David a Fugitive
595
and five persons that did wear a linen ephod”—were slain at the king’s
command, by the murderous hand of Doeg.
“And Nob, the city of the priests, smote he with the edge of the
sword, both men and women, children and sucklings, and oxen, and
asses, and sheep.” This is what Saul could do under the control of
Satan. When God had said that the iniquity of the Amalekites was full,
and had commanded him to destroy them utterly, he thought himself
too compassionate to execute the divine sentence, and he spared that
which was devoted to destruction; but now, without a command from
God, under the guidance of Satan, he could slay the priests of the Lord
and bring ruin upon the inhabitants of Nob. Such is the perversity of
the human heart that has refused the guidance of God.
This deed filled all Israel with horror. It was the king whom they
had chosen that had committed this outrage, and he had only done
after the manner of the kings of other nations that feared not God. The
ark was with them, but the priests of whom they had inquired were
slain with the sword. What would come next?
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