Anathoth is noted, in Joshua 21:18; 1 Chronicles 6:60, as a city of the priests in the territory of Benjamin, but a few miles from Jerusalem, and is best known to us as the birthplace of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1:1; Jeremiah 32:7).
It is notable that it is not Abiathar’s priestly character which protects him, but the remembrance of his long friendship to David in adversity, and probably of that special promise which David made to him, perhaps not without remorse, when he found that his deceit to Ahimelech had drawn down Sauľs bloody vengeance upon him and his family (1 Samuel 22:20-23).