When Saul heard. — No note of time is here given. Probably the return of David with a disciplined force to the land, and the pitching of an armed camp in the “forest of Hareth,” excited anew Saul’s jealous fears.
Now Saul abode in Gibeah. — In Gibeah of Saul, his own royal city. The LXX. wrongly render, instead of Gibeah, “on the hills.” The margin of the English Version, “under a grove in a high place,” is correct as regards the later words, baramah signifying here upon the height. “Under a tree” is, however, nearer the original than “under a grove.” The literal rendering would be “under a tamarisk tree.” The sentence then should run, “Now Saul abode in Gibeah, under the tamarisk tree on the height.” The tamarisk, which grows so abundantly on the sea-shore of England and in warmer climates, develops into a very graceful tree, with long feathery branches and tufts. Saul’s love for trees has been noticed before. This solemn council of his, when the darkest deed of his reign was decided upon, was held in the spot Saul loved so well, under the spreading tamarisk branches. There we see him, leaning, as was his wont in peace as in war, upon his tall spear, surrounded by his valiant captains, chosen apparently, with one exception, from his own tribe of Benjamin — the exception being his wicked counsellor, the Edomite Doeg, who was over the royal herds. This is one of the earliest councils we have any definite account of in the world’s history. The king, surrounded by his chosen “fideles,” complaining of the treason of one of them lately exiled from their midst, bewailing the want of fidelity of his son, the heir to the throne — then the stepping forward of one of these “fideles,” one invested with high office, and publicly denouncing the chief religious official of the kingdom — forms a striking and vivid picture.