1 Samuel22:6–23

Where the English smooths the original

• נוֹדַ֣ע נוֹדַ֣ע (nō·w·ḏa‘, Niphal perfect of yâdaʻ, H3045) is simply “was known,” not “had been discovered.” Cambridge: “that David was discovered ] Lit. “was known.”” The passive verb hides the informer; the whole chapter is the story of who knows, who tells, and who keeps silent, and the same root returns at v. 15 (“thy servant knew nothing”) and v. 17 (“they knew he was fleeing”).
• הָאֶ֤שֶׁל הָאֶ֤שֶׁל (hā·’e·šel, H815) is a definite singular: the tamarisk, not “a tree” or the AV “a grove.” Ellicott: “The literal rendering would be “under a tamarisk tree.”” K&D reads the article as pointing to “the well-known place where Saul's deliberative assemblies were held.” The English indefinite loses a known, fixed seat of judgment.
• בָּֽרָמָה֙ בָּֽרָמָה֙ (bā·rā·māh, H7413) is read by BSB as the place-name “on the hill at Gibeah,” but the noun is an appellative: “on the height.” Poole: “in a high place; for so the word Ramah unquestionably signifies.” K&D agrees against Luther. The word is elsewhere the technical term for a cult height, and the reader should hear the ambiguity the translators had to resolve.
• נִצָּבִ֥ים נִצָּבִ֥ים (niṣ·ṣā·ḇîm, Niphal participle of nâtsab, H5324) is “stationed, posted,” not merely “standing around.” Pulpit: “The word means that they took each their proper posts around him.” And the preposition is ʻal, “over him” in the sense of ranged about him, the same pairing that will describe Doeg in v. 9 and the runners in v. 17.

Where the English smooths the original

• בְּנֵ֣י יְמִינִ֑י בְּנֵ֣י יְמִינִ֑י (bə·nê yə·mî·nî, H1121 + H3227) is literally “sons of the right hand,” the tribal name spelled out rather than the flat English “men of Benjamin.” Saul is not naming a tribe, he is calling in a blood debt: Geneva glosses it “You that are of my tribe and lineage.” Ellicott hears him say in effect, “Who but a Benjamite would only honour Benjamites?”
• בֶּן־ יִשַׁי֙ בֶּן־יִשַׁי֙ (ben yi·šay) is “the son of Jesse.” Saul does not say “David” anywhere in this speech, nor in v. 8, nor in v. 13. Gill: “in contempt he calls him the son of Jesse.” The refusal of the name is the tell; contrast Ahimelech, who in v. 14 says “David” three times over.
• גַּם־ גַּם־ (gam, H1571) fronted before “to all of you” is emphatic and is dropped entirely by the English. K&D: “גּם־לכלּכם is placed first for the sake of emphasis, “You Benjaminites also,” and not rather to Judahites.” The sneer is: will the Judahite enrich you too?
• יָשִׂ֔ים יָשִׂ֔ים (yā·śîm, H7760, “to put, set, appoint”) is rendered “making,” but it is the appointing verb, and it is the same verb Ahimelech will beg the king not to use against him in v. 15 (yā·śêm, “let not the king lay a charge”). Saul asks who will set them in office; the priest asks him not to set a crime on his servant.

Where the English smooths the original

• קְשַׁרְתֶּ֨ם קְשַׁרְתֶּ֨ם (qə·šar·tem, H7194 qâshar) is “to tie, to bind, to knit together,” used both of conspiracy and of love (it is the verb of Jonathan's soul “knit” to David's, 1 Sam 18:1). Saul can no longer tell a bond from a plot; he accuses his court of the very knot that made his son love David.
• גֹּלֶ֤ה אֶת־ אָזְנִי֙ גֹּלֶ֤ה אֶת־אָזְנִי֙ (gō·leh ’eṯ ’ā·zə·nî, H1540 + H241) is “uncovering my ear,” the Hebrew idiom for disclosure, flattened to “told me.” The root gâlâh means to strip bare, to denude, often disgracefully. Saul wants ears uncovered; in v. 17 he kills men because “they did not uncover his ear.”
• חֹלֶ֥ה חֹלֶ֥ה (ḥō·leh, H2470 châlâh, “to be rubbed or worn, to be sick”) is BSB's “has shown concern.” K&D: “no one of you is grieved on my account.” Gill records De Dieu's “solicitous.” The literal force is bodily: not one of you is made ill over me. The self-pity is real, and Ellicott calls these words “strangely real and pathetic.”
• בִּכְרָת־ בִּכְרָת־ (biḵ·rāṯ, infinitive of kârath, H3772, “to cut”) is the covenant idiom “to cut,” with the preposition b: K&D, “lit. at the making of a covenant.” Pulpit notes the formal phrase shows “Saul was at length aware of the solemn bond of friendship entered into by Jonathan with David.” English “made a covenant” loses the knife in the verb.

