Commentary on Samuel (Book III – Book IV)
Commentary on Samuel
continued
Chapter 3.10
While Saul was seeking David, Doeg became both a traitor and an executioner, and struck the city of the priests, Nob, with its inhabitants, with only one, Abiathar, escaping to David. And Saul heard that David had appeared, etc., up to the point where David said to Abiathar: Stay with me, do not be afraid, etc. This passage typically signifies the return at the end of the world to the end of Judea, what pressures it is to suffer from its oppressed companions, what constancy in the same faith it is to secure from the Lord, and even with the Lord, the reward of eternity during the tribulations of the Antichrist; which can equally apply to the beginnings of the nascent Church and the very times of the apostles. So Saul heard that David had appeared, and the men who were with him; similarly, towards the end of the world, the unbelieving and impious Jews will hear, after a long denial, that Jesus Christ is preached, believed, and confessed among them, and there is no doubt that when, with Enoch and Elijah preaching, and the other ministers of the word who will exist then, the Savior shall have appeared to the hearts of the Jews, immediately after, the persecution of the Antichrist will also certainly follow.
1 Samuel 22:6
But Saul, while he remained in Gibeah, etc. The people, persecutors from the Jews, when they remained at that time in Gibeah, that is, on the hill of prophecy, not evidently of understanding, but of reading only, and were delighted in the shadowy eloquence of the law and the prophets, which is in Ramah, that is, in the high place of spiritual sense, incomparable to other Scriptures, lifted up from the glory of an earthly kingdom, which in those times of the Antichrist is not doubted to be future, and all his associates in the same persecution surrounded him, watching, standing in perfidy, acting strongly to overthrow all the defenses of faith and charity. Encouraged by these words of this sort, he will stir them up to assault faith and the constancy of the good: Hear, children of Jemini, that is, of my right hand, evidently to be blessed with a better life and joy with me. For by the name of the left hand I mean to mark those who, although they may prefer to be condemned with the Nazarenes rather than to reign and live with Christ, who appeared to us.
Indeed, can Jesus, who is not doubted to have come from the root of Jesse, give to all of you in this world the fruits of perfected works and the wine of saving wisdom, which gladdens the heart of man (Psalm 103), and in the future make you all sit upon the seats to judge, as he often promised, the twelve tribes of Israel (Matthew 15), understand, like I do? Who can also teach perfect wisdom with good works, and reward those who act rightly and wisely with blessed reward, because you have all conspired in the faith of his name; nor is there anyone who shows me where his faithful worshippers worthy of punishment are hidden, especially since, even educated by me in the law no less, he has made a greater covenant with Jesus the Nazarene, believing and confessing him to be the Son of God, who, deformed in servile habit, appeared much more vile to me, and taught him to worship God to my injury, who has strived to corrupt his own legal decrees by insidiously spreading his Gospel, which he in no way ceases to do through his ministers to this day. These and countless things of this sort do not escape the notice of the ministers of the Antichrist, to blaspheme against the brave hearts of Christ, to prevent whom from persistently remaining in faith, the host of impious men will soon reveal what they harbor within. For it follows:
1 Samuel 22:9
But Doech the Edomite, replying, etc. Doech, as we said above, means agitated or anxious; Edomite, bloodthirsty; Nobe, barking; Ahimelech, my brother's kingdom; Ahitub, my brother is good in interpretation. Therefore, he will respond to the persecuting Jews who are agitated for shedding innocent blood, being an associate of a gathering of the wicked; who, while others openly attack the faith, he usually plots inwardly to seek out and betray more diligently the meetings of the followers of Christ during the time of persecution, which he rightly suggests as the first among Saul's servants; because the more perverse and insensitive one is toward the good, the greater place they hold among the wicked. Without any doubt, the false brothers, who are within, burden the Church more than open enemies who attack it from outside. The time of the last conspiracy against Christ will respond, I say, like it is written about Judas: And night to night shows knowledge (Ps. 18). What is sober, just, and pious, he will wickedly betray, saying he has seen the faith of the Lord Jesus in the doctrine of those who, against the wickedness of the impious, bark like the sharpest and most watchful dog, and following the example of good brothers who have gone before, they also await the possession of the eternal kingdom. But they also supplicate the Father for the kingdom of Christ, and always refresh Him with spiritual bread in their members; and rescuing everyone they can from the hands of the devil, they will rather advise, command, and help them to strive for the peace of their rescuer.
1 Samuel 22:11
So the king sent to summon Ahimelech, etc. Calling on the Lord’s priests, Saul calls the friendship and reception of David a crime of conspiracy conceived against him. The impious Jews, apprehending those consecrated to Christian piety, will immediately seek revenge for whatever they see done for the faith of truth, thinking it done against them, and rightly so; for to a sinner, religion is an abomination. [1 Samuel 22:12] -- And Abimelech answering the king, said: And who, etc.? The sacred order of commandments, fighting for the kingdom of Christ, will respond to the Jewish people, who consider the faith and love of Christ a crime: And who among all the prophets and saints, whom it is known from their words, prayers, and examples, served your interests greatly, could equate to the apostle and high priest of our confession, Jesus, who is faithful to Him who made Him (Hebrews III), just as Moses was in all His house? For he has been deemed worthy of greater glory than Moses, by how much greater honor the one who built it has than the house; he who joined to himself in the covenant of a bride the church of the Gentiles, begotten from the ancient faith of your fathers. Nor is he proven to have done or taught anything else in the flesh than what you yourselves learned according to the words of the prophets, indeed you have always desired that Christ, when He came, would do. Do we begin today to have this faith in Him and to seek the divine oracles of the word for the state of His Church, and did we not rather receive, venerate, and worship it as passed down and commended to us by the ancient tradition of the patriarchs and prophets?
