Bede — Commentary on Scripture

1 Samuel 26:16

This thing is not good that thou hast done. As the LORD liveth, ye are worthy to die, because ye have not kept your master, the LORD'S anointed. And now see where the king's spear is, and the cruse of water that was at his bolster.

Now therefore see where the king's spear is, etc. See, they say, now where the scepter of your power is, which you have lost both on earth and ceased to hope for in heaven; where is the shadowy observance of the law, which you have thirsted for with all your heart, in which you boasted that the hands of your deeds could be washed from all stain of sins. All alike, because you have lost Christ, and the temple itself is gone. Indeed, all these things, even if not yet completed in the times of the apostles, were for the most part begun in and before their times and still occurring while they were alive, as anyone who reads the history of old will find. For finally, Herod the Great, and his sons, amid the countless calamities they inflicted on the Jews, also took away the holy garment from the priests, and never allowed them the permission to minister in it; they changed the order of the priesthood at their whim, tearing up the legal order. Pilate defiled the temple by secretly introducing images of Caesar during the night, following the impiety of Herod, who had first profaned it by set…

Now therefore see where the king's spear is, etc. See, they say, now where the scepter of your power is, which you have lost both on earth and ceased to hope for in heaven; where is the shadowy observance of the law, which you have thirsted for with all your heart, in which you boasted that the hands of your deeds could be washed from all stain of sins. All alike, because you have lost Christ, and the temple itself is gone. Indeed, all these things, even if not yet completed in the times of the apostles, were for the most part begun in and before their times and still occurring while they were alive, as anyone who reads the history of old will find. For finally, Herod the Great, and his sons, amid the countless calamities they inflicted on the Jews, also took away the holy garment from the priests, and never allowed them the permission to minister in it; they changed the order of the priesthood at their whim, tearing up the legal order. Pilate defiled the temple by secretly introducing images of Caesar during the night, following the impiety of Herod, who had first profaned it by setting up a golden eagle in it and commanded that the young men who tried to remove it for religious reasons be burned alive. Caius [Caligula] ordered that both the temple and all their synagogues be profaned with the sacrifices of the gentiles and filled with statues and images, and commanded that he himself be worshipped as a god there. As for the degradation of the kingdom, until it perished utterly, there is no end to speaking of it.

1 Samuel 26:17

And Saul knew David's voice, and said, Is this thy voice, my son David? And David said, It is my voice, my lord, O king.

But Saul recognized David's voice, etc. Saul, recognizing David's voice, moved by his humility, innocence, and justice, confessed that he had sinned and promised not to sin against him anymore, and orders him to return. Many of the leaders of the Jews, recognizing the voice of Christ through the apostles' exhortation, confessed that they had sinned, repenting, and implored him with many tears and great prayers to return by the grace of forgiveness to their hearts, which he had deserted because of their faithlessness.

1 Samuel 26:19

Now therefore, I pray thee, let my lord the king hear the words of his servant. If the LORD have stirred thee up against me, let him accept an offering: but if they be the children of men, cursed be they before the LORD; for they have driven me out this day from abiding in the inheritance of the LORD, saying, Go, serve other gods.

If the Lord incites you against me, etc. If, he says, led by the Spirit of God you persecute me, it is necessary that I appease the divine mercy with sacrifices and prayers; but if not by the will of the Lord, but against His will, having been corrupted by the deception of wicked men, you thought it right to rage for a time against the innocent; it is certain that those are held worthy of a curse in the divine examination, who, by wicked persuasions repelling me from His tabernacle and holy land, compel me to live among idolaters, whom I utterly detest. And if this flame of persecution has arisen from men, as I said, it is just in every way that my blood should not be shed by the impious, which the hands of persecutors have thus far unjustly sought. According to the mystical understanding, it is the voice of the members of Christ, that is, of His faithful, who, caught by the persecution of wicked men, are accustomed to diligently examine their hearts. And if for their sins they recognize that punishment of chastisement is inflicted upon them by the Lord through such men, they immedia…

