Then started up one Doeg, an Edomite, who informed Saul, that he had seen David harboured by the priests in Nob. Upon this, Saul summoned all those belonging to that city before him, with Ahimelech their chief, who began to excuse himself as well as he could; but Saul remembering, without doubt, the threatening of Samuel, concerning the affair of king Agag;* and considering these priests as traitors, from this corroborating evidence against them, he commanded them all to be slain, to the number of eighty-five persons.** Moreover, agreeable to the barbarous usage of that nation, the massacre included the whole city of Nob, man and beast, young and old, without exception. Though the king's rage in this instance exceeded not only the bounds of humanity, but also of good policy, it nevertheless serves to show how deeply the priests were concerned in the rebellion of David; since he could not be mad enough to commit so flagrant an act, without some colourable pretence;*** and shows also that Saul had not so great an opinion of their holiness as we, at this distance of time, are, by their own annals, instructed to have. Had Saul been more implicit, he might have enjoyed the name of king, have continued the dupe of the priests, have died in peace, and his children have succeeded quietly to the inheritance. But, "Ye gods! what havoc does ambition make Among your works!" During this time, David rescued the city of Keilah from the Philistines,(5) who were besieging it, hoping to make it a garrison for himself. * 1 Sam. xiii. 14, xv. 26, 28. ** Ch. xxii. 16-18. *** Ver. 19. **** In so small a territory as Judea, the difference between the king and his son-in-law, so popular a man, could not be unknown to persons in any measure removed from the vulgar. Therefore, Ahmeleoh's pleas of ignorance did not deserve credit. (5) 1 Sam. xxiii. 3.