For Teaching

1 Samuel 22: What the Passage Says

99 claims across 23 verses, in the order the chapter makes them.

Not a sermon outline. What 1 Samuel 22 says, and what its hard words meant. The reading of it is yours.

The Chapter in a Sentence

David escapes to the cave of Adullam, where his family joins him along with about four hundred men who are in trouble, in debt, or unhappy, and he becomes their leader. He arranges for his parents to stay with the king of Moab, and the prophet Gad tells him to return to Judah. Saul accuses his officials of disloyalty; Doeg the Edomite reports that the priest Ahimelech helped David, and Saul has Doeg kill eighty-five priests and destroy the town of Nob. Abiathar, one priest's son, escapes and joins David, who takes responsibility for the deaths and promises to keep him safe.

Claim by Claim

22:1
- David departed from there.
- David escaped to the cave of Adullam.
- David's brothers heard of it.
- All of David's father's household heard of it.
- They went down to David there.
22:2
- Every man in distress gathered to David.
- Every man who had a creditor gathered to David.
- Every man bitter of soul gathered to David.
- David became a commander over them.
- About four hundred men were with David.
22:3
- David went from there to Mizpeh of Moab.
- David said to the king of Moab that his father and mother should come out and stay with him.
- David said this would last until he knew what God would do for him.
22:4
- David brought his parents before the king of Moab.
- David's parents stayed with the king of Moab.
- They stayed the whole time David was in the stronghold.
22:5
- Gad the prophet spoke to David.
- Gad told David not to stay in the stronghold.
- Gad told David to depart and go into the land of Judah.
- David departed.
- David came to the forest of Hereth.
22:6
- Saul heard that David had been discovered.
- Saul heard that the men with David had been discovered.
- Saul was staying in Gibeah.
- Saul was sitting under the tamarisk tree.
- The text is ambiguous whether the tamarisk was on the height or at a place called Ramah.
- Saul had his spear in his hand.
- All Saul's servants were standing around him.
22:7
- Saul spoke to his servants who stood around him.
- Saul called them to listen.
- Saul addressed them as Benjamites.
- Saul asked whether the son of Jesse would give all of them fields and vineyards.
- Saul asked whether the son of Jesse would make all of them commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds.
22:8
- Saul said that all of them had conspired against him.
- Saul said no one disclosed to him that his son had made a covenant with the son of Jesse.
- Saul said none of them was sorry for him.
- Saul said none of them disclosed to him that his son had stirred up his servant against him.
- Saul said the purpose was to lie in wait against him.
- Saul said this was the case as at that day.
22:9
- Doeg the Edomite answered.
- Doeg was stationed over the servants of Saul.
- Doeg said he saw the son of Jesse come to Nob.
- Doeg said the son of Jesse came to Ahimelech son of Ahitub.
22:10
- Doeg said an inquiry of the LORD was made for David.
- The text leaves ambiguous whether Ahimelech or David is the one who inquired.
- Doeg said provisions were given to David.
- Doeg said the sword of Goliath the Philistine was given to David.
22:11
- The king sent to summon Ahimelech the priest, son of Ahitub.
- The king sent to summon all of Ahimelech's father's house.
- Ahimelech's father's house were the priests in Nob.
- All of them came to the king.
22:12
- Saul said, Hear now, son of Ahitub.
- Ahimelech answered, Here I am, my lord.
22:13
- Saul asked Ahimelech why he and the son of Jesse had conspired against him.
- Saul said Ahimelech gave David bread.
- Saul said Ahimelech gave David a sword.
- Saul said Ahimelech inquired of God for David.
- Saul said the purpose was that David should rise against him to lie in wait.
- Saul said this was the case as at that day.
22:14
- Ahimelech answered the king.
- Ahimelech asked who among all the king's servants is as faithful as David.
- Ahimelech said David is the king's son-in-law.
- Ahimelech said David goes at the king's bidding, a phrase that could also mean David is captain of the king's bodyguard.
- Ahimelech said David is honored in the king's house.
22:15
- Ahimelech asked whether that day was the first time he inquired of God for David.
- Ahimelech said, Far be it from me.
- Ahimelech asked the king not to impute anything to his servant.
- Ahimelech asked the king not to impute anything to all his father's house.
- Ahimelech said his servant knew nothing of all this.
- Ahimelech said he knew nothing of it, small or great.
22:16
- The king said Ahimelech would surely die.
- The king said all Ahimelech's father's house would die with him.
22:17
- The king spoke to the runners standing around him.
- The king ordered them to turn and kill the priests of the LORD.
- The king said their hand also was with David.
- The king said they knew David was fleeing.
- The king said they did not disclose it to him.
- The king's servants were unwilling to put forth their hand to strike the priests of the LORD.
22:18
- The king told Doeg to turn and strike the priests.
- Doeg the Edomite turned.
- Doeg himself struck the priests.
- Doeg killed eighty-five men that day.
- The men killed wore a linen ephod.
22:19
- Nob, the city of the priests, was struck with the edge of the sword.
- Men and women were struck.
- Children and nursing infants were struck.
- Oxen, donkeys, and sheep were struck with the sword.
22:20
- One son of Ahimelech son of Ahitub escaped.
- His name was Abiathar.
- Abiathar fled after David.
22:21
- Abiathar told David that Saul had killed the priests of the LORD.
22:22
- David spoke to Abiathar.
- David said he knew on that day that Doeg the Edomite was there.
- David said he knew Doeg would surely tell Saul.
- David said he himself had brought about the death of every person of Abiathar's father's house.
22:23
- David told Abiathar to stay with him.
- David told Abiathar not to fear.
- David said the one who seeks his own life seeks Abiathar's life.
- David said Abiathar would be under safekeeping with him.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