If the Lord incites you against me, etc. If, he says, led by the Spirit of God you persecute me, it is necessary that I appease the divine mercy with sacrifices and prayers; but if not by the will of the Lord, but against His will, having been corrupted by the deception of wicked men, you thought it right to rage for a time against the innocent; it is certain that those are held worthy of a curse in the divine examination, who, by wicked persuasions repelling me from His tabernacle and holy land, compel me to live among idolaters, whom I utterly detest. And if this flame of persecution has arisen from men, as I said, it is just in every way that my blood should not be shed by the impious, which the hands of persecutors have thus far unjustly sought. According to the mystical understanding, it is the voice of the members of Christ, that is, of His faithful, who, caught by the persecution of wicked men, are accustomed to diligently examine their hearts. And if for their sins they recognize that punishment of chastisement is inflicted upon them by the Lord through such men, they immediately strive to purge these with sacrifices of due contrition. But if they see themselves unjustly suffering injuries or deaths from the impious, so that they may be called away from the path of truth, they indeed understand those who do these things as deserving eternal curse from the Lord; because they wish to turn the faithful of Christ from the inheritance of the Catholic faith even to the idolatry of gentility or any kind of heresy. However, those who innocently suffer these things rejoice, being saved by the Lord from all death and corruption, and indeed even anticipating receiving the palm of their patience. We can also accept it as said in the person of the apostles to the persecuting Jews: If the Lord incites you to persecute us, His wrath is appeased by our prayers; but if, which is more true, the sons of men, they are accursed by the Lord, who have driven us out preaching divine things, so that we do not dwell in Judea and Jerusalem; they said, Depart; and because you believe Jesus to be God, serve Him rather among the nations, who are accustomed to worship alien gods.

1 Samuel 26:21

Then said Saul, I have sinned: return, my son David: for I will no more do thee harm, because my soul was precious in thine eyes this day: behold, I have played the fool, and have erred exceedingly.

And Saul said: I have sinned, etc. To David, who proposed two causes for his exile and inquired from Saul what was true, Saul himself, conscious of his own mind, responded that it was not by the Lord's incitement, but by his own foolishness that he had persecuted him. But now he begs him to return home, assuring that he will suffer no further harm from him. And many Jews, having confessed their crimes, took care to recall to themselves by faith the Lord whom they had driven away by their infidelity.

1 Samuel 26:22

And David answered and said, Behold the king's spear! and let one of the young men come over and fetch it.

And David answered and said: Behold, one of the king’s servants shall pass over and take it, etc. The Lord, responding through His teachers to the repentant Jews and those who have turned from the crime of persecution, said: Behold, the power of your kingdom rests with me; let the unity of the faithful pass into the unbelieving hearts of the proud, and let the spiritual weapons of the heavenly kingdom promised to you long ago be brought back swiftly. This was fulfilled in no small part in the times of the apostles, and remains to be fully completed in the times of Elijah, who preached and brought back the hearts of the fathers to the children. He says nothing about taking the cup of water, because the Lord does not teach that the shadow of the law should continue to be observed. The title of Psalm 53 remembers the betrayal of the Ziphites, which seems to refer more to an earlier betrayal, whereas there it is said according to the title: Is not David hidden among us? But here it is different: Behold, David is hidden in the hill of Achilah.

1 Samuel 27:2

And David arose, and he passed over with the six hundred men that were with him unto Achish, the son of Maoch, king of Gath.

And David arose, and he went himself, etc. The Lord leaves the seat which He used to hold in the hearts of the Jews from ancient times and went to acquire the Gentiles for His faith, He himself and the ministers of His word, notable by their multiplicity, that is, intent on perfect work in this present time, and suspended in their mind by the undoubted hope of heavenly things in the future.

1 Samuel 27:3 · 2 passages

And David dwelt with Achish at Gath, he and his men, every man with his household, even David with his two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the Carmelitess, Nabal's wife.

He was from the tribe of Caleb. The teachers of the synagogue were from the disciples of the lawgiver. For the scribes and Pharisees sat on Moses' seat (Matthew XXIII); who, since they then led other mortals by the grace of both human and divine wisdom, can, not unjustly, be called Caleb, that is, the whole heart; or because we read that patriarch Caleb was powerful in faith and virtue, we can say that the faithfulness of the faithful is the increase of damnation for the faithless, who have degenerated from the life of their parents.

