And David said unto Ahimelech the priest, The king has charged me with a business, and has said unto me, Let no man know any thing of the business about which I send you, and what I have commanded you: and I have directed my young men to such and such a place.
Read Chapter 21
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
The king This was an untruth, which David, like many other great men, might think lawful in such an emergency. But it is essentially evil. (Calmet)
And such, which he deems it unnecessary to specify. Septuagint retain the Hebrew words, "Phelanni almoni. "See Ruth iv. 1.
No wonder that these dispensations were uprightly made use of in the Old Testament and that holy men sometimes lied in praiseworthy or at least in pardonable fashion, since we see that far greater things were permitted them because it was a time of beginnings. For what is there to wonder at that when the blessed David was fleeing Saul and Ahimelech the priest asked him, “Why are you alone, and no one is with you?” he replied and said, “The king gave me a commission and said, Let no one know the reason why you were sent, for I have also appointed my servants to such and such a place”? And again: “Do you have a spear or a sword at hand? For I did not bring my sword and my weapons with me because the king’s business was urgent”? Or what happened when he was brought to Achish, the king of Gath, and made believe that he was insane and raging, and “changed his countenance before them, and fell down between their hands, and dashed himself against the door of the gate, and his spittle ran down...
