I Samuel 21:10-22:23
Dear RTB’ers,
We will find as we move through the Samuel, Kings and Chronicles books that detailing the lineage of the kings of Israel and Judah is important to the Biblical writers. Somewhat less important, but still helpful is the lineage of the high priests. This will become much more important later. For now we have Ahimelech described as the son of Ahitub. Back in I Sam. 14:3 we learned further that Ahitub was directly descended from Phineas, the son of Eli. I asked Copilot, an AI source, about Eli’s ancestors: “…from later biblical texts and genealogical records, we learn that Eli is a descendant of Ithamar, one of Aaron’s sons. This places him within the Levitical priesthood, though not from the more prominent line of Eleazar, the elder of the two. His line later becomes dominant through Zadok.” During David’s and Solomon’s times, Abiathar (Ahimelech’s son) and Zadok “compete” for the high priesthood. We’ll have to refer back to this post when we see infighting and divergent loyalties from the priests toward the kings.
Have any of you ever heard of anyone named “Doeg”? No? I didn’t think so. Doeg is one of the most despicable characters in all of Scripture. Reporting David’s movements to Saul is one thing, but then he killed Ahimelech and 84 (or 85) other priests before destroying all the inhabitants of Nob, the city of the priests. We never hear of Doeg again in the historical literature, but we do see him in the header of David’s Psalm 52. You might want to read that Psalm and get David’s personal evaluation of this “most despicable” character.
Blessings!