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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry |
F I R S T S A M U E L
CHAP. XXI.
David has now quite taken leave both of Saul’s court and of his camp,
has bidden farewell to his alter idem–his other self, the beloved
Jonathan; and henceforward to the end of this book he is looked upon
and treated as an outlaw and proclaimed a traitor. We still find him
shifting from place to place for his own safety, and Saul pursuing him.
His troubles are very particularly related in this and the following
chapters, not only to be a key to the Psalms, but that he might be, as
other prophets, an example to the saints in all ages, “of suffering
affliction, and of patience,” and especially that he might be a type of
Christ, who, being anointed to the kingdom, humbled himself, and was
therefore highly exalted. But the example of the suffering Jesus was a
copy without a blot, that of David was not so; witness the records of
this chapter, where we find David in his flight,
I. Imposing upon Abimelech the priest, to get from him both victuals
and arms,
II. Imposing upon Achish, king of Gath, by feigning himself mad,
Justly are troubles called temptations, for many are by them drawn into
sin.
| David Obtains the Show-Bread; David Gets the Sword of Goliath. | B. C. 1057. |
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1 Then came David to Nob to Ahimelech the priest: and Ahimelech
was afraid at the meeting of David, and said unto him, Why art
thou alone, and no man with thee?
2 And David said unto Ahimelech the priest, The king hath
commanded me a business, and hath said unto me, Let no man know
any thing of the business whereabout I send thee, and what I have
commanded thee: and I have appointed my servants to such and
such a place.
3 Now therefore what is under thine hand? give me five
loaves of bread in mine hand, or what there is present.
4 And the priest answered David, and said, There is no common
bread under mine hand, but there is hallowed bread; if the young
men have kept themselves at least from women.
5 And David answered the priest, and said unto him, Of a truth
women have been kept from us about these three days, since I
came out, and the vessels of the young men are holy, and the
bread is in a manner common, yea, though it were sanctified this
day in the vessel.
6 So the priest gave him hallowed bread: for there was no
bread there but the showbread, that was taken from before the
LORD, to put hot bread in the day when it was taken away.
7 Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that
day, detained before the LORD; and his name was Doeg, an
Edomite, the chiefest of the herdmen that belonged to Saul.
8 And David said unto Ahimelech, And is there not here under
thine hand spear or sword? for I have neither brought my sword
nor my weapons with me, because the king’s business required
haste.
9 And the priest said, The sword of Goliath the Philistine,
whom thou slewest in the valley of Elah, behold, it is here
wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod: if thou wilt take that, take
it: for there is no other save that here. And David said,
There is none like that; give it me.
Here,
I. David, in distress, flies in the tabernacle of God, now pitched at
Nob, supposed to be a city in the tribe of Benjamin. Since Shiloh was
forsaken, the tabernacle was often removed, though the ark still
remained at Kirjath-jearim. Hither David came in his flight from Saul’s
fury
(v. 1),
and applied to Ahimelech the priest. Samuel the prophet could not
protect him, Jonathan the prince could not. He therefore has recourse
next to Ahimelech the priest. He foresees he must now be an exile, and
therefore comes to the tabernacle,
1. To take an affecting leave of it, for he knows not when he shall see
it again, and nothing will be more afflictive to him in his banishment
than his distance from the house of God, and his restraint from public
ordinances, as appears by many of his psalms. He had given an
affectionate farewell to his friend Jonathan, and cannot go till he has
given the like to the tabernacle.
2. To enquire of the Lord there, and to beg direction from him in the
way both of duty and safety, his case being difficult and dangerous.
That this was his business appears
where it is said that Ahimelech enquired of the Lord for him, as
he had done formerly,
It is a great comfort to us in a day of trouble that we have a God to
go to, to whom we may open our case, and from whom we may ask and
expect direction.
II. Ahimelech the priest is surprised to see him in so poor an
equipage; having heard that he had fallen into disgrace at court, he
looked shy upon him, as most are apt to do upon their friends when the
world frowns upon them. He was afraid of incurring Saul’s displeasure
by entertaining him, and took notice how mean a figure he now made to
what he used to make: Why art thou alone? He had some with him
(as appears
but they were only his own servants; he had none of the courtiers, no
persons of quality with him, as he used to have at other times, when he
came to enquire of the Lord. He says
he was wont to go with a multitude to the house of God; and,
having now but two or three with him, Ahimelech might well ask, Why
art thou alone? He that was suddenly advanced from the solitude of
a shepherd’s life to the crowd and hurries of the camp is now as soon
reduced to the desolate condition of an exile and is alone like a
sparrow on the housetop, such charges are there in this world and
so uncertain are its smiles! Those that are courted to-day may be
deserted to-morrow.
