And David said unto Ahimelech the priest, The king hath commanded me a business, and hath said unto me, Let no man know any thing of the business whereabout I send thee, and what I have commanded thee: and I have appointed [my] servants to such and such a place.
Ver. 2. The king hath commanded me a business.] Here David uttereth two lies in a breath, - as before him Jacob had done three, Gen 27:19-20 though lying be a blushful sin, - whereunto he addeth another lie, 1Sa 21:8 and all deliberate. The like he doth to Achish, king of Gath. 1Sa 21:8 ; 1Sa 21:10 If the best man's faults were written in his forehead, it would make him pull his hat over his eyes, saith the proverb. Some go about to excuse David's lying here: but that cannot be. The consequents of it were very sad, viz., that bloody massacre of the priests, and all the inhabitants of Nob, 1Sa 23:18-19 which he could not but foresee and suspect, when he saw Doeg - that flatter - present, 1Sa 22:22 and afterwards it made his soul melt for very heaviness, whilst he bewailed it, and begged pardoning and prevailing grace. Psa 119:28-29