his own guards to kill the priests, but they refuse to lift a hand against the Lord’s priests, so Saul commands Doeg to do it himself, and he kills eighty-five priests that day, along with the entire population of Nob, men, women, children, and livestock. Only one son of Ahimelech, Abiathar, escapes and flees to David, who feels deep responsibility for this tragedy, since he recognized Doeg was present that day, promising Abiathar safety with him.
Saul’s descent into paranoid violence reaches a horrifying new low here, slaughtering an entire innocent priestly city simply for unknowingly helping David. David’s genuine grief and sense of responsibility for this tragedy, even though he didn’t directly cause it, shows a conscience Saul had clearly long since abandoned.
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