And David dwelt with Achish in Gath, etc. Gath, which is translated as winepress, signifies the pressures and tribulations by which the faith of the Church is tested in this life; as also the Psalms, which are titled for the winepresses, declare. Achish, who is called Brother of man, signifies the people of the nations who, by believing in Christ, rejoice to be his brother through grace, and to act manfully. For Maoch, his father, who is translated into emasculation, that is, deprived of manly action, mind, and virtue, demonstrates the Gentiles of earlier times, who, serving idols, remained void both of the work and reward of virtue. Therefore, the Lord dwelt among the nations first in persecutions and very great pressures, until they themselves could know to accept his faith; he and his apostles: every shepherd, with the Church subjected to him which he governs and educates; Christ himself as the one shepherd of twin flocks, namely those he brought from the Gentiles, and those from the Jews dispersed in the day of gloom and cloud, whom he does not cease to preserve and feed among th…

And David dwelt with Achish in Gath, etc. Gath, which is translated as winepress, signifies the pressures and tribulations by which the faith of the Church is tested in this life; as also the Psalms, which are titled for the winepresses, declare. Achish, who is called Brother of man, signifies the people of the nations who, by believing in Christ, rejoice to be his brother through grace, and to act manfully. For Maoch, his father, who is translated into emasculation, that is, deprived of manly action, mind, and virtue, demonstrates the Gentiles of earlier times, who, serving idols, remained void both of the work and reward of virtue. Therefore, the Lord dwelt among the nations first in persecutions and very great pressures, until they themselves could know to accept his faith; he and his apostles: every shepherd, with the Church subjected to him which he governs and educates; Christ himself as the one shepherd of twin flocks, namely those he brought from the Gentiles, and those from the Jews dispersed in the day of gloom and cloud, whom he does not cease to preserve and feed among the nations. David’s two wives can also be understood as the chaste souls of the faithful, adhering to Christ in the lifestyle of two ways of life, namely active and contemplative. Ahinoam the Jezreelite, that is, my brother’s beauty, deriving origin from the seed of God, may be she whose eyes of an enlightened mind burn with all their strength to see the King in his beauty. Abigail, on the other hand, that is, my Father’s exultation; the wife of Nabal the Carmelite, that is, the foolish and soft one, can be understood as she who, recently saved by repentance from the blandishments of a foolish teacher, brings such joy in the Father in heaven along with the angels, more than over the ninety-nine righteous who do not need repentance.

1 Samuel 27:4

And it was told Saul that David was fled to Gath: and he sought no more again for him.

And Saul added no more to seek him. This signifies the present time of the Church; when the Jews, seeing it glorified among the nations, and also protected by the favor of secular kings, although they do not cease to hate it, have nevertheless lost all hope and intention of overcoming it altogether.

1 Samuel 27:5

And David said unto Achish, If I have now found grace in thine eyes, let them give me a place in some town in the country, that I may dwell there: for why should thy servant dwell in the royal city with thee?

But David said to Achis, "If I have found favor in your eyes," etc. The Lord said through his disciples to the Gentile people: "If the doctrine of truth, which I preach, and the life which I promise, are pleasing to you, let a humble heart of the listeners be given to my words in the firm unity of the faithful, where I dwell by the grace of the Holy Spirit."

1 Samuel 27:6

Then Achish gave him Ziklag that day: wherefore Ziklag pertaineth unto the kings of Judah unto this day.

Therefore Achis gave him on that day Siceleg, etc. Siceleg is interpreted as the purification of a raised voice; but to purify a voice is to bring a voice to itself, with careful discretion, to inquire which speech smells of truth, which of falsehood. Therefore, the believers from the Gentiles gave to Christ, to dedicate their dwelling, which is understood as the Church, throngs of souls who, coming to themselves from the voices of preachers, knew how to discern, by reason, and to separate the purity of the apostolic voice from the dregs of the philosophical or pagan voice. For this reason, such assemblies of souls, having been withdrawn from gentile ceremonies, have become subject in perpetuity to the authority of the apostles. This sense, I believe, is also aided by the history of Josephus in the Antiquities (Book XVI, Chapter 13), which says: "To whom the king gave a certain village called Siceleg. This village he so loved, that when David reigned, he and his men honored it as their own possession."

1 Samuel 27:7

And the time that David dwelt in the country of the Philistines was a full year and four months.

Now the number of days that David lived in the land of the Philistines, etc. There was, is, and will be a time of Christ's dwelling in the Church of the Gentiles, until he fills the four corners of the world with the complete light of his heavenly grace, until he pours the light of the Gospel, which is contained in the unanimous variety of the four books, into the believing hearts of the Gentiles. And note that David, coming to the Philistines, begins to dwell in Geth; but soon, with Achis' permission, he turns to Siceleg: because, coming to the Gentiles in the disciples, Christ, first pressed by the winepress of pressures by the unbelievers, finally after many grapes of the martyrs pressed, he approached to instruct those who among the dregs and wine of intellectual innkeepers, that is, those teaching various senses, knew how to judge.

