Chapter 10
While Saul was seeking David, Doeg became both a traitor and an executioner, and struck the city of the priests, Nob, with its inhabitants, with only one, Abiathar, escaping to David. And Saul heard that David had appeared, etc., up to the point where David said to Abiathar: Stay with me, do not be afraid, etc. This passage typically signifies the return at the end of the world to the end of Judea, what pressures it is to suffer from its oppressed companions, what constancy in the same faith it is to secure from the Lord, and even with the Lord, the reward of eternity during the tribulations of the Antichrist; which can equally apply to the beginnings of the nascent Church and the very times of the apostles. So Saul heard that David had appeared, and the men who were with him; similarly, towards the end of the world, the unbelieving and impious Jews will hear, after a long denial, that Jesus Christ is preached, believed, and confessed among them, and there is no doubt that when, with Enoch and Elijah preaching, and the other ministers of the word who will exist then, the Savior shall have appeared to the hearts of the Jews, immediately after, the persecution of the Antichrist will also certainly follow.
[1 Samuel 22:6] -- But Saul, while he remained in Gibeah, etc. The people, persecutors from the Jews, when they remained at that time in Gibeah, that is, on the hill of prophecy, not evidently of understanding, but of reading only, and were delighted in the shadowy eloquence of the law and the prophets, which is in Ramah, that is, in the high place of spiritual sense, incomparable to other Scriptures, lifted up from the glory of an earthly kingdom, which in those times of the Antichrist is not doubted to be future, and all his associates in the same persecution surrounded him, watching, standing in perfidy, acting strongly to overthrow all the defenses of faith and charity. Encouraged by these words of this sort, he will stir them up to assault faith and the constancy of the good: Hear, children of Jemini, that is, of my right hand, evidently to be blessed with a better life and joy with me. For by the name of the left hand I mean to mark those who, although they may prefer to be condemned with the Nazarenes rather than to reign and live with Christ, who appeared to us. Indeed, can Jesus, who is not doubted to have come from the root of Jesse, give to all of you in this world the fruits of perfected works and the wine of saving wisdom, which gladdens the heart of man (Psalm 103), and in the future make you all sit upon the seats to judge, as he often promised, the twelve tribes of Israel (Matthew 15), understand, like I do? Who can also teach perfect wisdom with good works, and reward those who act rightly and wisely with blessed reward, because you have all conspired in the faith of his name; nor is there anyone who shows me where his faithful worshippers worthy of punishment are hidden, especially since, even educated by me in the law no less, he has made a greater covenant with Jesus the Nazarene, believing and confessing him to be the Son of God, who, deformed in servile habit, appeared much more vile to me, and taught him to worship God to my injury, who has strived to corrupt his own legal decrees by insidiously spreading his Gospel, which he in no way ceases to do through his ministers to this day. These and countless things of this sort do not escape the notice of the ministers of the Antichrist, to blaspheme against the brave hearts of Christ, to prevent whom from persistently remaining in faith, the host of impious men will soon reveal what they harbor within. For it follows:
[1 Samuel 22:9] -- But Doech the Edomite, replying, etc. Doech, as we said above, means agitated or anxious; Edomite, bloodthirsty; Nobe, barking; Ahimelech, my brother's kingdom; Ahitub, my brother is good in interpretation. Therefore, he will respond to the persecuting Jews who are agitated for shedding innocent blood, being an associate of a gathering of the wicked; who, while others openly attack the faith, he usually plots inwardly to seek out and betray more diligently the meetings of the followers of Christ during the time of persecution, which he rightly suggests as the first among Saul's servants; because the more perverse and insensitive one is toward the good, the greater place they hold among the wicked. Without any doubt, the false brothers, who are within, burden the Church more than open enemies who attack it from outside. The time of the last conspiracy against Christ will respond, I say, like it is written about Judas: And night to night shows knowledge (Ps. 18). What is sober, just, and pious, he will wickedly betray, saying he has seen the faith of the Lord Jesus in the doctrine of those who, against the wickedness of the impious, bark like the sharpest and most watchful dog, and following the example of good brothers who have gone before, they also await the possession of the eternal kingdom. But they also supplicate the Father for the kingdom of Christ, and always refresh Him with spiritual bread in their members; and rescuing everyone they can from the hands of the devil, they will rather advise, command, and help them to strive for the peace of their rescuer.