Where the English smooths the original

• וְה֛וּא נִצָּ֥ב עַל־ נִצָּ֥ב עַל־ (niṣ·ṣāḇ ʻal) is the crux. BSB reads “who had stationed himself with Saul's servants”; the AV read “which was set over the servants of Saul.” Ellicott: “The accurate translation is “who stood with the servants of Saul.”” Pulpit and Cambridge agree, K&D dissents and keeps “the superintendent of Saul's servants.” The one Hebrew participle decides whether Doeg is a courtier in the ring or the marshal over it.
• רָאִ֙יתִי֙ רָאִ֙יתִי֙ (rā·’î·ṯî, H7200) is emphatic first person perfect: “I, I saw.” Ellicott: his witness “had the more effect on Saul because he related no hearsay evidence, but what he had absolutely seen.” Every word Doeg speaks is true; the lie is in the arrangement.
• וַיַּ֜עַן וַיַּ֜עַן (way·ya·‘an, H6030 ʻânâh, “to eye, to heed, to respond”) is “answered,” though no question was asked of him. Ellicott quotes Seb Schmid: “Far better did Saul's other servants who kept silence.” The volunteering is the sin.

Where the English smooths the original

• וַיִּשְׁאַל־ וַיִּשְׁאַל־ (way·yiš·’al, H7592 shâʼal, “to inquire”) has no named subject in the Hebrew; BSB supplies “Ahimelech.” The verb is the priestly oracle-word, and whether it happened at all is the single most disputed fact in the chapter (see the apparatus). Gill records a rabbinic reading that the inquiry itself was the treason, “since inquiry by Urim and Thummim was not made for a private person, but for a king.”
• בַּֽיהוָ֔ה בַּֽיהוָ֔ה (ba·Yhwh) is “in YHWH,” the covenant name, and the preposition is instrumental: to inquire by the LORD. When Saul repeats the charge in v. 13 he changes it to בֵּֽאלֹהִ֔ים (bê·lō·hîm, H430, “of God”). The accuser says LORD; the king says God. The narrator lets the swap stand without comment.
• וְצֵידָ֖ה וְצֵידָ֖ה (wə·ṣê·ḏāh, H6720, “provision, victuals”) is a neutral travel-ration word. It conceals what chapter 21 tells: what Ahimelech actually gave was the consecrated bread of the Presence. Doeg's summary is accurate and emptied of the very detail that would have shown the priest acting in good faith.
• חֶ֛רֶב גָּלְיָ֥ת חֶ֛רֶב גָּלְיָ֥ת (ḥe·reḇ gā·lə·yāṯ) is “the sword of Goliath,” Israel's trophy of deliverance, kept behind the ephod. In Doeg's mouth it becomes materiel supplied to an insurgent. The same iron that saved the nation is now Exhibit C, and chereb will return in v. 19 as the sword that destroys Nob.

Where the English smooths the original

• לִקְרֹא֩ לִקְרֹא֩ (liq·rō, H7121, “to call out to, summon”) is an infinitive with no object: “sent to call.” BSB supplies “messengers,” which the Hebrew never names. The bare idiom keeps the king's hand directly on the summons, and Ellicott hears the intent in the scope of it.
• כָּל־ בֵּ֥ית אָבִ֛יו כָּל־בֵּ֥ית אָבִ֛יו (kāl bêṯ ’ā·ḇîw) is “all his father's house,” a legal and genealogical unit, not the loose “whole family.” The same phrase is Saul's sentence in v. 16 and David's confession in v. 22. The chapter is built on that phrase: the house that was condemned in 1 Sam 2:31 is summoned, sentenced and destroyed under its own name.
• כֻלָּ֖ם כֻלָּ֖ם (ḵul·lām, “all of them”) answers Saul's repeated kullᵉḵem (“all of you”) in vv. 7 and 8. He accused all of conspiracy; now all come. Gill notes they came “not being conscious of any evil they had committed... or otherwise they would not have appeared, but would have fled to David.” Innocence is what walks them into the court.