1 Samuel 27:8

And David and his men went up, and invaded the Geshurites, and the Gezrites, and the Amalekites: for those nations were of old the inhabitants of the land, as thou goest to Shur, even unto the land of Egypt.

And David and his men went up, etc. Upon the rock, Egypt sounds darkness. Therefore, the Church was growing through the steadfastness of Christ's disciples, and was rescuing souls from pagan rites, which, following the examples of not new but ancient men, had clung to earthly desires, with all going to the hardness of heart, and arriving as far as the dark land, covered with the gloom of death, the land of the misery of darkness, where the shadow of death, and no order, and eternal horror dwells.

1 Samuel 27:9 · 2 passages

And David smote the land, and left neither man nor woman alive, and took away the sheep, and the oxen, and the asses, and the camels, and the apparel, and returned, and came to Achish.

And David struck all the land, etc. The Lord strikes with the sword of His word whatever earthly and lowly thing He finds in unbelievers; nor does He allow anyone of those who truly receive the faith, either in spirit or in flesh, to live further in their prior conduct, but makes all by true confession say with the Apostle: But it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me (Gal. II).

And he took the sheep and the cattle, etc. Christ, taking from the nations souls of diverse character, hastens to gather them all into the unity of the preexisting Church in Himself.

1 Samuel 27:10

And Achish said, Whither have ye made a road to day? And David said, Against the south of Judah, and against the south of the Jerahmeelites, and against the south of the Kenites.

But Achis said to him: Against whom have you made a raid today? etc. Although he seems to deceive in the literal sense, who, rising against the Philistines, devastating the province not far from them, said he had made a raid against the one who arouses their king against his own people: yet the figure of speech does not deceive, because while he draws the nations to faith, Christ arises against the clear and burning blasphemy of the Jews. For by His just judgement, blindness in part has happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, and thus all Israel shall be saved (Rom. XI): therefore, while bringing in the nations, He rises against Judea, which, out of pride, broke not a few branches of the good olive tree, so that by grafting in the wild olive tree, He might make it a partaker of the good root and fatness of the olive tree. And it is well said to be a rising against, because He who falls, says He, upon this rock, will be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder (Luke XX).

1 Samuel 27:11 · 2 passages

And David saved neither man nor woman alive, to bring tidings to Gath, saying, Lest they should tell on us, saying, So did David, and so will be his manner all the while he dwelleth in the country of the Philistines.

David did not bring to life a man and a woman, etc. Christ forbids those converted to Him from living in sins. Just as first showing this to the teacher of His Church, He commands the multitudes of impure hearts, saying: Rise, Peter, kill and eat (Acts X). And Paul teaches that they are not dead to sin, but living to God in Christ Jesus (Ephesians II). But neither does He now command believers to undergo martyrdom or deaths for His name from the impious.

Saying, Lest perhaps they speak, etc. Therefore, he did not bring to life, lest they speak against him. For the listener bears witness against his teacher, who, less perfectly educated either in believing or in acting, shows himself less extinguished by improper action or thought.

1 Samuel 27:12

And Achish believed David, saying, He hath made his people Israel utterly to abhor him; therefore he shall be my servant for ever.

Therefore Achish believed in David, etc. The entire fraternity of the nations believes in Christ, saying that the people in which He was born He abandoned due to their infidelity; and because of this infidelity, threw down so many branches of the good olive tree, so that by believing it might graft itself in, and cast those to be burned into the fire. Indeed, for me now believing, hoping, loving, He is the debtor of eternal life; so that without Him I can do nothing, both in the present the pledge of the Spirit, and in the future He will provide me with the eternal grace of His protection. Concerning this perpetual servitude bestowed upon faithful servants by God the Lord, the Lord Himself says: Amen I say to you, He will gird Himself, and will make them sit down to eat, and passing will minister to them (Luke XII).

1 Samuel 28:1

And it came to pass in those days, that the Philistines gathered their armies together for warfare, to fight with Israel. And Achish said unto David, Know thou assuredly, that thou shalt go out with me to battle, thou and thy men.

And Achis said to David: Knowing now, know, etc. Which is clearly that all Catholics propose to combat the erring by reproving, reasoning, or remembering the words of Scripture, to say to the Lord: God, you know our foolishness and weakness (Psalm LXVIII), for without you we can do nothing, provide us with aid as we struggle, may your holy ones grant us the help of their intercession; and whoever of them authored the holy Scriptures by your inspiration, may they provide us with the secrets of spiritual knowledge by which we may overcome the carnal.