Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Samuel 21:1

"Then came David to Nob to Ahimelech the priest: and Ahimelech came to meet David trembling, and said unto him, Why art thou alone, and no man with thee?" — 1 Samuel 21:1 (ASV)

Then came David to Nob. —Before leaving his native land, David determined once more to see, and if practicable to take counsel with, the old high priest of Israel, with whom, no doubt, in the past years of his close connection with Samuel, he had had frequent and intimate communion. He hoped, too, in that friendly and powerful religious centre to provide himself and his few companions with arms and other necessities for his exile; and it is also probable that he intended, through the friendly high priest, to make some inquiry of the Divine oracle, the Urim and Thummim, concerning his uncertain future. The unexpected presence of Doeg, the powerful and unscrupulous servant of Saul, at the sanctuary, no doubt hurried him away in great haste across the frontier.

The town of Nob, situated between Anathoth and Jerusalem—about an hour’s ride from the latter—has been with great probability identified with the “village of Esau,” El-Isaurizeb, a place showing all the signs of an ancient town, with its many marble columns and ancient stones. There, in these later days of Saul, “stood the last precious relic of the ancient nomadic times—the tabernacle of the wanderings, around which, since the fall of Shiloh, had lived the descendants of the house of Eli.

It was a small colony of priests; at least eighty-five persons ministered there in the white linen dress of the priesthood, and all their families and herds were gathered around them. The priest was not as ready to befriend David as the prophet was (we allude to David’s reception by Samuel at Naioth by Ramah, 1 Samuel 19:0). As the solitary fugitive, famished and unarmed, stole up the mountainside, he received only a cold welcome from the cautious and courtly Ahimelech.” —Stanley, Lectures on the Jewish Church, Lect. 12

To Ahimelech the priest. —He was the great-grandson of Eli, as follows:

Died at Shiloh after news of the Ark’s capture,

Eli

Phinehas

Ahitub

Ichabod

Ahimelech

Abiathar.

Slain by Philistines in battle
Reign of Saul—High Priest,

Reign of David—High Priest, (See 1 Samuel 22:19–20.)

He was probably identical with Ahiah (1 Samuel 14:3); this, however, is not certain. Dean Payne Smith believes Ahiah was a younger brother of Ahimelech, who, while Ahimelech remained with the Ark, acted as high priest at the camp for Saul, especially in consulting God for him using the ephod with the breastplate (the Urim).

Why are you alone? —The priest, not unfriendly but cautious, who, though unaware of the final rupture between Saul and David, was of course cognizant of the strained relations between the king and his great servant, was uneasy at this sudden appearance of the king’s son-in-law—the well-known military chieftain, David—alone and travel-stained at the sanctuary.