1 Kings 21:1
And David came to Nobe to Achimelech the priest: and Achimelech was astonished at David's coming. And he said to him: Why art thou alone, and no man with thee?
The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Venit autem David in Nobe ad Achimelech sacerdotem : et obstupuit Achimelech, eo quod venisset David. Et dixit ei : Quare tu solus, et nullus est tecum ?
- Septuagint (Swete)
- Καὶ ἔρχεται Δαυεὶδ εἰς Νόμβα πρὸς Ἀβιμέλεχ τὸν ἱερέα· καὶ ἐξέστη Ἀβειμέλεχ τῇ ἀπαντήσει αὐτοῦ καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ Τί ὅτι σὺ μόνος καὶ οὐθεὶς μετὰ σοῦ;
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from 1 Kings 21:2
- וַיָּבֹ֤א דָוִד֙ נֹ֔בֶה אֶל אֲחִימֶ֖לֶךְ הַכֹּהֵ֑ן וַיֶּחֱרַ֨ד אֲחִימֶ֜לֶךְ לִקְרַ֣את דָּוִ֗ד וַיֹּ֤אמֶר לוֹ֙ מַדּ֤וּעַ אַתָּה֙ לְבַדֶּ֔ךָ וְאִ֖ישׁ אֵ֥ין אִתָּֽךְ
Haydock's commentary
Nobe. A city in the tribe of Benjamin, to which the tabernacle of the Lord had been translated from Silo. (Challoner)
It was about 12 miles south-west of Gabaa. (Tudelensis.)
There was another Nobe on the east side of the Jordan, to which Serarius thinks David was three days in travelling. But when David made that assertion, he wished to conceal the real state of his affairs, as he had not seen Saul since he was at Najoth, ver. 5. Nobe was afterwards accounted a sacerdotal city, ver. 19., and 2 Esdras xi. 32.
Achimelech, who is perhaps the same with Achia (chap. xiv. 3,) and Abiathar, Mark ii. 32.
With thee. He would not expose his men to the resentment of Saul, (Calmet) though he afterwards gave the priest to understand that he had some attendants, (ver. 2) as the gospel relates, Matthew xii. 3. He dismissed them before he entered Geth. (Calmet)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Jerome The Letters of St. Jerome, To Pammachius on the Best Method of Translating
9. I refer to these passages, not to convict the evangelists of falsification, a charge worthy only of impious men like Celsus, Porphyry, and Julian, but to bring home to my critics their own want of knowledge, and to gain from them such consideration that they may concede to me in the case of a simple letter what, whether they like it or not, they will have to concede to the Apostles in the Holy Scriptures. Mark, the disciple of Peter, begins his gospel thus: “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, as it is written in the prophet Isaiah: Behold I send my messenger before thy face which shall prepare thy way before thee. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” This quotation is made up from two prophets, Malachi that is to say and Isaiah. …
St John Cassian The Conferences of John Cassian. Part II. Containing Conferences XI-XVII, Chapter XVIII. An objection that only those men employed lies with impunity, who lived under the law
Germanus : It is no wonder that these schemes were properly employed in the Old Testament, and that some holy men laudably or at any rate venially told lies, as we see that many worse things were permitted to them owing to the rude character of the times. For why should we wonder that when the blessed David was fleeing from Saul, in answer to the inquiry of Abimelech the priest who said: “Why art thou alone, and is no man with thee?” he replied as follows: “The king hath commanded me a business, and said, Let no man know the thing for which thou art sent by me, for I have appointed my servants to such and such a place;” and again: “Hast thou here at hand a spear or a sword, for I brought not my own sword nor my own weapon with me, for the king’s business required haste;” or this, when he was brought to Achish king of Gath, and feigned himself mad and frantic, “and changed his countenance …