22:1: Adullam was in the limestone hill country of Judah, roughly fifteen miles southwest of Bethlehem, in the broken borderland between Judah's highlands and the Philistine plain, caves there are numerous and easily defended. "Went down" is literal geography: the road from the hills drops toward the lowlands. David's brothers and father's household join him because a man declared an enemy by the king put his whole family at risk.
22:2: These are three recognized categories of people with nowhere to go. A person who could not pay a debt could be seized by the creditor, along with his children, and worked as a slave until it was cleared. "In trouble" translates a broad word for anyone under pressure, legal, financial, or personal. The third group is literally "bitter of soul," meaning aggrieved or embittered. The word rendered "leader" is the ordinary term for a military commander over a band of men.
22:3: Moab was a small kingdom east of the Dead Sea, often at war with Israel. David had a family connection there: his great-grandmother Ruth was a Moabite. "Mizpeh" means "watchtower" and was a common place name. Leaving elderly parents in a foreign king's protection was a normal arrangement between a fugitive and a ruler hostile to his enemy.
22:4: A "stronghold" here is a defensible refuge, in this terrain usually a natural rock fastness or cave system rather than a built fortress.
22:5: Gad appears without introduction and stays attached to David for the rest of his career. A prophet in this period functioned as a messenger carrying God's direction to a leader, often on military and practical matters. The forest of Hareth was somewhere in the hill country of Judah; its exact site is unknown.
22:6: Gibeah was Saul's home town and the seat of his government, about three miles north of Jerusalem. Sitting under a well-known landmark tree was the normal setting for a ruler hearing cases and giving orders. Saul's spear, which he carries throughout these chapters, serves as the emblem of his office in place of a scepter.
22:7: Saul is addressing his own tribe: he was a Benjamite, and David was from Judah, a different tribe. A king rewarded loyal officers with grants of land, so Saul's point is that a Judahite king would have no fields or vineyards for Benjamites. "Commanders over thousands and over hundreds" are the standing officer ranks of the army. Saul never says David's name in this chapter, calling him only "the son of Jesse", a deliberate slight.
22:8: The "agreement" is a covenant: a formal pact sealed by oath, which Jonathan and David had made. Calling David "my servant" is a legal description, David held a commissioned post in Saul's court, so his flight can be framed as a subordinate's rebellion rather than a private quarrel.
22:9: Edom was the kingdom southeast of the Dead Sea; Doeg is a foreigner in Saul's service, described earlier as the chief of Saul's herdsmen. Nob was a town just north of Jerusalem where the sanctuary and its community of priests were based at this time.
22:10: "Asking the LORD" was a formal procedure carried out by a priest, apparently using the ephod and the sacred lots it held, which gave yes-or-no answers; a commander would normally do this before setting out. The food referred to was the consecrated bread from the sanctuary table, and Goliath's sword had been kept there as a dedicated trophy. Doeg reports the acts accurately but arranges them to look like the outfitting of a rebel.
22:11: The priesthood was hereditary, so "his father's family" means the whole extended kin-group serving at Nob. This line descended from Eli, the priest at Shiloh.
22:12: "My lord" was a polite way to speak to a king. It is like saying "sir" to someone important.
22:13: The bread David had been given was the consecrated bread from the sanctuary table, set aside for the priests, which Ahimelech released to him because there was nothing else on hand.
22:14: "Son-in-law" refers to David's marriage to Saul's daughter Michal. The next phrase is genuinely uncertain in Hebrew: it can mean that David is in command of the king's bodyguard, that he is admitted to the king's private council, or simply that he goes wherever the king sends him. Ahimelech's defense is that David was, so far as he knew, the king's most trusted officer.
22:15: Ahimelech's rhetorical question means that consulting God for David was routine business he had done before, not a single suspicious act. "Far be it from me" is a set oath-like formula of denial.
22:17: The Hebrew calls these men "the runners", the royal escort who ran alongside the king and carried out his orders. Their refusal is a flat disobedience of a direct command from the king, which the narrative records without comment.
22:18: The linen ephod was the plain sleeveless garment worn by a priest on duty, so "eighty-five men who wore the linen ephod" is a way of counting serving priests.
22:19: The wording (struck with the edge of the sword, men and women, children and infants, and the livestock) is the fixed formula used elsewhere for the total destruction of an enemy city under a war-ban. Here it is applied to an Israelite town.
22:20: Abiathar is the one survivor of this priestly family; he remains with David and later serves as his priest. His escape carries the priestly line, and the ephod used for inquiring of God, over to David's camp.
22:22: The Hebrew verb is difficult (literally something like "I have turned round upon every person of your father's house") and is generally understood as David accepting responsibility for their deaths.

Read 1 Samuel 22