1 Samuel 22:15
For your servant did not know, etc. He responded to what he was accused of by Saul, having helped David, knowing that he was weaving deceit and traps for him, because he knew nothing of this business at that time. But Christian faith also denies knowing if the Lord Jesus ever corrupted legal statutes with any fraudulent traps: which is openly to confess that Jesus Christ is not a deceiver, greedy for the praise of others, but was learned to be the true messenger of the father’s will; who is therefore rightly called the Angel of Great Counsel by the prophet (Isa. IX). As is the saying of the apostle: I did not know, brothers, that he was the high priest (Acts XXIII) for the reason that he would say: I knew that he is not the high priest, with the pontificate of him who is already appeared and glorified, who with his chosen sons is priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.
1 Samuel 22:17
And the king said to the emissaries, etc. We always perceive a different state of the wicked and the good. For some, ascending to the highest peak of wickedness, become authors of persecution; whom Saul himself designates by persecuting David. Some openly submit to nefarious authority by supporting the fury of the same persecution in evil; of whom Doeg the Edomite holds the type. Some, as if of a milder nature, abstain from teaching neighbors, or from extorting punishments, although they seem to keep their hands innocent from impiety; to which the servants of Saul, refraining from injuring the priests of the Lord, are properly fitted. Likewise, among the faithful to be tested by the temptations of the wicked, there are some who struggle for the truth even unto blood; who are shown by the example of the priests of Nob with their destroyed ones, who, with equal faith and love, but endowed with lesser courage to endure tribulation, rather take refuge in flight; knowing that indeed the high mountains are a refuge for stags, but the rock is a refuge for hedgehogs and hares (Psalm 104), to which one, the priest who escaped the striking hand of Saul, is figuratively equated. Since we have seen this disparity of merits and manners in the past, we also believe it will occur in the final, although greater persecution to come; namely, that due to the savagery and infanda authority of the impious authors, among the mute who obediently yield to evil, there will not be those who keep themselves immune from hurting the good; nor could the slightest modesty of such people remove the fervor of the most savage tribulation. For it follows:
1 Samuel 22:18
And the king said to Doeg the Edomite: Turn you, etc. Which the impious persecutors said to the most wicked ministers, evidently moved from every state of rectitude and further defiled by the innocent blood of the steadfast: Turn to evil, and after the crime of betrayal, also increase the infliction of tortures on the faithful of Christ, compelling them either to die or to deny. [1 Samuel 22:18] -- And he slaughtered, etc. Eighty-five men slaughtered on that day signify those who come out of the great tribulation and have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb (Revelation 22); undoubtedly strong in deeds, and perfected equally in the spiritual observance of the Gospel and the law. Indeed, eighty-five is made up of five times ten plus seven; and five indeed refers to the justly well-known senses of our body, while ten and seven pertain to the law and the Gospel, on account of the Decalog of the law and the grace of the Holy Spirit more abundantly poured out upon all flesh in the times of the shining Gospel, and thus it is rare for anyone to doubt; and therefore whoever, with a strong spirit, interprets whatever they can see, hear, taste, smell, or touch, to fulfill the commands of the law and attain the promises of grace, as if multiplying ten and seven by five, completes the sum of eighty-five men. They are also rightly described as clothed with an ephod, that is, a linen garment over the shoulder, to show that all their works (for shoulders are usually taken for works) are recommended and adorned more perfectly before the glory of martyrdom by the mortification of the flesh.
1 Samuel 22:19
Now he struck the city of the priests with the edge of the sword, etc. With the doctors of Christ slaughtered by the Antichrist, he also seeks to utterly disgrace and eradicate their fame of doctrine, by which they used to courageously combat impious dogma as if barking against it, and fortifying their own life with deeds. But he does not omit attempting to compel by wicked torments all these strong in work, fruitful in generating and nurturing Christ's children, the little ones in Christ still suckling at the breasts of a pious chaste mother, as well as those carrying His sweet yoke and light burden, innocently hearing His voice, and following Him to the eternal pastures of highest blessedness, either to deny their faith in Him or to endure death for Him.
1 Samuel 22:20
One son of Ahimelech escaped, Abiathar, etc. Just as Doeg the Edomite, one who struck down the priests, symbolized the sword of all executioners, so Abiathar, the one who escaped the sword of the striker, represents all the confessors of Christ who could survive that most severe persecution. Therefore, Abiathar is rightly interpreted as "superfluous father," signifying those who, glorious in the paternal title in the Church, survived such a turmoil. He fled to David and announced to him the priests of the Lord who were killed by Saul: just as the pious devotion of those remaining, after the killing was completed, turned to the Lord, ardently commemorating the memory of their slain brethren under his testament through prayer or by offering sacred sacrifices. To this, he himself replies through his own gospel that he had foreseen and predestined long ago that all who wish to live piously in him would suffer persecution for his name's sake; therefore, as a sure debtor of a certain reward, he would bring all souls released by such a death to the joys of eternal life. "I knew," he says, "that while there would never be lacking false brothers in the Church, without a doubt, they would aid external enemies through internal scandals. I knew that while in this whole world there would never be lacking evil ones, by whom the wisdom of the disputing good or the patience of those contending would be exercised and tested, without a doubt, tribulations and temptations would always await the pilgrim Church here. But I am the one who will eternally crown each soul of the elect with a heavenly crown after their struggles on earth."
1 Samuel 22:23
Stay with me, do not be afraid, etc. Remain, he said, in my love; do not be afraid of those who kill the body: if they persecuted me, they will also persecute you; but where I am, there will my servant also be; if anyone serves me, my Father will honor him (John XV; Matthew X; John XII). This betrayal and the attack by Doeg the Edomite, and during the times of the Lord and the Apostles in Judas Iscariot and other false brothers, and at the end of the world in the very Antichrist greater than the others, can be understood, in the manner of the fifty-first psalm, which is sung in reference to him, is not inappropriately applied to that enemy, as the title says: To the end, for understanding by David himself, when Doeg the Edomite came and reported to Saul, and said: Behold, David is in the house of Ahimelech; where “for understanding by David himself” is placed at the beginning not for any other reason than to signify that David understood among the hardships he suffered innocently, what wickedness would be plotted against the true David to be born from his seed by the scheming of the wicked. For he did come, boasting in malice, powerful in iniquity, thinking of injustice all day long, and the rest, which he added in the psalm. He who understood these things through the Spirit, burdened by sins and to be burdened by punishments, Judas announced to the Jews, and said:
Behold, Jesus is accustomed to frequenting the garden of the Mount of Olives with his disciples. For from the ultimate tribulation how this title should be understood, clearly shows from what has been discussed above. But since we have extended our discourse and dictated a longer third book in the exposition of blessed Samuel, both second and first, we think it fitting to put an end to this labor with the triumph of the martyrs among the priests, and judging it proper to cease from the work for a time to recover strength in silence.
