Lives of Scripture

Doeg the Edomite, Saul's chief herdsman, happened to be at Nob when the priest Ahimelech, unaware David was fleeing Saul, gave him bread and Goliath's sword (1 Samuel 21:1-9; 22:9-10). When Saul later raged that no one had told him David was conspiring against him, Doeg volunteered what he had seen (22:6-10). Saul summoned Ahimelech and the priests of Nob, accusing them of treason; Ahimelech protested he had no idea David was a fugitive and had only helped him as he always had (22:11-15). Saul ordered his guards to kill the priests, but they refused to "put forth their hands against the priests of the LORD" (22:17). Doeg alone was willing: he personally killed eighty-five priests wearing the linen ephod, then struck down the entire town of Nob -- men, women, children, infants, and livestock (22:18-19). Only Abiathar, one of Ahimelech's sons, escaped to tell David, who confessed he had known Doeg was there and felt responsible for the deaths of Ahimelech's whole household (22:20-23). David later wrote Psalm 52 directly about Doeg, condemning his boastful, deceitful cruelty and declaring that God would bring him down -- one of Scripture's most direct psalms of judgment against a specific named individual.