Following King Saul’s announcement for David’s arrest and execution, David and Saul’s son Jonathan renewed their pact. They then parted ways. (Samuel 20) Jonathan walked home; David ran for his life to Nob.
“And he arose and departed; and Jonathan went into the city. Then came David to Nob to Ahimelech the priest; and Ahimelech came to meet David trembling, and said unto him: Why are you alone, and no man with you?'”
Samuel 21 records this first leg of David’s wanderings from home and homeland. His first stop? “Then came David to Nob.” Priests served in the sacred spot, where the holy ark graced the Tabernacle. Nob cultivated a conduit to the Creator and David was needful of prayer. This chapter records what happened in Nob.
David met Ahimelech, Nob’s high priest. Shock greeted David. “Ahimelech came to meet David trembling.” The visit by King Saul’s top soldier, a national hero, had been unannounced and unexpected. What business could Saul’s celebrated commander possibly have in Nob, the priest shuddered to think?
Things grew stranger. A famished David begged Ahimelech for food. To complicate matters, consider this. Nob’s foodstuffs had been earmarked exclusively for priests (and their families). Furthermore, Tabernacle priestly officials strictly observed laws of spiritual purity. David, of course, had not been born to the priestly clan; he hailed from Judah. Abravanel’s comments will smooth the way for Bible students; however, for brevity, those comments will not be discussed here. Instead, here we’ll focus on another peculiar exchange between David and Ahimelech, as seen through Abravanel’s eyes.
After procuring something to eat, David asked Ahimelech for a personal weapon. “And David said unto Ahimelech: And is there peradventure here under your hand spear or sword? for I have neither brought my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king's business required haste.”
Positively puzzling! Saul’s storied soldier came unarmed. “And the priest said: The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you slew in the vale of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod; if you will take that, take it; for there is no other save that here. And David said: There is none like that; give it me.”
Had Ahimelech hesitated to part with Goliath’s sword, that same one with which David decapitated Goliath? According to Abravanel, Goliath’s sword had been placed in Nob, for good safekeeping. No man, save for David, would be able to claim it. After all, David took it as a trophy and national relic. Thus, the sword was David’s to repossess, should he desire, but nobody else lay a claim to it. Moreover, Goliath’s sword had been the very weapon by which David’s heroism had been publicly proven, not to mention the weapon that brought respite to the embattled Hebrews by the Philistines.
David delighted to be reunited with Goliath’s sword. “And David said: There is none like that; give it to me.” Possibly, Ahimelech paused to hand over the sword to David. Why? Maybe it suggested something ominous, since Goliath – the sword’s erstwhile proprietor – had fallen by it. “And the priest said: The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you slew…”
Ahimelech sounded a note of caution, if not alarm. David, however, waived it off. Ahimelech would not pursue the point. Thus, if David felt no squeamishness concerning the sword, then Ahimelech wouldn’t either. “And David said: There is none like that; give it to me.” David’s confidence stemmed from the fact that Goliath’s sword, at the end of the day, curried divine assistance. David believed that the same would hold true whenever he wielded it, courtesy of heaven’s providence. The sword would be his trusted instrument with which to fight – and triumph.
David would find out soon enough if his good feeling about the sword was justified. After Nob, his next destination was Gath, a major Philistine stronghold. “And David arose, and fled that day for fear of Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath.”