properly · verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine singular + paragogic he
fear
תִּירָ֔אti.Ra'
H3372
to fear · verb, qal jussive, 2nd person masculine singular
seeketh
יְבַקֵּ֥שׁye.va.Kesh
H1245
to search out (by any method · verb, piel imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
life
נַפְשִׁ֖יnaf.Shi
H5315
properly · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix
seeketh
יְבַקֵּ֣שׁye.va.Kesh
H1245
to search out (by any method · verb, piel imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
life
נַפְשֶׁ֑ךָnaf.She.kha
H5315
properly · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
safeguard
מִשְׁמֶ֥רֶתmish.Me.ret
H4931
watch · noun, common feminine singular absolute
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
John 10:28-30 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
1 Kings 2:26 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…
Hebrews 12:1-3 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so ea…
John 18:9 That the saying might be fulfilled, which he spake, Of them which thou gavest me have I lost none.
John 15:20 Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you;…
Matthew 24:9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.
John 17:12 While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of…
John 16:2-3 They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.
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 22:23
He that seeketh my life seeketh thy life - The enmity of Saul is directed against thee as well as against me, and thou canst have no safety but in being closely attached to me; and I will defend thee even at the risk of my own life. This he was bound in duty and conscience to do.
John Gill on 1 Samuel 22:23
Abide thou with me, fear not,.... He appeared to be in a fright; which is not to be wondered at, as not knowing what to do, and where to go and provide for his safety; when, to allay his fears, and make him easy, David invites and encourages him to stay with him, and not be afraid of Saul, nor any other:
for he that seeketh my life seeketh thy life; or, as Kimchi observes, it may be interpreted, "my life he seeks who seeks thy life"; we are in the same circumstances, and have the same common enemy, and therefore it is best and safest to be together; as the Targum,"he that seeks to kill me seeks to kill thee;''and as Jarchi adds, he that loves me will love thee, and he that keeps my life wil…
The Church Fathers
Stay with me, do not be afraid, etc. Remain, he said, in my love; do not be afraid of those who kill the body: if they persecuted me, they will also persecute you; but where I am, there will my servant also be; if anyone serves me, my Father will honor him (John XV; Matthew X; John XII). This betrayal and the attack by Doeg the Edomite, and during the times of the Lord and the Apostles in Judas Iscariot and other false brothers, and at the end of the world in the very Antichrist greater than the others, can be understood, in the manner of the fifty-first psalm, which is sung in reference to him, is not inappropriately applied to that enemy, as the title says: To the end, for understanding by David himself, when Doeg the Edomite came and reported to Saul, and said: Behold, David is in the house of Ahimelech; where "for understanding by David himself" is placed at the beginning not for any other reason than to signify that David understood among the hardships he suffered innocently, what wickedness would be plotted against the true David to be born from his seed by the scheming of the wicked. For he did come, boasting in malice, powerful in iniquity, thinking of injustice all day long, and the rest, which he added in the psalm. He who understood these things through the Spirit, burdened by sins and to be burdened by punishments, Judas announced to the Jews, and said: Behold, Jesus is accustomed to frequenting the garden of the Mount of Olives with his disciples. For from the ultimate tribulation how this title should be understood, clearly shows from what has been discussed above. But since we have extended our discourse and dictated a longer third book in the exposition of blessed Samuel, both second and first, we think it fitting to put an end to this labor with the triumph of the martyrs among the priests, and judging it proper to cease from the work for a time to recover strength in silence.
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…
Abiathar · in the City of Nob — in the City of Nob
Friendship · .David and Abiathar — .David and Abiathar
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 22:23
For the man who seeks my life. One person is pursuing both of us. Wherever I escape, you escape, for you will always be in my safeguard; as Targum Yonoson renders, 'for he who seeks to kill me, seeks to kill you.' But, it may also mean, 'whoever will love me, will love you, and whoever will guard my soul, will guard your soul.' There is a similar instance in Scripture, "Men of blood hate a sincere person, but the upright seek his soul.'11 Mishlei 29:10. This is [an instance of] seeking a soul for [doing] good.
