Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Samuel 21:7

"Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before Jehovah; and his name was Doeg the Edomite, the chiefest of the herdsmen that belonged to Saul." — 1 Samuel 21:7 (ASV)

A certain man. —Among the personages who surround Saul in the Bible story incidentally appears the keeper of the royal mules, and chief of the household slaves, the “Comes stabuli,” “the constable of the king,” as appears in the later monarchy. “He is the first instance of a foreigner employed in a high function in Israel, being an Edomite, or Syrian, of the name of Doeg—according to Jewish tradition, the steward who accompanied Saul in his pursuit after the asses, who counselled him to send for David, and who ultimately slew him, according to the sacred narrative—a person of vast and sinister influence in his master’s counsels.” (Stanley, Lectures on the Jewish Church, Lecture 21) Some traditions affirm that the armor-bearer who slew Saul on Mount Gilboa was not Doeg, but Doeg’s son.

The Hebrew words translated in the English Version, “the chiefest of the herdmen that belonged to Saul,” are translated in the Septuagint by “feeding the mules of Saul;” and in accordance with this reading, in 1 Samuel 22:9 also, they have changed “Saul’s servants” into “Saul’s mules.” The Vulgate and the other versions, however, translate as the English Version, “potentissimus pastorum,” although in some of the Vulgate manuscripts there is an explanatory gloss, evidently derived from the singular interpretation of the Septuagint, “ This (man) used to feed Saul’s mules.” There can be no foundation in tradition or otherwise for such a reading, as we never read until the time of King David of mules being used by royal princes. (See 2 Samuel 13:29; 2 Samuel 18:9.)

Before David’s time, the sons of princes used to ride on asses. (Judges 12:14.) Ewald, disregarding the current Jewish tradition respecting the ancient connection of Doeg with the house of Kish, considers that this influential chieftain of the king probably came over to Saul in his war with Edom.

Detained before the Lord. —Several interpretations have been suggested for these words.

1. He was at the sanctuary of the Tabernacle as a proselyte—one who wished to be received into the religious communion of Israel.
2. He was detained there for his purification on account of supposed leprosy, or simply in fulfilment of a temporary Nazarite vow.
3. According to Ephrem Syrus (who probably referred to some lost tradition), he had committed some trespass, and was detained there until he had offered the appointed sacrifice.

Any of these reasons—all sufficiently probable in themselves—would have occasioned a long or short residence at the sanctuary at Nob. At all events, when the fugitive David recognized the presence of one of Saul’s most unscrupulous servants, whom he must have known well, he must have had misgivings, and he, probably on this account, hastened to get away, and at once begged the old high priest to furnish him with any arms he might have laid up in the priestly homes.