III. David, under pretence of being sent by Saul upon public services,
solicits Ahimelech to supply his present wants,
1. Here David did not behave like himself. He told Ahimelech a gross
untruth, that Saul had ordered him business to despatch, that his
attendants were dismissed to such a place, and that he was charged to
observe secresy and therefore durst not communicate it, no, not to the
priest himself. This was all false. What shall we say to this? The
scripture does not conceal it, and we dare not justify it. It was ill
done, and proved of bad consequence; for it occasioned the death of
the priests of the Lord, as David reflected upon it afterwards with
regret,
It was needless for him thus to dissemble with the priest, for we may
suppose that, if he had told him the truth, he would have sheltered and
relieved him as readily as Samuel did, and would have known the better
how to advise him and enquire of God for him. People should be free
with their faithful ministers. David was a man of great faith and
courage, and yet now both failed him, and he fell thus foully through
fear and cowardice, and both owing to the weakness of his faith. Had he
trusted God aright, he would not have used such a sorry sinful shift as
this for his own preservation. It is written, not for our imitation,
no, not in the greatest straits, but for our admonition. Let him
that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall; and let us all pray
daily, Lord, lead us not into temptation. Let us all take
occasion from this to lament,
(1.) The weakness and infirmity of good men; the best are not perfect
on this side heaven. There may be true grace where yet there are many
failings.
(2.) The wickedness of bad times, which forces good men into such
straits as prove temptations too strong for them. Oppression makes a
wise man do foolishly.
2. Two things David begged of Ahimelech, bread and a
sword.
(1.) He wanted bread: five loaves,
v. 3.
Travelling was then troublesome, when men generally carried their
provisions with them in kind, having little money and no public houses,
else David would not now have had to seek for bread. It seems David had
known the seed of the righteous begging bread occasionally, but
not constantly,
Now,
[1.] The priest objected that he had none but hallowed bread,
show-bread, which had stood a week on the golden table in the
sanctuary, and was taken thence for the use of the priests and their
families,
v. 4.
It seems the priest kept no good house, but wanted either a heart to be
hospitable or provisions wherewithal to be so. Ahimelech thinks that
the young men that attended David might not eat of this bread unless
they had for some time abstained from women, even from their own wives;
this was required at the giving of the law
but otherwise we never find this made the matter of any ceremonial
purity on the one side or pollution on the other, and therefore the
priest here seems to be over-nice, not to say superstitious.
[2.] David pleads that he and those that were with him, in this case of
necessity, might lawfully eat of the hallowed bread, for they were not
only able to answer his terms of keeping from women for three days
past, but the vessels (that is, the bodies) of the young men
were holy, being possessed in sanctification and honour at all
times
and therefore God would take particular care of them, that they wanted
not necessary supports, and would have his priest to do so. Being thus
holy, holy things were not forbidden them. Poor and pious Israelites
were in effect priests to God, and, rather than be starved, might feed
on the bread which was appropriated to the priests. Believers are
spiritual priests, and the offerings of the Lord shall be their
inheritance; they eat the bread of their God. He pleads that the bread
is in a manner common, now that what was primarily the religious use of
it is over; especially (as our margin reads it) where there is other
bread (hot,
v. 6)
sanctified that day in the vessel, and put in the room of it
upon the table. This was David’s plea, and the Son of David approves
it, and shows from it that mercy is to be preferred to sacrifice, that
ritual observance must give way to moral duties, and that may be done
in a case of an urgent providential necessity which may not otherwise
be done. He brings it to justify his disciples in plucking the ears of
corn on the sabbath day, for which the Pharisees censured them,
[3.] Ahimelech hereupon supplies him: He gave him hallowed bread
(v. 6),
and some think it was about this that he enquired of the Lord,
ch. xxii. 10.
As a faithful servant he would not dispose of his master’s provisions
without his master’s leave. This bread, we may suppose, was the more
agreeable to David for its being hallowed, so precious were all sacred
things to him. The show-bread was but twelve loaves in all, yet out of
these he gave David five
(v. 3),
though they had no more in the house; but he trusted Providence.