[1 Samuel 22:11] -- So the king sent to summon Ahimelech, etc. Calling on the Lord’s priests, Saul calls the friendship and reception of David a crime of conspiracy conceived against him. The impious Jews, apprehending those consecrated to Christian piety, will immediately seek revenge for whatever they see done for the faith of truth, thinking it done against them, and rightly so; for to a sinner, religion is an abomination.
[1 Samuel 22:12] -- And Abimelech answering the king, said: And who, etc.? The sacred order of commandments, fighting for the kingdom of Christ, will respond to the Jewish people, who consider the faith and love of Christ a crime: And who among all the prophets and saints, whom it is known from their words, prayers, and examples, served your interests greatly, could equate to the apostle and high priest of our confession, Jesus, who is faithful to Him who made Him (Hebrews III), just as Moses was in all His house? For he has been deemed worthy of greater glory than Moses, by how much greater honor the one who built it has than the house; he who joined to himself in the covenant of a bride the church of the Gentiles, begotten from the ancient faith of your fathers. Nor is he proven to have done or taught anything else in the flesh than what you yourselves learned according to the words of the prophets, indeed you have always desired that Christ, when He came, would do. Do we begin today to have this faith in Him and to seek the divine oracles of the word for the state of His Church, and did we not rather receive, venerate, and worship it as passed down and commended to us by the ancient tradition of the patriarchs and prophets?
[1 Samuel 22:15] -- For your servant did not know, etc. He responded to what he was accused of by Saul, having helped David, knowing that he was weaving deceit and traps for him, because he knew nothing of this business at that time. But Christian faith also denies knowing if the Lord Jesus ever corrupted legal statutes with any fraudulent traps: which is openly to confess that Jesus Christ is not a deceiver, greedy for the praise of others, but was learned to be the true messenger of the father’s will; who is therefore rightly called the Angel of Great Counsel by the prophet (Isa. IX). As is the saying of the apostle: I did not know, brothers, that he was the high priest (Acts XXIII) for the reason that he would say: I knew that he is not the high priest, with the pontificate of him who is already appeared and glorified, who with his chosen sons is priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.
[1 Samuel 22:17] -- And the king said to the emissaries, etc. We always perceive a different state of the wicked and the good. For some, ascending to the highest peak of wickedness, become authors of persecution; whom Saul himself designates by persecuting David. Some openly submit to nefarious authority by supporting the fury of the same persecution in evil; of whom Doeg the Edomite holds the type. Some, as if of a milder nature, abstain from teaching neighbors, or from extorting punishments, although they seem to keep their hands innocent from impiety; to which the servants of Saul, refraining from injuring the priests of the Lord, are properly fitted. Likewise, among the faithful to be tested by the temptations of the wicked, there are some who struggle for the truth even unto blood; who are shown by the example of the priests of Nob with their destroyed ones, who, with equal faith and love, but endowed with lesser courage to endure tribulation, rather take refuge in flight; knowing that indeed the high mountains are a refuge for stags, but the rock is a refuge for hedgehogs and hares (Psalm 104), to which one, the priest who escaped the striking hand of Saul, is figuratively equated. Since we have seen this disparity of merits and manners in the past, we also believe it will occur in the final, although greater persecution to come; namely, that due to the savagery and infanda authority of the impious authors, among the mute who obediently yield to evil, there will not be those who keep themselves immune from hurting the good; nor could the slightest modesty of such people remove the fervor of the most savage tribulation. For it follows:
[1 Samuel 22:18] -- And the king said to Doeg the Edomite: Turn you, etc. Which the impious persecutors said to the most wicked ministers, evidently moved from every state of rectitude and further defiled by the innocent blood of the steadfast: Turn to evil, and after the crime of betrayal, also increase the infliction of tortures on the faithful of Christ, compelling them either to die or to deny.
