כהני נב

Why are you alone, for if you come for war where is the army? And if on a mission from the king, where are his servants?

And now since I left five boys there far from any city or dwelling, give five rolls of bread for the five boys, or if you don't have then give whatever you have.

Doeg the Edomite. He lived in the land of Edom, therefore he was called Edomite, just like Uriah the Hittite, Yeter the Yishmaelite, Itai the Gittite, who are all named for the place where they live.

There is none like it. Since with it he was victorious, it conveyed a good omen.

(1) That David…had been discovered. That he realized to beware of him.

The Holy One, Blessed be He, said: What shall I do? Shall Saul die now? Samuel will not allow it. Shall Samuel die young, with Saul passing away immediately afterward? The people will murmur about him, and wonder what transgression Samuel committed. Shall neither Saul nor Samuel die? David’s reign has already arrived, and one kingdom does not overlap with another even by a hairbreadth [nima].

Therefore, the Holy One, Blessed be He, said: I will spring old age upon him and everyone will think that Shmuel is elderly. This is the meaning of what is written: “And Saul dwelled in Gibeah under the tamarisk tree in Rama” (I Samuel 22:6). What does Gibeah have to do with Rama; these are two separate places. Rather, the verse comes to tell you: Who caused Saul to dwell in Gibeah for two and a half years? The prayer of Samuel of Rama.

And is one man set aside before another man? The Gemara answers: Yes, as Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥmani said that Rabbi Yoḥanan said: What is the meaning of that which is written: “Therefore I have hewn by the prophets, I have slain them by the words of My mouth” (Hosea 6:5)? It is not stated: By their deeds, but rather: “By the words of My mouth,” i.e., God sometimes ends the life of an individual simply by virtue of His decree. Apparently, one man is indeed set aside before another man.

Our rabbis taught, there are three kings and four regular people who have no place in the world to come. The four regulars are Bilam, Doeg, Ahitofel, and Gehazi. You find that these were sent to hell by their own words... So too with Doeg, he was banished by his own tongue. When? When David fled to Nov the city of Ahimelech the Priest and he accepted him. Saul suspected and gathered his servants and said to them: It's nice, what you have done to me. David does what he wants and none of you inform me, as it says: you have all rebelled against me and no one informs me when my son makes a treaty with Ben Yishai and none of you are concerned for me. And Doeg began to speak evilly, as it says: And Doeg the Edomite answered and he was standing with the servants of Saul and he said, I saw the son of Yishai come to Nov to Ahimelech son of Ahituv. And by his hand 58 priests who wore the ephod were killed, and Achimelech the High Priest. And Nov the city of priests was struck by the sword etc. Rabbi Elazar says, all who are merciful to the cruel, in the end become cruel to the merciful.

It is written: And Saul had mercy on Agag and on the best of the sheep and cattle.

And it is written about Nov city of priests, and Nov the city of priests was struck by the sword....

For twenty four sins, families are destroyed and the suffering is great...

For the sin of having mercy on the cruel, and for the sin of being cruel to the merciful...

Inquire of God for him. To tell him his way when he was running from me, and the midrash is that you made him king, since you only ask the urim v'tumim for a king and the head of a court and a public servant.

Today I began to ask, meaning the fact that I inquired for him today, it was the first time, hence he said I began.

§ “And Ishbibenob, who was of the sons of the giant, the weight of whose spear was three hundred shekels of brass; and he was girded with new armor and planned to slay David” (II Samuel 21:16). The Gemara asks: What is the meaning of Ishbibenob? Rav Yehuda says, Rav says: This is a man [ish] who came over matters of Nov. The Holy One, Blessed be He, said to David: Until when will this sin be concealed in your hand? Through you Nov, the city of priests, was massacred, and through you, Doeg the Edomite was banished from the World-to-Come, and through you, Saul and his three sons were killed.

God said to David: Is it your desire that your descendants will cease to exist or that you will be handed to the enemy? David said before Him: Master of the Universe, it is preferable that I will be handed to the enemy and my descendants will not cease...

Apropos David’s prayer that his descendants cease, the Gemara asks: And from where do we derive that David’s descendants ceased to exist? It is stated: “And Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, and she arose and destroyed all the royal descendants” (II Kings 11:1). The Gemara asks: But didn’t Joash remain? There too, in the massacre in Nov, Abiathar remained, as it is written: “And one of the sons of Ahimelech, son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped” (I Samuel 22:20). Rav Yehuda says that Rav says: Were it not for the fact that Abiathar remained for Ahimelech, son of Ahitub, there would have been no remnant or refugee remaining from the descendants of David.