(2.) He wanted a sword. Persons of quality, though officers of the
army, did not then wear their swords so constantly as now they do, else
surely David would not have been without one. It was a wonder that
Jonathan did not furnish him with his, as he had before done,
However, it happened that he had now no weapons with him, the reason of
which he pretends to be because he came away in haste,
v. 8.
Those that are furnished with the sword of the Spirit and the shield of
faith cannot be disarmed of them, nor need they, at any time, to be at
a loss. But the priests, it seems, had no swords: the weapons of their
warfare were not carnal. There was not a sword to be found about the
tabernacle but the sword of Goliath, which was laid up behind the
ephod, as a monument of the glorious victory David obtained over him.
Probably David had an eye to that when he asked the priest to help him
with a sword; for, that being mentioned, O! says he, there is none
like that, give it to me,
v. 9.
He could not use Saul’s armour, for he had not proved it; but this
sword of Goliath he had made trial of and done execution with. By this
it appears that he was now well grown in strength and stature, that he
could wear and wield such a sword as that. God had taught his hands
to war, so that he could do wonders,
Two things we may observe concerning this sword:–
[1.] That God had graciously given it to him, as a pledge of his
singular favour; so that whenever he drew it, nay, whenever he looked
upon it, it would be a great support to his faith, by bringing to mind
that great instance of the particular care and countenance of the
divine providence respecting him.
[2.] That he had gratefully given it back to God, dedicating it to him
and to his honour as a token of his thankfulness; and now in his
distress it stood him greatly in stead. Note, What we devote to God’s
praise, and serve him with, is most likely to redound, one way or
other, to our own comfort and benefit. What we gave we have.
Thus was David well furnished with arms and victuals; but it fell out
very unhappily that there was one of Saul’s servants then attending
before the Lord, Doeg by name, that proved a base traitor both
to David and Ahimelech. He was by birth an Edomite
(v. 7),
and though proselyted to the Jewish religion, to get the preferment he
now had under Saul, yet he retained the ancient and hereditary enmity
of Edom to Israel. He was master of the herds, which perhaps was then a
place of as much honour as master of the horse is now. Some occasion or
other he had at this time to wait on the priest, either to be purified
from some pollution or to pay some vow; but, whatever his business was,
it is said, he was detained before the Lord. He must attend and
could not help it, but he was sick of the service, snuffed at it,
and said, What a weariness is it!
Mal. i. 13.
He would rather have been any where else than before the Lord, and
therefore, instead of minding the business he came about, was plotting
to do David a mischief and to be revenged on Ahimelech for detaining
him. God’s sanctuary could never secure such wolves in sheep’s
clothing. See
| David Driven from Achish. | B. C. 1057. |
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10 And David arose, and fled that day for fear of Saul, and
went to Achish the king of Gath.
11 And the servants of Achish said unto him, Is not this
David the king of the land? did they not sing one to another of
him in dances, saying, Saul hath slain his thousands, and David
his ten thousands?
12 And David laid up these words in his heart, and was sore
afraid of Achish the king of Gath.
13 And he changed his behaviour before them, and feigned
himself mad in their hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the
gate, and let his spittle fall down upon his beard.
14 Then said Achish unto his servants, Lo, ye see the man is
mad: wherefore then have ye brought him to me?
15 Have I need of mad men, that ye have brought this fellow
to play the mad man in my presence? shall this fellow come into
my house?
David, though king elect, is here an exile–designed to be master of
vast treasures, yet just now begging his bread–anointed to the crown,
and yet here forced to flee from his country. Thus do God’s providences
sometimes seem to run counter to his promises, for the trial of his
people’s faith, and the glorifying of his name, in the accomplishment
of his counsels, notwithstanding the difficulties that lay in the way.
Here is,
1. David’s flight into the land of the Philistines, where he hoped to
be hid, and to remain undiscovered in the court or camp of Achish king
of Gath,
Israel’s darling is necessitated to quit the land of Israel, and he
that was the Philistine’s great enemy (upon I know not what
inducements) goes to seek for shelter among them. It should seem that
as, though the Israelites loved him, yet the king of Israel had a
personal enmity to him, which obliged him to leave his own country, so,
though the Philistines hated him, yet the king of Gath had a personal
kindness for him, valuing his merit, and perhaps the more for his
killing Goliath of Gath, who, it may be, had been no friend to Achish.