Book IV
Preface to Book IV
Having completed the third volume on the blessed Samuel, I thought, after some time had passed with the pleasure of meditation or writing restored through rest, that I would finally set my hand to the beginning of the fourth. However, this same rest — if it can be called rest when it involves unexpected mental anxiety — came about much more protracted than I had decided, due to a new change in surrounding circumstances, especially by the departure of my most reverend abbot, who, after a long supervision of monastic care, suddenly decided to go to Rome, and to yield his last breath as an old man among the places sacred to the bodies of the blessed apostles and martyrs of Christ, which greatly perturb the spirits of those entrusted to him, and all the more because it was an unexpected shock. But He who set Joshua the son of Nun over the leadership when Moses, advanced in years, was taken from human affairs, who substituted Eleazar in the priesthood for his father Aaron, the same one who substituted Huetbert, a young man whom love and zeal for piety long ago gave the surname Eusebius, to govern the souls of the faithful with priestly leadership and spiritual influence, in place of the aged Ceolfrid hurrying to the holy thresholds of the blessed apostles. I confirmed the degree of this substitution after the fraternal election by your, most beloved bishop, office of blessing.
As the state of the times returns to tranquility, thereby also returns to me the leisure and the delight of examining the marvels of Holy Scripture with my whole soul and diligent intention. Therefore, beginning the fourth little book of allegorical exposition on Samuel, from the victory of the blessed David, in which he saved the inhabitants of Keilah and defended them from the irruption of the attacking Philistines, with your prayers, most beloved of pontiffs, I will endeavor to share whatever mystical insights I am able, as He reveals who holds the key of David, with the readers.
Chapter 4.1
David saves Keilah, attacked by the Philistines; and when Saul advances against him with an army, he flees with his six hundred men to the mountain of the wilderness of Ziph. (1 Samuel 23). And they told David, saying, “Behold, the Philistines are fighting against Keilah,” etc., up to what is written: “Saul sought him every day,” etc. This reading, under the figure of the men of Keilah, who, although saved by David from the enemy, soon prepare to betray him to the same enemy, illustrates the fickleness of those who hear the word and immediately receive it with joy (Luke 8); but they do not have root in themselves and are temporary; when trouble and persecution arise because of the word, they quickly fall away. And so they reported to David, those who knew that the Philistines were attacking Keilah, and with all the inhabitants driven within the walls, they plundered the granaries outside that might have been found within their reach. The chosen report this to Christ truthfully with strong hand, not instructing him as if he were ignorant of human things by speaking, but petitioning him as if he were merciful to the perils of the wretched by telling him, when they have seen either a single soul or a multitude of souls burdened with vices or still enslaved to pagan rites, occupied by unclean spirits; and whatever natural virtue they possess, as if a salutary germ, is found outside, which means it is acted out solely for worldly benefits, plundered by the wickedness of others.
For they report these things to the intellectual David who, considering the common misery of humanity, complain and pray against the kingdom of unclean spirits, saying: "We have become a reproach to our neighbors, a derision and scorn to those who are around us. How long, O Lord? Will you be angry forever? Will your jealousy burn like fire? Pour out your wrath on the nations that do not know you, and on the kingdoms that do not call upon your name. For they have devoured Jacob" (Psalms 79), and the rest, up to the end of the psalm.
1 Samuel 23:2
Shall I go and strike these Philistines? etc. Because David almost always in the Scriptures, when taken mystically, signifies the Lord Christ, but sometimes in his members, sometimes in himself; rightly at this place, where he consulted the Lord whether he should attack and conquer the enemies, it is understood to be referred to the person of his members, that is, his faithful ones, who sometimes, sorrowful over the known destruction of the faithless by those close to them, consulting the oracles of divine Scripture, inquire what should be done about these things. For also above, where it is announced to the same David that Keilah is being attacked by the Philistines, it can not unreasonably signify that any of the faithful often show the dangers of temptations in the world to equally more perfect faithful ones of Christ, perceiving that they themselves are not sufficient to overcome them. Indeed, those more perfect and strong-handed teachers of the Churches, immediately scrutinizing the testimonies of the Scriptures, find that they must have compassion and succor the oppressed, and by breaking the effort of the malign spirits, discover that the crowd suffering from long temptation is to be saved; but to the often fearful weaker ones due to imminent persecution, the reading of divine words, once consulted, promptly reveals that they should not fear those who kill the body (Matt. X), but rise from their sloth by doing the right, going to the oppressed by preaching useful things, and conquering the oppressors by exorcizing.
For there are those who, under the threat of persecutions, scarcely dare to openly profess the faith with which they have been imbued; how much less do they presume to undertake the war against the legions of malign spirits by calling others to the faith or by solidifying them in the faith? And what does it signify, typically, when the men of David say to him: Behold, here in Judea we are afraid, how much more if we go to Keilah against the legions of the Philistines? unless it is the fearful response of the weak listeners to the spiritual teachers preparing themselves for the work of the word: Behold, within the domestic walls of the Church we fear to freely defend the confession of the paternal faith, which Judea signifies; how much more, if we go to those who have either never known the way of truth, or have deserted it having known it, instructing them with the word of salvation, shall we not unquestionably expose ourselves to greater dangers by beginning to challenge the powers of the air in battle? But the Lord does not omit to raise their weakness and fear by the frequent words of His Gospel, and to strengthen them with the confidence in prayer. And this is what follows: For I will deliver the Philistines into your hand. In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world (John XVI).
