1 Samuel 22:9

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.

Then answered Doeg the Edomite,.... Josephus (d) calls him a Syrian, and so the Septuagint version; see 1 Samuel 21:7 ; being full of enmity to David, and willing to curry favour with Saul, and eager of further preferment, which Saul seemed to promise; and being more forward than the rest of his servants, prevented them and spoke first: (which was set over the servants of Saul): over his herdsmen; see 1 Samuel 21:7, and said, I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob to Ahimelech the son of Ahitub; in imitation of Saul, he calls David by way of contempt the son of Jesse; and signifies that what he had to say of him was not by report, but he himself was an eyewitness of his coming to Nob, a city of the priests, and to Ahimelech the high priest there, and of what passed between them. (d) Antiqu. l. 6. c. 12. sect. 1, 4.

Verses 9, 10. - Doeg the Edomite, which was set over the servants of Saul. This translation is entirely wrong, nor would Saul's Benjamites have endured to have an Edomite set over them. The verb is that used in ver. 6, and refers simply to Doeg's place in the circle of attendants standing round Saul. The words mean, "Doeg the Edomite, who stood there with the servants of Saul." As chief herdsman he was present as a person of some importance, but far below "the captains of thousands and the captains of hundreds." I saw the son of Jesse, etc. As Saul was in a dangerous state of excite. sent, bordering on insanity, Doeg's statement was probably made with the evil intent of turning the king's suspicions from the courtiers to the priests. His assertion that the high priest enquired of Jehovah for David was possibly true (see on ver. 15). 1 Samuel 22:9

9 . Then answered Doeg ] The title of Psalms 52 states that it was composed by David in reference to this occasion. 1 Samuel 22:1-4 describe such a character as we may well suppose Doeg to have been. His tongue was “a false tongue,” because, though the facts he reported were true, he helped to confirm Saul in a false and cruel suspicion. It “devised destruction,” and “loved devouring words,” for his story was told with malicious intent and fatal result. which was set over the servants of Saul ] Or, for he was standing with the servants of Saul. The presence of the foreigner Doeg among the Benjamites is specially noticed. The Sept. (cp. 1 Samuel 21:7 ) reads, “Doeg the Syrian who was set over Saul’s mules.”

(9) Then answered Doeg the Edomite. —This Doeg has already been mentioned in the preceding chapter. His presence in this council meeting under the tamarisk of Gibeah, among the famous Benjamito chieftains, and the previous notice which speaks of him as the officer superintending the royal herds, indicates that he was a personage of no small importance at the Court of Saul. He occupies too a considerable position in the Psalmodic literature. (See, for instance, Psalms 52) Here he is spoken of as a wicked and unscrupulous character. Jewish tradition tells us this Doeg was skilled in all the learning of his time. Doeg the Edomite, and Ahitophel (whose counsel was as the oracle of God) are represented in the Talmud as the most learned men of their time. “The Holy One, blessed be He! said to wicked Doeg, what hast thou to do to declare my statutes (Psalms 52)? When thou comest to the chapter on murderers and on spreading evil reports, what dost thou make of them?”—Sanhedrin, fol. 106, Colossians 2.

It is strange that this renowned man, whom evidently David looked upon as the evil genius of Saul at the period when he wrote the sad, bitter words of Psalms 52, and spoke of the tongue of this Doeg as being like a sharp razor, and dwelt with singular persistence on the wickedness, falsehood, and calumny of this relentless enemy, should have gone down among the noteworthy Talmudical traditions as “the greatest Rabbinist (i.e., the most deeply learned in the Mosaic Law, and in its interpretation) of his time. Which was set over the servants of Saul.—This statement would be a puzzling one were it the correct rendering. It would be unlikely in the highest degree that Saul would set a foreigner—however able and devoted—over his faithful Benjamite chieftains. The accurate translation is “who stood with the servants of Saul.” In 1Samuel 22:6 we read, in the description of the council meeting under the tamarisk of Gibeah, all his servants (that is, his chief dignitaries) stood by (around) him (Saul), and with these, his peers, stood Doeg the Edomite, the hero of the terrible scene which followed. (9) Then answered Doeg.—“Far better,” quaintly writes Seb Schmid, “did Saul’s other servants who kept silence.” The Edomite’s witness had the more effect on Saul because he related no hearsay evidence, but what he had absolutely seen.

The Edomite Doeg could not refrain from yielding to this appeal, and telling Saul what he had seen when staying at Nob; namely, that Ahimelech had inquired of God for David, and given him food as well as Goliath's sword. For the fact itself, see 1 Samuel 21:1-10 , where there is no reference indeed to his inquiring of God; though it certainly took place, as Ahimelech ( 1 Samuel 22:15 ) does not disclaim it. Doeg is here designated נצּב, "the superintendent of Saul's servants," so that apparently he had been invested with the office of marshal of the court.