[1 Samuel 22:18] -- And he slaughtered, etc. Eighty-five men slaughtered on that day signify those who come out of the great tribulation and have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb (Revelation 22); undoubtedly strong in deeds, and perfected equally in the spiritual observance of the Gospel and the law. Indeed, eighty-five is made up of five times ten plus seven; and five indeed refers to the justly well-known senses of our body, while ten and seven pertain to the law and the Gospel, on account of the Decalog of the law and the grace of the Holy Spirit more abundantly poured out upon all flesh in the times of the shining Gospel, and thus it is rare for anyone to doubt; and therefore whoever, with a strong spirit, interprets whatever they can see, hear, taste, smell, or touch, to fulfill the commands of the law and attain the promises of grace, as if multiplying ten and seven by five, completes the sum of eighty-five men. They are also rightly described as clothed with an ephod, that is, a linen garment over the shoulder, to show that all their works (for shoulders are usually taken for works) are recommended and adorned more perfectly before the glory of martyrdom by the mortification of the flesh.
[1 Samuel 22:19] -- Now he struck the city of the priests with the edge of the sword, etc. With the doctors of Christ slaughtered by the Antichrist, he also seeks to utterly disgrace and eradicate their fame of doctrine, by which they used to courageously combat impious dogma as if barking against it, and fortifying their own life with deeds. But he does not omit attempting to compel by wicked torments all these strong in work, fruitful in generating and nurturing Christ's children, the little ones in Christ still suckling at the breasts of a pious chaste mother, as well as those carrying His sweet yoke and light burden, innocently hearing His voice, and following Him to the eternal pastures of highest blessedness, either to deny their faith in Him or to endure death for Him.
[1 Samuel 22:20] -- One son of Ahimelech escaped, Abiathar, etc. Just as Doeg the Edomite, one who struck down the priests, symbolized the sword of all executioners, so Abiathar, the one who escaped the sword of the striker, represents all the confessors of Christ who could survive that most severe persecution. Therefore, Abiathar is rightly interpreted as "superfluous father," signifying those who, glorious in the paternal title in the Church, survived such a turmoil. He fled to David and announced to him the priests of the Lord who were killed by Saul: just as the pious devotion of those remaining, after the killing was completed, turned to the Lord, ardently commemorating the memory of their slain brethren under his testament through prayer or by offering sacred sacrifices. To this, he himself replies through his own gospel that he had foreseen and predestined long ago that all who wish to live piously in him would suffer persecution for his name's sake; therefore, as a sure debtor of a certain reward, he would bring all souls released by such a death to the joys of eternal life. "I knew," he says, "that while there would never be lacking false brothers in the Church, without a doubt, they would aid external enemies through internal scandals. I knew that while in this whole world there would never be lacking evil ones, by whom the wisdom of the disputing good or the patience of those contending would be exercised and tested, without a doubt, tribulations and temptations would always await the pilgrim Church here. But I am the one who will eternally crown each soul of the elect with a heavenly crown after their struggles on earth."
[1 Samuel 22:23] -- Stay with me, do not be afraid, etc. Remain, he said, in my love; do not be afraid of those who kill the body: if they persecuted me, they will also persecute you; but where I am, there will my servant also be; if anyone serves me, my Father will honor him (John XV; Matthew X; John XII). This betrayal and the attack by Doeg the Edomite, and during the times of the Lord and the Apostles in Judas Iscariot and other false brothers, and at the end of the world in the very Antichrist greater than the others, can be understood, in the manner of the fifty-first psalm, which is sung in reference to him, is not inappropriately applied to that enemy, as the title says: To the end, for understanding by David himself, when Doeg the Edomite came and reported to Saul, and said: Behold, David is in the house of Ahimelech; where “for understanding by David himself” is placed at the beginning not for any other reason than to signify that David understood among the hardships he suffered innocently, what wickedness would be plotted against the true David to be born from his seed by the scheming of the wicked. For he did come, boasting in malice, powerful in iniquity, thinking of injustice all day long, and the rest, which he added in the psalm. He who understood these things through the Spirit, burdened by sins and to be burdened by punishments, Judas announced to the Jews, and said: Behold, Jesus is accustomed to frequenting the garden of the Mount of Olives with his disciples. For from the ultimate tribulation how this title should be understood, clearly shows from what has been discussed above. But since we have extended our discourse and dictated a longer third book in the exposition of blessed Samuel, both second and first, we think it fitting to put an end to this labor with the triumph of the martyrs among the priests, and judging it proper to cease from the work for a time to recover strength in silence.