Where the English smooths the original

• שְֽׁמַֽע־ נָ֖א שְֽׁמַֽע־נָ֖א (šə·ma‘ nā) is the exact phrase of v. 7, now in the singular. Saul opened his court with “Hear ye now, sons of the right hand,” and opens the trial with “Hear now, son of Ahitub.” English prints them differently (“Listen, men of Benjamin” / “Listen now”) and the deliberate repetition vanishes.
• בֶּן־ אֲחִיט֑וּב בֶּן־אֲחִיט֑וּב (ben ’ă·ḥî·ṭūḇ) is patronymic only: Saul will not use the man's name or his office. Poole: “he shows his contempt and anger, that he would not vouchsafe to name him.” Gill adds that he does not “give him the title of his office, as high priest.” It is the same erasure he performs on David as “the son of Jesse.”
• הִנְנִ֥י הִנְנִ֥י (hin·nî, H2005 with first person suffix) is “Behold me,” the answer of Abraham at Moriah, of Moses at the bush, of Samuel in this very book (1 Sam 3:4). BSB's “Here I am” is right but colorless. The priest answers a murderous king with the word of prophetic availability, and adds ʼădōnî, “my lord.”

Where the English smooths the original

• קְשַׁרְתֶּ֣ם קְשַׁרְתֶּ֣ם (qə·šar·tem) is second person plural, the identical form Saul threw at his whole court in v. 8. He has simply moved the same accusation from a room full of Benjamites onto one priest and an absent man. The English “you and the son of Jesse have conspired” hides that this is a recycled charge, not a new finding.
• וְשָׁא֥וֹל וְשָׁא֥וֹל (wə·šā·’ō·wl) is an infinitive absolute, the intensifying form, set beside two ordinary infinitives. Saul lists giving bread, giving a sword, and then, with the weightier form, the inquiring. Ellicott notes it “seems in Saul's eyes to have been the gravest of the charges,” and it is the only one Ahimelech bothers to answer.
• בֵּֽאלֹהִ֔ים בֵּֽאלֹהִ֔ים (bê·lō·hîm, H430) is “of God,” where Doeg had said “of YHWH” (v. 10). Ahimelech will keep Saul's word, not Doeg's, in v. 15. The covenant name is quietly absent from every mouth in this trial except the narrator's, who restores it as “the priests of the LORD” exactly when they are being slaughtered.
• לָק֥וּם לָק֥וּם (lā·qūm, H6965) is “to rise,” the plain infinitive answering the Hiphil “raised up” of v. 8. Saul's fear has one shape: someone rising. It is the verb of insurrection and also the verb of resurrection and of raising up a seed, and the reader of the Samuel scroll already knows who has been raised up, and by whom (1 Sam 16:13).

Where the English smooths the original

• נֶאֱמָ֔ן נֶאֱמָ֔ן (ne·’ĕ·mān, Niphal participle of ʼâman, H539) is not the adjective “loyal” but a passive: proved, established, found trustworthy. K&D glosses it “proved, attested, as in Numbers 12:7,” the verse where God says of Moses “he is faithful in all my house.” Ahimelech uses of David the word God uses of Moses, and the word from which amen comes.
• וְסָ֥ר אֶל־ מִשְׁמַעְתֶּ֖ךָ וְסָ֥ר אֶל־מִשְׁמַעְתֶּ֖ךָ (wə·sār ’el miš·ma‘·te·ḵā, H5493 + H4928) is literally “turning aside unto thy audience,” which the AV rendered “goeth at thy bidding” and BSB as “captain of your bodyguard.” K&D and Cambridge both read it as privy council: “has access to thy private audience.” K&D notes the early translators “entirely misunderstood the passage.” The phrase makes David not Saul's guard but Saul's confidant.
• וְנִכְבָּ֥ד וְנִכְבָּ֥ד (wə·niḵ·bāḏ, Niphal of kâbad, H3513, “to be heavy”) is “weighted, held in honour.” Both of the priest's key verbs are Niphal passives: David did not make himself trusted or weighty, the court did. The defence is not a claim about David's heart but a recital of Saul's own past judgments, which is why, as Pulpit observes, it “probably only embittered the king.”