1 Samuel 22:11

SAUL'S MURDER OF THE EIGHTY-FIVE PRIESTS OF NOB

"Then the king sent to summon Ahimelech the priest, the son of Ahitub, and all his father's house, the priests who were at Nob; and all of them came to the king. And Saul said, "Hear now, son of Ahitub." And he answered, "Here am I, my lord." And Saul said to him, "Why have you conspired against me, you and the son of Jesse, in that you have given him bread and a sword, and have inquired of God for him, so that he is risen against me, to lie in wait, as at this day."? Then Ahimelech answered the king, "And who among all your servants is so faithful as David, who is the king's son-in-law, and captain over your bodyguard, and honored in your house? Is today the first time that I have inquired of God for him? No! Let not the king impute anything to his servant or to all the house of my father; for our servant has known nothing of all this, much or little." And the king said, "You shall surely die, Ahimelech, you and all your father's house." And the king said to the guard who stood about him, "Turn and kill the priests of the Lord; because their hand also is with David, and they knew that he fled, and did not disclose it to me." But the servants of the king would not put forth their hand to fall upon the priests of the Lord. Then the king said to Doeg, "You turn and fall upon the priests." And Doeg the Edomite turned and fell upon the priests, and he killed on that day eighty-five persons who wore the linen ephod. And Nob, the city of the priests, he put to the sword; both men and women, children and sucklings, oxen, asses and sheep, he put to the sword."

By this murder of a whole city of the priests of the Lord, Saul, in a sense, declared war on God Himself. Satan, at this point, dominated the will of Saul completely. How incredible is it that the man who refused to execute the [~cherem] or the "ban" against the Amalekites, even though God had commanded it, in this shameful episode executed the ban upon one of the cities of his own kingdom, "The city of the priests of the Lord"!

By thus ordering the destruction of Nob in the manner of the "ban" ([~cherem]), as God had commanded the children of Israel regarding Jericho, "Saul so completely identified his revenge with the cause of Jehovah that he avenged an imaginary conspiracy against himself, identifying it as treason against Jehovah,"[7] and ordered Doeg to destroy Nob.

In this bloody and unscrupulous murder of so many, one must recall the judgment that the "man of God" pronounced against the house of Eli (1 Samuel 2:27-36). Of course, in this destruction, Abiathar escaped; but in time, the judgment of God overcame him also.