1 Samuel 23:5
David and his men went to Keilah, etc. The Lord went in His preachers to heal the brokenhearted, and fought against the spirits of falsehood and perfidy, revealing the light of truth and faith, and drove them away from the souls of the redeemed by just separation, in whom they had previously tightly reined in with the bridle of error, as if riding over them, and subjecting them to their own power and domain, used to more effectively and powerfully ravage and subjugate others, and cause them to be anathematized with a great curse. Thus indeed He saved them, who recently avoiding their tentations, earnestly sought His protection. These things were often done from the beginning of the nascent Church, and there is almost no one who doubts that they are done daily through places.
1 Samuel 23:6
Moreover, at the time when Abiathar fled, etc. The ephod, as we mentioned above, is a priestly garment, with four most distinguished colors interwoven with gold, and two precious stones on each shoulder, and the sacred names of the twelve patriarchs, which most fittingly corresponds to signify the senses of sublime men. For those fleeing to more and more proclaim the glory of Christ, who escaped the hands of many torturers and persecutors for Him, bear within themselves senses and hearts elevated with the four excellent virtues shining with charity, tempered with precious discretion in adversities and prosperities, and taught and armed by the word and example of the preceding Fathers. And it is well said that the priest, fleeing to David with the ephod, is remembered not to have ascended but descended, according to that which is written: "The greater you are, humble yourself in all things" (Ecclesiasticus 3). But truly, because with the growing devotion of faith, the hatred of the perfidious increases, evidently by the judgment of heaven, so that both the trial examining the whole in faith makes them clearer, and the same also accuses the dissemblers of their levity, it is rightly added:
1 Samuel 23:7
And Saul commanded all the people, etc. For as the state of the Church increased, there were not lacking at various times adversaries, who, with the Lord permitting, would test its patience and wisdom by attacking it with the gravest trials, seeking to capture both the Lord Himself in it and His men, that is, all the strong defenders of His Gospel, with impious siege, and to remove them from the midst, yet never reaching the treacherous desires of their wickedness.
1 Samuel 23:9
When David learned that Saul was secretly planning evil against him, etc. After bringing the ephod with Abiathar, David consulted the Lord, asking whether Saul would come to destroy Keilah, and whether the citizens would hand him over. Hence it can be inferred by what order he consulted the Lord before, that is, by putting on the priestly vestment and thus seeking the Lord's response through the mouth of the priest, and that this was the custom of those consulting God at that time, especially those who could not approach the Ark of the Lord. For it is written about this: "There I will speak to you, from above the mercy seat, between the two cherubim" (Exodus 25). But when David discovered both the impending enemy and the unfaithful refuge of the host city, he went out with his about six hundred men and wandered uncertainly here and there. For the holy ones, namely the members of the supreme King, seek through men of great virtue and knowledge of the holy scriptures how the state of the Church will be in the last times; and through the Scriptures, they learn that to its overthrow will come the empire of the Jewish people; and the men of Keilah, that is, of a restless mind and willing to live for themselves, not for the Creator, will quickly betray the faith they have initiated. Christ will depart from such, nor will He make His abode among them. The teachers, too, perfect in hope and work, depart. For six signify works, a hundred hope of eternal things, marking the perfection of men. For they abandon the lukewarm so that by speaking to those who do not preserve it, they do not harm further, in the example of the history which, describing the deeds of David, adds:
1 Samuel 23:13
David therefore arose, etc. Woe, however, to that soul, woe to the city, which the word of God, leaving behind, wanders here and there, uncertain where, in whose heart to settle and find rest. "Foxes," he says, "have dens, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head" (Matthew VIII); and this is what he says elsewhere: "Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?" (Luke XVIII). It is certainly to be noted that these things, generally, refer to all times of the Church, to which false brethren are never lacking, but especially to the last times, during which they will abound more, and can be typically referred, whose levity and perfidy even the name of Ceila fits. For it is said of a sling, cast forth, or stirring up, or lifting itself. And indeed why the soul of a false Christian, unstable and certainly wandering, is called cast to a sling, the wise woman explains, who in the type of the Church speaks with a strong and desirable hand saying, "But the soul of your enemies shall be whirled about in the impetus and circle of a sling" (1 Samuel XXV). But why a believer with infidelity, stirring it up, doubtlessly rightly calls it persecution, is proved by that traitor, who, from the number of Christ's disciples, added to the number of persecutors, thus far in the Church does not cease to have heirs of his depravity. Moreover, why it is called lifting itself, those manifest who usurp the knowledge of the faith for themselves specially, and do not fear to separate from the Catholic unity.
1 Samuel 23:13
It was announced to Saul that David had fled from Ceila, etc. The enemies of the faith pretend to burden those with persecutions whom they see willingly abandoning the faith. But the adversary himself of old tires out with the more severe lashes of temptations those whom he sees strong in faith and action, or whom he sees either inert in faith, or utterly faithless or apostates, he possesses as his own quite contentedly and subject in all things, often with no, or certainly very few, temptations of wrath, pride, fornication, and envy, and other such passions. [1 Samuel 23:14] -- David, however, stayed in the desert, etc. Christ, having dismissed those who receive faith only in word, rather takes up residence in the hearts of those who, in the aridity of the present age, thirst for God, the living fountain, awaiting the moment they may come and appear before the face of the Lord. He gladly remains in those whose high hearts are removed from worldly temptations and blissfully secluded in solitude, finding joy in the deficient germ and flower of virtues. For Ziph means flower or germ.
1 Samuel 23:14
Yet Saul sought him every day, etc. From the beginning of time until the end, the wicked strive to remove Christ from the hearts of the pious, but He himself defends the pious so that they might never be overcome by the wicked, as He promised to remain with them all days even unto the end of the world (Matthew 28). And elsewhere it says: When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and the rivers will not overwhelm you (Isaiah 43).
