1 Samuel 22:18,19 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Doeg—slew on that day fourscore and five persons— Josephus says, that Doeg, taking to his assistance some men as wicked as himself, slew, in all, three hundred and eighty-five persons. The LXX says three hundred and five. A robe of linen was the common dress of the priests, and it is what the historian means by a linen ephod; very different from that of the high-priest. See chap. 1 Samuel 2:18. But why should all the priests have been involved in this barbarous massacre? Doeg mentions only Ahimelech as being applied to by David; and, in like manner, Saul himself, in the charge he brings against Ahimelech, accused him and David: why have ye conspired against me, thou and the son of Jesse? without a syllable of any other priests. As to the priests not acquainting Saul with David's flight, why should they do it, if they were not informed of it, but believed, as David had pretended, that he was in haste upon the king's business? And if they had known the reason of it, it was not in their power to have acquainted Saul with it time enough for him to have apprehended David; for the sacred writer informs us, ch. 1 Samuel 21:10 that David arose and fled that very day, for fear of Saul. It appears further, that Saul's guards thought Ahimelech and the priests wholly innocent; because, when he bid them put them all to the sword, 1 Samuel 22:17 they unanimously refused to obey his command; and one ruffian only was found, a foreigner, and by nation an enemy to the Jews, capable of imbruing his hands in the blood of so many respectable and innocent persons. It is further evident, from Saul's charge against Ahimelech, that his suspicion of the priests being in David's interest arose merely from the information of Doeg, and not from any thing they had done before this, contrary to their duty. For Saul confines himself to the facts which Doeg alleged against him, and never intimates that they had done any thing formerly to offend. Even Saul himself afterwards exculpates them, when he declares David to be more righteous than himself, chap. 1 Samuel 24:17 which David could not be, if really guilty of rebellion against him; and if he was totally free from this charge, the priests could not be concerned in any such rebellion with him. The massacre of them, therefore, was so outrageous, so bloody, and so horrible, that it paints the character of Saul in the blackest colours; and exposes him as a warning, not only to tyrannical monarchs, but likewise to private persons who give a loose to the instigations of jealous suspicion and intemperate wrath. Dr. Delaney observes, that Saul attained two ends by this massacre: First, He weakened the power of the priests, whom he had made his enemies, by slaying such a number of them and stripping the order of their possessions; and secondly, He strengthened the hands of his own family, and confirmed the faith of his tribe, then doubtful, by conferring those possessions upon them. It is observed by almost all the commentators, how remarkable an instance this massacre of the priests supplies of God's turning the worst devices of the wicked to the purposes of his Providence. Eli had grievously offended God, because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not: for this reason God denounced his vengeance against his race, and declared that they should be cut off by a sudden and surprising destruction in one day. See how terribly this denunciation was fulfilled by Saul's unparalleled cruelty!