Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
1 Samuel 23:6 And it came to pass, when Abiathar the son of Ahimelech fled to David to Keilah, that he came down with an ephod in his hand.
1 Samuel 30:7 And David said to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech’s son, I pray thee, bring me hither the ephod. And Abiathar brought thither the ephod to Da…
1 Samuel 2:33 And the man of thine, whom I shall not cut off from mine altar, shall be to consume thine eyes, and to grieve thine heart: and all the incre…
1 Samuel 23:9 And David knew that Saul secretly practised mischief against him; and he said to Abiathar the priest, Bring hither the ephod.
1 Kings 2:26-27 And unto Abiathar the priest said the king, Get thee to Anathoth, unto thine own fields; for thou art worthy of death: but I will not at thi…
1 Samuel 4:12 And there ran a man of Benjamin out of the army, and came to Shiloh the same day with his clothes rent, and with earth upon his head.
Job 1:19 And, behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they…
2 Samuel 20:25 And Sheva was scribe: and Zadok and Abiathar were the priests:
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 1 Samuel 22:20–end
Here is, 1. The escape of Abiathar, the son of Ahimelech, out of the desolations of the priests' city. Probably when his father went to appear, upon Saul's summons, he was left at home to attend the altar, by which means he escaped the first execution, and, before Doeg and his bloodhounds came to Nob, he had intelligence of the danger, and had time to shift for his own safety. And whither should he go but to David? Sa1 22:20. Let those that suffer for the Son of David commit the keeping of their souls to him, Pe1 4:19. 2. David's resentment of the melancholy tidings he brought. He gave David an account of the bloody work Saul had made among the priests of the Lord (Sa1 22:21), as the discipl…
ABIATHAR ESCAPES AND FLEES AFTER DAVID. (Sa1 22:20-23)
one of the sons of Ahimelech . . . escaped--This was Abiathar, who repaired to David in the forest of Hareth, rescuing, with his own life, the high priest's vestments (Sa1 23:6, Sa1 23:9). On hearing his sad tale, David declared that he had dreaded such a fatal result from the malice and intriguing ambition of Doeg; and, accusing himself as having been the occasion of all the disaster to Abiathar's family, David invited him to remain, because, firmly trusting himself in the accomplishment of the divine promise, David could guarantee protection to him.
Next: 1 Samuel Chapter 23
Adam Clarke on 1 Samuel 22:20
Abiathar, escaped - This man carried with him his sacerdotal garments, as we find from Sa1 23:6, Sa1 23:9.
John Gill on 1 Samuel 22:20
And one of the sons of Ahimelech, the son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped,.... Who very probably was left by his father to take care of the sanctuary, and the holy things in it, when he and the rest of the priests were summoned to appear before Saul; who having heard of his bloody execution of them, before his messengers could get to Nob, took, the ephod, with the Urim and Thummim, and made his escape, as appears from 1 Samuel 23:6; this man succeeded his father in the high priesthood, and continued in it until the times of Solomon:
and fled after David; who was now removed, or removing from the forest of Hareth to Keilah, whither Abiathar followed him, and came to him there, 1 Samuel 23…
The Church Fathers
One son of Ahimelech escaped, Abiathar, etc. Just as Doeg the Edomite, one who struck down the priests, symbolized the sword of all executioners, so Abiathar, the one who escaped the sword of the striker, represents all the confessors of Christ who could survive that most severe persecution. Therefore, Abiathar is rightly interpreted as "superfluous father," signifying those who, glorious in the paternal title in the Church, survived such a turmoil. He fled to David and announced to him the priests of the Lord who were killed by Saul: just as the pious devotion of those remaining, after the killing was completed, turned to the Lord, ardently commemorating the memory of their slain brethren under his testament through prayer or by offering sacred sacrifices. To this, he himself replies through his own gospel that he had foreseen and predestined long ago that all who wish to live piously in him would suffer persecution for his name's sake; therefore, as a sure debtor of a certain reward, he would bring all souls released by such a death to the joys of eternal life. "I knew," he says, "that while there would never be lacking false brothers in the Church, without a doubt, they would aid external enemies through internal scandals. I knew that while in this whole world there would never be lacking evil ones, by whom the wisdom of the disputing good or the patience of those contending would be exercised and tested, without a doubt, tribulations and temptations would always await the pilgrim Church here. But I am the one who will eternally crown each soul of the elect with a heavenly crown after their struggles on earth."
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Abiathar — Father of abundance, or my father excels, the son of Ahimelech the high priest. He was the tenth high priest, and the fourth in descent from Eli. When his father was slain with the priests of Nob, he…
Ahimelech — Brother of the king, the son of Ahitub and father of Abiathar (1 Sam. 22:20-23). He descended from Eli in the line of Ithamar. In 1 Chr. 18:16 he is called Abimelech, and is probably the same as…
Ahitub — Brother of goodness = good. (1.) The son of Phinehas. On the death of his grandfather Eli he succeeded to the office of high priest, and was himself succeeded by his son Ahijah (1 Sam. 14:3; 22:9,…
Abiathar · . — .
Ahimelech · .Killed by the command of Saul — .Killed by the command of Saul
Ahitub · 1. High priest, father of Ahiah — 1. High priest, father of Ahiah
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
The only one of the whole body of priests who escaped this bloody death was a son of Ahimelech, named Abiathar, who "fled after David," i.e., to David the fugitive, and informed him of the barbarous vengeance which Saul had taken upon the priests of the Lord. Then David recognised and confessed his guilt. "I knew that day that the Edomite Doeg was there, that he (i.e., that as the Edomite Doeg was there, he) would tell Saul: I am the cause of all the souls of thy father's house," i.e., of their death. סבב is used here in the sense of being the cause of a thing, which is one of the meanings of the verb in the Arabic and Talmudic (vid., Ges. Lex. s. v.). "Stay with me, fear not; for he who see…
Abiathar became an adviser to David, providing guidance from the Lord through the ephod (23:2-12; 2 Sam 15:24-36). Later, he conspired with Adonijah against David and Solomon (1 Kgs 1–2).
Rashi on 1 Samuel 22:18
To Doeg. [Doeg's] name changed [to Doyeig].9דַיָג means fisherman. He said to him, "You are caught like a fish;10Based on Talmud Yerushalmi Maseches Sanhedrin 10:2. However, the Gemara in Maseches Sanhedrin 106b explains that דֹאֵג means worry, i.e., ה׳ was concerned that he might go astray. Once he did, ה׳ said, ‘וי’[= woe], it is lamentable that this brilliant person has gone astray, hence the דוֹיֵג spelling. you informed on them so you slay them."