Chapter 4.2
Jonathan and David make a covenant before the Lord, and as the Ziphites betray him, Saul comes against David; but a more urgent need to confront the Philistines prevents him from capturing David. And David saw that Saul had come out, etc., up to the point where it is written: For this reason they called that place the Rock of Division. This reading mystically signifies how the faithful companions of Christ support the Church with great devotion when it is persecuted by unbelievers, how much the brothers under God assist the adversaries of the faith in impiety, and by what miracle Christ, as the merciful Redeemer, sometimes rescues His own from the very brink of death. And David saw, it says, that Saul had come out to seek his life. [1 Samuel 23:15] -- Moreover, David was in the wilderness of Ziph in the forest. The Lord saw, whose eyes see all things naked and open (Hebrews IV), that he had gone forth from the inner guard of the assembly of traitors, to seek and persecute the church of his faithful, whose heart and soul are one (Acts IV). He remained in the wilderness, in the Church taken from the Gentiles, which often generates fruitful trees, as hearts pregnant with the seed of varied virtues; about which the Psalmist, singing about building a house of remission and life after captivity, says: Then shall all the trees of the forest rejoice before the Lord, for he comes (Psalm XCVI). Now, these trees of the widely fruitful Church, spiritually fecundated with the flower or seed of good works (for Ziph is said to interpret both), are prominent to the extent that they diligently abandon all the enjoyments of this world.
1 Samuel 23:16
And Jonathan, the son of Saul, arose and went to David, etc. And the dove-like and simple spirit of the elect, progressing amid the adversities of persecutions, often called to the grace of faith from the very number of the persecutors, approached Christ with steps of growing virtues, and strengthened the workers, that is, the teachers of his word, always in the divine assistance which comes opportunely (Psalm IX).
1 Samuel 23:17
And he said to him: Fear not, etc. Although Jonathan, unaware of the fate and future destiny, as a man, made a false statement about himself under David's reign, yet according to the mystical meanings, he reveals the joys of Christ and the Church. Truly, he bore witness to that inviolable kingdom, to which he himself belongs, by asserting that the enemies are not to be feared, for they can never reach to extinguish the dominion of faith and truth; indeed, that he whose dominion was to be multiplied, and whose peace would have no end, would reign perpetually over the chosen angels and men; and that those who loved him faithfully and with their whole heart would be closest to him in all the heights of this same kingdom. With their enemies prostrate and defeated, and subjected entirely to the feet and dominion of Christ, as Paul says: "He must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet; the last enemy to be destroyed is death. For he has put all things in subjection under his feet" (I Cor. XV; Psalm CIX); and when he says: "All things are put in subjection under him," undoubtedly except him who subjected all things to him (Psalm VIII), hence it is clear that the powers that have deserted him, empty and void, Christ will render, setting victory trophies against the rivals of our salvation, whom he had long since defeated by his own death, as it is written: "Because the children have shared in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through his death he might destroy the one who has the power of death" (Hebrews II), that is, the devil. Text: Thus he struck, and the rest.
1 Samuel 23:18
Therefore, each struck a covenant before the Lord, etc. The Lord and the faithful strike a covenant with each other, that they should follow Him, and He should give them eternal life; and this before His divine presence, in whose faith He commands us to live, and to which He encourages us to aspire, assisting us. And the Lord remains in the Church, a dense forest of peoples, all the days until the consummation of the world (Matthew 8). However, each of the faithful, after completing the service of prayer or exhortation, or any other devotion offered to the Lord, returns to their conscience, so that, vacating external action, they may more freely for a time reflect on all that has been or is to be done by them, more freely purge themselves from what has been done badly, and more perfectly ready themselves for what is to be done well; such as these indeed can say with the prophet: Who will give me wings like a dove, and I will fly and be at rest (Psalm 54)? And deservedly too, with Jonathan, they can be called a gift of doves, indeed and with the apostle Peter they can be called sons of doves.
1 Samuel 23:19
But the Ziphites went up to Saul at Gibeah, etc. Often false brothers, abandoning the bud and flower of their virtues, ascend to the arrogant enemies of faith to help them against the Church and, detesting the simplicity of the faithful, in a way say to the persecutors: "Does not Christ dwell among us through faith in the most secure hearts of the Gentiles?" Nor is it in vain that it is said in the hill of Hachilah, that is, receiving it. For where should we think the spirit of Christ more gracefully stays than in the height of a mind firmly receiving its faith? Which is to the right of the desert, because for the sake of the right side, that is, the joys of eternal life, it abandons the pomp of the world. For he who declines worldly enticements with a view to temporal and earthly reward, is said not to have turned to the right of the desert, but rather to the left, where our desirable king does not dwell, but the detestable enemy is accustomed to inhabit. And all these things the Ziphites say to Saul, when some falsely faithful men betray the mysteries of faith or its worshippers to open persecutors, and with a perverse mind, though they differ in the recognition of faith, they concord in hatred of the same faith; and to the extent they internally know the secrets of Christ, as David's hiding places, they more wickedly help those who attempt to attack the Church from without.
