1 Samuel 22 - The Massacre at Nob

1. David flees to the cave of Adullam, and there a company gathers around him (vv. 1–2).
   • Four hundred men join him, with outcasts becoming the nucleus of the future king's army.
   • The anointed king is surrounded not by the powerful but by the least of these, just as Christ gathered fishers and sinners.
2. The prophet Gad commands David to leave the stronghold and return to Judah (v. 5).
   • David obeys immediately.
   • Contrasted with Saul and his disobedience of Samuel’s direction.
3. Saul becomes a paranoid accuser (vv. 6–8).
   • He accuses his servants of conspiracy and frames Jonathan's covenant with David as treason.
4. David's lie in chapter 21 now bears its fruit.
   • Doeg was there.
   • David knew Doeg was there and that this would risk Ahimelech (v. 22).
5. Saul orders the slaughter of the priests (v. 17).
   • Saul's servants will not strike the priests of the LORD.
   • Doeg the Edomite instead kills eighty-five priests and Nob entirely: men, women, children, infants, and livestock (vv. 18–19).
     • This event fulfills the word of the man of God against Eli's house in 1 Samuel 2:31–33: "the arm of your father's house" cut off, none reaching old age.
     • Saul, who would not destroy Amalek as the LORD commanded, destroys the LORD's own priests of his own volition.
6. Abiathar, the lone surviving priest, escapes to David, with David realizing his sin (vv. 20–23).
   • The last surviving priest of Nob is sheltered under the LORD's anointed, equipping David with the means of inquiring of God, while Saul has now fully stripped himself of the same.