1 Samuel 22:6 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

1 Samuel 22:6. (Now Saul abode in Gibeah, &c.— Though mean people, travelling in the East, might make use of trees for shelter, we may perhaps think it almost incredible that kings should; imagining that either proper houses would be marked out for their reception, or, if that could not be conveniently done in some of their routes, that, at least, they would have tents carried along with them, as persons of more than ordinary rank and condition are supposed by Dr. Shaw to do. For these reasons, we may possibly have been extremely surprised at the present passage: Now Saul abode in Gibeah, under a tree in Ramah, (or, according to the Margins, under a grove in an high place,) having his spear in his hand; and all his servants were standing about him. Yet, strange as this may appear to us, it is natural enough according to the present customs of the East, where we know the solemnity and awfulness of superiority is kept up as high as ever. Thus, when Dr. Pococke was travelling in the company of the governor of Faiume, who was treated with great respect as he passed along, they spent one night, he tells us, (vol. 1: p. 56.) in a grove of palm trees. The governor might, no doubt, had he pleased, have lodged in some village, but he rather chose a place which we think very odd for a person of figure. The position of Saul, which was on an high place, according to the Margin, reminds me of another passage in this author, (p. 127.) where he gives us an account of the going out of the caia or lieutenant of the governor of Meloui, on a sort of Arabic expedition, towards a place where there was an ancient temple, attended by many people with kettle-drums and other music: the bishop visited that temple, and upon his return from it he went to the caia, "whose carpet and cushions were laid on an height on which he sat, with the standard by him, which is carried before him when he goes out in this manner. I sat down by him, and coffee was brought. The sardar [or governor] himself came after, as incognito." Saul seems, by the description given of him, as well as by the following part of the history, to have been pursuing after David, and, stopping, to have placed himself, according to the present oriental mode, in the posture of chief. Whether the spear in his hand, or, at his hand, (see Noldius,) was the same thing to Saul's people that the standard was to those of the caia, I know not: if it was, there are three things in this text illustrated by the doctor's account; the stopping under a tree, or grove; the stopping on an high place; and the sacred historian's remarks, that he had his spear by him. It is certain, that when a long pike is carried before a company of Arabs, it is a mark that an Arab scheich, or prince, is there; which pike is carried before him, and when he alights, and the horses are fastened, the pike is fixed, as appears from Norden, part ii. p. 181. and p. 71. See Observations, p. 293. Bishop Patrick well observes, that Justin, speaking of the first times of the Romans, (about the reign of Saul,) says, "In those days kings had spears as signs of royal authority, which the Greeks call sceptres. From time immemorial the ancients worshipped spears for immortal gods, in memory of which religion, spears are still added to the images of the gods." Justin, lib. iii. c. 43.