1 Samuel 23:21
And Saul said: Blessed be you of the Lord, etc. They promise the blessing of the Lord to themselves and their Jewish supporters when, having a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge, they either pursue the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, with hatred, or with arms. And as the Lord says elsewhere about them and their accomplices: "The time is coming that anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God" (John 16). But woe to their blessings, who, plotting against the Church, or at least against any of the Church's members, to scandalize anyone of the little ones of Christ, are proven to harm in the place of persecutors. Woe to those who, reaching to that flower rising from the root of Jesse only in name, seek with all their mind the withering and quickly perishing comforts of the present life; forgetting the blessing of Him, which is to be seen and hoped for by all, of which it is written: "The Lord hath been mindful of us and will bless us. He will bless the house of Israel, he will bless the house of Aaron" (Psalm 113). But blessing both, he blessed all who fear the Lord. You ask: Whom both? It is answered, the small with the great, that is, the house of Israel with the house of Aaron; those indeed who from that very nation have believed in the Savior Jesus, because not all those pleased God;
but if indeed not all of them believed, has their unbelief made the faith of God without effect? By no means. For not all who are of Israel are Israelites; nor are all children of Abraham's seed; as it is written, "The remnant shall be saved" (Isaiah 10). By that oracle of Isaiah, some of the Jews are foretold to attain this heavenly blessing, so that the greater part of them is blinded; whose type and figure Saul, rejected by God, bore, and in whose place the gentiles were appointed; for other sheep joined which were not of this fold, so that there might be one flock and one shepherd (John 10); the faith of all nations joined, and the number increased not only of wise shepherds but also of obedient peoples; to whom many blessings of God have been promised, as it is said: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ" (Ephesians 1); but God has blessed us, not with one blessing, but with all. Not that we all attain everything, but while each of us possesses one or several from all, we all possess through each one. And not in earthly blessings, imitating the Jews, of whom Isaiah said: "If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land" (Isaiah 1), but in spiritual ones. For there are indeed earthly blessings, to have children; to overflow with wealth, to rejoice in honor and health;
which earthly blessing extends even to irrational animals, it is said of them: "And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth" (Genesis 1). But the spiritual blessings are in heavenly places, for the earth does not hold a spiritual blessing. For even those blessings which in Leviticus are promised to those observing God's precepts, for instance, to lend to foreign nations, to have barns full of grain, to be blessed in cities, to be blessed in fields, and the like, we do not see fulfilled in the prophets, who wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented; of whom the world was not worthy, wandering in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. Therefore, all things are to be understood spiritually; and spiritual things are to be awaited not in earthly places, but heavenly.
1 Samuel 23:23
But if he also hides himself in the ground, etc. The ground is the fruitful mind of the chosen ones through works of faith; which, when visited and drenched by God and multiplied, the most proud investigator boasts of searching it, because not only in the openness of work or confession but also in the very secret of faith and intimate love, he may be able to take Christ from His worshippers. But if, he says, he shall even hide himself in the ground, I will search him out among the thousands of Judah. As if he openly says: But if the people of Christians shall, by our reducing them to such a few or to such poverty, come to the point where, having taken away the confidence of preaching, the solemnities of celebrating, publicly gathering meetings, and at least professing they are Christians, they scarcely dare worship Christ as if hidden in the very recesses of their hearts, there and from thence little by little, with the abundant company of persecutors as well as explorers, I will strive to exterminate Him. For I have innumerable Judahites, that is, bands of divine praise or confession, by which I may easily quench the rash undertakings of all those who think otherwise. This can also be taken simply, because sometimes Christians have been dragged out from crypts and hiding places to be led to death for Christ.
1 Samuel 23:24
But they rising up went to Ziph before Saul. Rightly the Ziphites who lay in wait for David are said to have gone to Ziph before Saul, because indeed the schismatics or heretics, the closer they are to Jews or pagans, having been admitted inside, the more wickedly and as if earlier they deprive the Church of its fruit. Which too in the times of the Antichrist, with the Jews raising greater persecutions than others, it will mainly happen in the Church, and daily it continues happening, would that we did not know. Finally, Judas, where he was received more inwardly, where he became the leader and known to the Lord, together with Him was taking sweet food, there he more mightily raised his heel against Him.
1 Samuel 23:24
But David and his men were in the wilderness of Maon, etc. Maon is interpreted as dwelling. Jeshimon means bringing death. Generally, however, the faithful, having obtained Christ as their leader, rejoice to thirst for the eternal homeland, which the waterless places of the desert signify; they long with burning desire for the dwelling of heavenly blessedness, which the name Maon, that is Hab, suggests; they know to hope for eternal life from death endured for God, which the name Jeshimon figuratively expresses. But they cannot yet perfectly transcend the vast fields of earthly thoughts. Yet when the storm of persecution arises, the mind at once, humbling itself by casting aside all things of this world, gathers itself to the most fortified rock of faith, and with its feet secured upon this rock, and its steps directed, it now joyfully moves more sweetly in the heavenlies and burns to sing the song of new hope and joy more fervently, which is, after having taken to the refuge of the rock, David and his companions dwelling in the wilderness of Maon. For the same desert of Maon, the same dwelling, not only signifies the desire for the perpetual mansion because of the height burned by heat; but also because the desert takes its name from desertion, it indicates the very dwelling of heavenly rest, which man once deserted. Finally, in the parable of the Gospel, the Good Shepherd, having left the ninety-nine sheep in the desert, goes to seek the one that had wandered (Luke 15). In this very desert David moves as a leader, and those endowed with the grace of Christ can say: "But our citizenship is in heaven" (Philippians 3).
1 Samuel 23:25
When Saul heard this, he pursued David, etc. These things specifically regard the Jewish persecutor, who, upon hearing of the faith and devotion of believers, persecutes them on earth, while they with the whole intention of their minds look towards the heavens, himself believing that Christ will come in the flesh, which they have already learned has come. For this is Saul proceeding on one side of the mountain, and David and his men staying on the other side; these ones empty of Christ, hastening with perverted hope towards Christ yet to be incarnate; those ones having already received, by the grace of Christ the author, the sacraments of the Christian faith in which they would be saved. For he is the mountain of the house of the Lord prepared on the summit of the mountains, upon which a city set cannot be hidden (Isa. II). Nor is it surprising if they despair of being able to escape carnally from their enemies, to whom it was not said, “Do not fear, for you will not be killed by your enemies” (Matt. X); but, he says, “Do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul” (Matt. X). Yet sometimes those in despair are delivered from enemies even at present, like the three boys from the furnace, Daniel from the lions' den, like Paul and Silas, and the very prince of the apostles himself (Acts V): but also elsewhere, all the apostles from prison together; as indeed many later martyrs of great praise and glory in Christ and the Church. Hence it is rightly added:
1 Samuel 23:26
And so Saul and his men surrounded David like a crown, etc. For, with the Lord Savior protecting His faithful, very often those who, out of fear of God, did not want to act, were compelled by the consideration of human peace or some other advantage to cease from tearing them apart. Therefore, the faith of Christ, upon which His Church is built, rightly prevails against the gates of hell (Matthew XVI); it is called the dividing rock because it wonderfully defends His often despairing followers in the present and separates those who hope for future reward from the perpetual turmoil of men. Whether these things happened in modern times or are believed to happen in the future under the Antichrist, let the reader see and consider, not without tears, something worthy of tears, how much the state of the Church deteriorates daily to worse things, or to say it more mildly, to weaker deeds. The city of Nobe, due to receiving David with all his men, suffered martyrdom, which is to render good fruit through patience. Ceila, saved by David along with its citizens from the enemy, lost its savior because it did not fear to betray him at the imminent moment of persecution; and this is to receive the seed of the word with joy but immediately stumble when tribulation arises because of the word (Matthew XIII; Luke VIII).