To him David now went directly, as to one he could confide in, as
afterwards
and Achish would not have protected him but that he was afraid of
disobliging his own people. God’s persecuted people have often found
better usage from Philistines than from Israelites, in the Gentile
theatres than in the Jewish synagogues. The king of Judah imprisoned
Jeremiah, and the king of Babylon set him at liberty.
2. The disgust which the servants of Achish took at his being there,
and their complaint of it to Achish
(v. 11):
“Is not this David? Is not this he that has triumphed over the
Philistines? witness that burden of the song which was so much talked
of, Saul has slain his thousands, but David, this very
man, his ten thousands. Nay, Is not this he that (if our
intelligence from the land of Israel be true) is, or is to be, king
of the land?” As such, “he must be an enemy to our country; and is
it safe or honourable for us to protect or entertain such a man?”
Achish perhaps had intimated to them that it would be policy to
entertain David, because he was now an enemy to Saul, and he might be
hereafter a friend to them. It is common for the outlaws of a nation to
be sheltered by the enemies of that nation. But the servants of Achish
objected to his politics, and thought it not at all fit that he should
stay among them.
3. The fright which this put David into. Though he had some reason to
put confidence in Achish, yet, when he perceived the servants of Achish
jealous of him, he began to be afraid that Achish would be obliged to
deliver him up to them, and he was sorely afraid
(v. 12),
and perhaps he was the more apprehensive of his own danger, when he was
thus discovered, because he wore Goliath’s sword, which, we may
suppose, was well known in Gath, and with which he had reason to expect
they would cut off his head, as he had cut off Goliath’s with it.
David now learned by experience what he has taught us
that it is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in
princes. Men of high degree are a lie, and, if we make them our
hope, they may prove our fear. It was at this time that David penned
(Michtam, a golden psalm), when the Philistines took him in
Gath, where having shown before God his distresses, he resolves
(v. 3),
“What time I am afraid I will trust in thee; and therefore
(v. 11)
will not be afraid what man can do unto me, no, not the sons of
giants.”
4. The course he took to get out of their hands: He feigned himself
mad,
v. 13.
He used the gestures and fashions of a natural fool, or one that had
gone out of his wits, supposing they would be ready enough to believe
that the disgrace he had fallen into, and the troubles he was now in,
had driven him distracted. This dissimulation of his cannot be
justified (it was a mean thing thus to disparage himself, and
inconsistent with truth thus to misrepresent himself, and therefore not
becoming the honour and sincerity of such a man as David); yet it may
in some degree be excused, for it was not a downright lie and it was
like a stratagem in war, by which he imposed upon his enemies for the
preservation of his own life. What David did here in pretence and for
his own safety, which made it partly excusable, drunkards do really,
and only to gratify a base lust: they made fools of themselves and
change their behaviour; their words and actions commonly are either as
silly and ridiculous as an idiot’s or as furious and outrageous as a
madman’s, which has often made me wonder that ever men of sense and
honour should allow themselves in it.
5. His escape by this means,
I am apt to think Achish was aware that the delirium was but
counterfeit, but, being desirous to protect David (as we find
afterwards he was very kind to him, even when the lord of the
Philistines favoured him not,
he pretended to his servants that he really thought he was mad, and
therefore had reason to question whether it was David or no; or, if it
were, they need not fear him, what harm could he do them now that his
reason had departed from him? They suspected that Achish was inclined
to entertain him: “Not I,” says he. “He is a madman. I’ll have nothing
to do with him. You need not fear that I should employ him, or give him
any countenance.” He humours the thing well enough when he asks,
“Have I need of madmen? Shall this fool come into my
house? I will show him no kindness, but then you shall do him no
hurt, for, if he be a madmen, he is to be pitied.” He therefore
drove him away, as it is in the title of
which David penned upon this occasion, and an excellent psalm it is,
and shows that he did not change his spirit when he changed his
behaviour, but even in the greatest difficulties and hurries his
heart was fixed, trusting in the Lord; and he concludes that
psalm with this assurance, that none of those that trust in God
shall be desolate, though they may be, as he now was, solitary and
distressed, persecuted, but not forsaken.
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