1 Samuel 22:8

22:6-19 See the nature of jealous malice and its pitiful arts. Saul looks upon all about him as his enemies, because they do not just say as he says. In Ahimelech's answer to Saul we have the language of conscious innocence. But what wickedness will not the evil spirit hurry men to when he gets the dominion! Saul alleges that which was utterly false and unproved. But the most bloody tyrants have found instruments of their cruelty as barbarous as themselves. Doeg, having murdered the priests, went to the city, Nob, and put all to the sword there. Nothing so vile but those may do it, who have provoked God to give them up to their hearts' lusts. Yet this was the accomplishment of the threatenings against the house of Eli. Though Saul was unrighteous in doing this, yet God was righteous in permitting it. No word of God shall fall to the ground.

That all of you have conspired against me,.... For though they had not revolted from him, and been guilty of overt acts of treason, yet since they did not discover to him what he supposed they knew, and showed no concern for the circumstances in which he was, he interpreted this a conspiracy against him: and there is none that showeth me that my son hath made a league with the son of Jesse; Saul did not know this certainly, he only suspected it from the strict and close friendship between them, and imagined that some of his servants were acquainted with it, though they kept it from him; whereas none knew of it but Jonathan and David themselves: and there is none of you that is sorry for me; concerned, troubled, and grieved, that he should be in such circumstances, his own son and his son-in-law in league against him: or, as De Dieu renders it, were not "solicitous" for him, cared not how things went with him, or, against him: or showeth unto me that my son hath stirred up my servant against me to lie in wait, as at this day?

which he concluded was the case, from Jonathan's not appearing at court since Saul cast the javelin at him, 1 Samuel 19:10; or, however, if he did, his countenance showed he was uneasy and discontented, and displeased with Saul; and, besides, he could not think that David, with such a handful of men he had with him, would ever attempt to invade his kingdom, and seize his crown and throne, unless he was privately encouraged by his own son; and David's being either in the cave of Adullam, or forest of Hareth, whichever of them Saul heard of, he interpreted as lying in wait for him, whereas it was only for the security of himself; and what Saul took ill of his servants was, that none of them apprized him of his son's concern in this matter.

4 . in the hold ] “Hold” = stronghold or fortress: here apparently the Mizpeh of 1 Samuel 22:3 . What became of David’s parents when he quitted the hold does not appear. A Jewish tradition affirms that the king of Moab betrayed his trust and murdered them, for which David exacted a heavy vengeance when he came to the throne ( 2 Samuel 8:2 ). 1 Samuel 22:4

That all of you have conspired against me, and there is none that sheweth me that my son hath made a league with the son of Jesse, and there is none of you that is sorry for me, or sheweth unto me that my {g} son hath stirred up my servant against me, to lie in wait, as at this day? (g) By this he would persuade them that this conspiracy was most horrible, where the son conspired against the father, and the servant against his master.

(8) That all of you have conspired. —The unhappy, jealous spirit had obtained such complete mastery over the unhappy king that now he suspected even the chosen men of his own tribe. All his tried favourites, the men of his own house, even his gallant son, he charged with leaning towards David the traitor, his supplanter in the hearts of Israel. My son hath made a league.—It would seem as though Saul had learned something of what passed between Jonathan and David when they met for that farewell interview at the memorable New Moon feast; the words respecting the covenant between the two being too pointed and marked to refer only to the well-known ancient friendship between the prince and the son of Jesse. There is none of you that is sorry for me.—These words of the sad king—tormented as he was by an evil spirit, ever whispering doubt and jealous thoughts into the poor diseased mind—are here strangely real and pathetic.

My son hath made a league with the son of Jesse: this he suspected, partly from Jonathan’s passionate love for David, which he had formerly and constantly declared; and from his late discontent and departure from his father, mentioned 1 Samuel 20:34 ; and partly from David’s confidence, in invading the land with four hundred men, which he thought he would never presume to do, without some encouragement or promise of assistance from Jonathan. To lie in wait, i.e. to design against my crown and life (which will appear to be a most groundless suspicion and false accusation).

7, 8. Hear now, ye Benjamites—This was an appeal to stimulate the patriotism or jealousy of his own tribe, from which he insinuated it was the design of David to transfer the kingdom to another. This address seems to have been made on hearing of David's return with his four hundred men to Judah. A dark suspicion had risen in the jealous mind of the king that Jonathan was aware of this movement, which he dreaded as a conspiracy against the crown.

"That you have all of you conspired against me, and no one informs me of it, since my son makes a covenant with the son of Jesse." בּכרת, lit. at the making of a covenant. Saul may possibly have heard something of the facts related in 1 Samuel 20:12-17 ; at the same time, his words may merely refer to Jonathan's friendship with David, which was well known to him. ואין־חלה, "and no one of you is grieved on my account ... that my son has set my servant (David) as a lier in wait against me," i.e., to plot against my life, and wrest the throne to himself. We may see from this, that Saul was carried by his suspicions very far beyond the actual facts. "As at this day:" cf. Deuteronomy 8:18 , etc.