The Ziphites, upon discovering that David was staying nearby, not only did not invite him to themselves, but also volunteered to betray him, not to avoid danger, but to gain the friendship of Saul, plotting to track his ways and overthrow his steps; and these are those who, according to the recalled parable of the Lord, hear the word, but the worry of this age and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. I do not follow this reasoning as if I did not believe that even today there exist and will always exist many perfected in faith and truth; but because I see that, for the most part, the times are now approaching that were predicted long ago, in which, with iniquity abounding, the love of many will grow cold (Matthew XXIV). The title of the fifty-third Psalm, remembering the reading and betrayal by the Ziphites, is as follows: For the end, in songs, understanding of David, when the Ziphites came and said to Saul: "Is not David hidden among us? Which, to explain briefly, denotes that the psalm is spoken in the end, in the person of Christ. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes (Romans X). In songs, in great distress, yet the Psalmist declares the same song with rejoicing according to the one who said: "But we also glory in tribulation" (Romans V). For it seems to me that the psalms inscribed in songs always declare the joy of the singer amidst adversities.
The understanding of David shows that David, obsessed with anguish, but also unexpectedly delivered, understood that the body of the true David, of which he himself was a member, would suffer from the wicked, how great the grace of his Redeemer was, to be often delivered at present, and always crowned in the future. But what is said at the beginning of the same psalm: "O God, save me by your name, and in your strength, deliver me," is what David seeks in this reading, refuge in the rock. And for this reason, it is called the dividing rock because of the beginning of deliverance. For the fathers drank from the spiritual rock that followed them. And the rock was Christ.
Chapter 4.3
David in the cave of solitude in Engaddi cuts off a part of Saul's cloak, which he later uses to urge Saul to confess his guilt. Samuel dies, and David descends into the desert of Paran. (1 Samuel 24. Therefore, David arose and went up, etc., up to the part that is written: But David arose and went down to the wilderness of Paran. In this reading, the Lord reveals His hidden gifts to the little ones that were hidden from the wise and prudent; overcoming the bonds of death, He immediately destroys them by His resurrection; calling the Jews, whose carnal kingdom was partly taken away, to repentance through the apostles. Without delay, as the shadow of the law fades, He is brought to be worshipped in the hearts of the gentiles, which had long been abandoned and wild, through the truth of the Gospel. For fleeing the snares of Saul and abandoning the weak defenses of the Ziphites, David ascends and dwells in the safest places of Engaddi, which is interpreted as the Fountain of the Kid. The Lord, fleeing the proud hearts of the unbelieving Jews, and also abandoning those who do not doubt to leave the commenced flowers of virtues behind, ascends as it were to higher places and dwells in the hearts of the humble in spirit; who, having confessed their own foul crimes, are washed by the life-giving fountain of the Savior, so that they might thus happily transform from goats into lambs. The Church remembers this place, speaking in the Song of Songs:
My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blooms in the vineyards of Engaddi (Song of Songs 1:14). Clearly saying: Just as the cluster of the island of Cyprus is superior to the rest, so the incomparable ardor of spiritual studies of my Redeemer's grace is accustomed to intoxicate the mind which He has captivated. And this is only in those peoples who, renewed in the font of baptism for the remission of sins, know how to spread the joyful fruits of good action. The vineyards of Engaddi, which are fruitful in balsam, a tree from that region, are now regarded as vines. When their bark is cut, the sap that drips, beautiful with glittering tears and very apt for making chrism, manifestly proves how suitable it is for signifying virtues.
1 Samuel 24:1
And when Saul had returned, etc. Saul, having stopped pursuing the Philistines, is suddenly recalled with a sinister mind to hunt down and kill David; he turns his weapons from the just conflict against the enemies to the unjust one in which he strikes a fellow citizen. Thus indeed, unbelieving Jews, while being equipped with the word of Holy Scripture, often dispute various errors of the nations against idols, miserably turn the missiles of unbelieving words against Christ and the Christian religion. And when they know that publicans and sinners have been cleansed through the washing of the saving water and admitted unto themselves, now separated from the enticements of the world, which is typified by David staying in the desert of Engaddi, they immediately set traps against the innocent in vain, seeking to swallow him alive, as hell does, as one whole, descending into the pit. Hence it is aptly added:
1 Samuel 24:2
Saul, however, taking three thousand chosen men, etc. Just as in a good sense the number three is usually placed for a certain mysterious grace, clearly designating those who are either glorious by the confession of the Holy Trinity, or devoted by faith, hope, and charity, or perfect in thought, speech, and action, or something of the sort; so also, when it is placed in an evil army, it not undeservedly denotes those who are found to do everything contrary. Therefore, in this place, the three thousand armed men with whom Saul sets out to persecute David and his men are to be mystically understood as those who, with a threefold battle array against the Lord and against His Christ, meditating vain things (Psalm II), that is, going in the counsel of the ungodly, standing in the way of sinners, and sitting in the seat of pestilence, have done everything contrary to the Blessed Man; those namely whose will is in the law of the Lord, and who will meditate in His law day and night. Saul also proceeds to search for David even upon the most abrupt rocks, which are accessible only to the ibexes, as he sets the snares of deception and treachery to the kingdom of the Jews against the Lord; even in his highest sayings, which remain scarcely comprehensible to perfect listeners alone.
