Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Kings 2:26

"And unto Abiathar the priest said the king, Get thee to Anathoth, unto thine own fields; for thou art worthy of death: but I will not at this time put thee to death, because thou barest the ark of the Lord Jehovah before David my father, and because thou wast afflicted in all wherein my father was afflicted." — 1 Kings 2:26 (ASV)

Anathoth is noted, in Joshua 21:18; 1 Chronicles 6:60, as a city of the priests in the territory of Benjamin, only a few miles from Jerusalem, and is best known to us as the birthplace of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1:1; Jeremiah 32:7).

It is notable that it is not Abiathar’s priestly character that protects him, but the remembrance of his long friendship to David in adversity, and probably of that special promise that David made to him, perhaps not without remorse, when he found that his deceit toward Ahimelech had drawn down Saul’s bloody vengeance upon him and his family (1 Samuel 22:20–23).