For the ibexes, which are small quadrupeds and know how to stay and give birth only on rocks, and if at any time they fall from the high peaks of rocks, they catch themselves unharmed with their horns, symbolize the humble listeners of the word of God, who, the more they perceive themselves to be of lesser merit, wisdom, and virtue, the more they seek strong refuges of the Holy Scriptures, in which they ought to dwell mentally and place the fruits of good works, as ibexes seek refuge among the rocks, and whatever temporal ruin befalls them, sustaining themselves on the testaments of heavenly words, they are saved as if by the reception of their horns. The Lord remembers this animal, and has marked how it is not contemptible in its figure, speaking mystically to the blessed Job: "Do you know the time when the ibexes give birth among the rocks? (Job XXXIX).
1 Samuel 24:3
And he also came to the sheepfolds, etc. In persecuting the great shepherd of the sheep, our Lord Jesus Christ, he also dragged the wicked investigation to the gatherings of his faithful disciples, who offered themselves as sheep to the raging wolves, to see if they could find any reason within them to criticize their master. Hence the saying: "Behold, your disciples do what is not lawful on the Sabbaths," and others (Mark II).
1 Samuel 24:3
And there was a cave, etc. This cave is a symbol of the Lord's tomb, whose entrance Saul entered to relieve himself, while the rulers of the kingdom of the Jews, having departed from Pilate, secured the tomb, sealing the stone with guards, in an attempt to block the path of resurrection to the Author of Life. By doing this, they revealed to all the long-conceived and steeped filth of their unfaithful minds. Moreover, the Lord lay hidden in the inner part of the tomb, and his men also hid there—that is, the strong who at that time were to become stronger as his disciples. It is certain that wherever they were in the city of Jerusalem at that time in body, they held with their entire focus and desire the place of the tomb, where they mourned the burial of the only one they loved. Indeed, they hid in the cave because they did not at all want those who had unjustly killed him to know the devotion and love they had for him. Or certainly it is to be understood that David’s men hid with him in the cave, and even rose and came out from the cave with him, according to the Apostle’s statement: "Our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be slaves to sin" (Rom. VI). And as he had previously said: "For as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death. We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may walk in newness of life" (Rom. VI).
1 Samuel 24:4
And David's servants said to him: Behold the day, etc. Christ's carnal disciples, still of a servile spirit, said to him when they saw the power of the crucified and the madness of those who crucified: Behold, the time is at hand, of which God the Father spoke to you through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, that he would make all your enemies a footstool for your feet (Psalm 109). But they said this with their whole heart, although not in words, whomever of them desired the death of those who, releasing a thief, condemned the Savior to death, because it was proven by him who cut off the ear of the servant of the high priest, unwilling for the Lord to drink the cup which the Father gave. It was proven in those who sought fire from heaven to descend upon the impious, not knowing of what spirit they were, for the Son of Man did not come to destroy souls, but to save. But with the appropriate moderation of his piety, he did not completely kill the wicked, but withdrew from them, in no small part, the habit of the kingdom, so that even thus confounded, they might come to the recognition of their madness and correction.
1 Samuel 24:5
After these things, David's heart struck him, etc. The Lord groaned for the human race, from which he took flesh, with the affection of compassion, because by its merits he was compelled to take away some part of its royal ornament, preferring that it might have the kingdom here and always in the future age, preserved by divine law. Finally, seeing the sinful city, he wept over it saying: For if you also had known, and the rest (Luke 19). He lamented with human pious compassion the detestable loss of the kingdom, which he decreed by divine justice would come to pass.
1 Samuel 24:6
And he said to his men, “May the Lord be merciful to me,” etc. David is shown to have refrained from killing Saul, despite Saul's most hostile pursuit of him, for two main reasons: first, he remembered him as his lord and as having been anointed with royal chrism. Here, primarily, he venerates the kingdom and the anointing with due honor, which indeed he always knew symbolized the ever inviolable kingdom of the Lord and the spiritual anointing. Furthermore, he also teaches us through moral disciplines that we should not dare to wound our leaders, especially those distinguished by sacred orders, with the sword of harsh words, nor presume to criticize by tearing away even the fringe of their final and unnecessary actions. Yet if we accidentally do such a thing incautiously, we should immediately strike the heart with sorrow and strive to correct the rash deed by repenting. However, according to the established order of explanation, in which we have said that Saul signifies the Jewish people or kingdom and David signifies Christ, we can understand that Christ called the same people or kingdom his lord, because he deigned to take on the form of a servant from it; and he called Christ the Anointed of the Lord, because he had bestowed the anointing of spiritual grace on that people before all other nations. Therefore, he did not wish to strike them down with his hand to utterly destroy the wicked, but, as with the royal robe cut off, he divided them from the earth and overthrew them in their own life. And as another psalm says, “Do not kill them, lest my people forget; scatter them by your power, and bring them down, O Lord our shield.” (Psalm 59).
1 Samuel 24:7
And David restrained his men with his words, etc. And the Lord restrained the severity of his disciples, who wished the impious to perish, by saying: Do not judge, and you will not be judged (Matthew VII). Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned (Luke VI). And elsewhere: For God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him (John III), and so on of this kind, and he did not permit them to take immediate vengeance on the wrongdoers, but rather to love the correction of those who amend their ways.
1 Samuel 24:7
Moreover, Saul rising from the cave, etc. The keepers of the Lord's tomb, who, having fallen prostrate through fear of the approaching angel and had become like dead men, and fleeing from the tomb, nonetheless continued the evil schemes against the Lord, saying that his disciples had come at night and stolen him away while they were sleeping. Which can also be rightly understood of those who placed guards at the tomb (Matthew XXVIII); who, even though they withdrew from guarding the tomb of the Lord with groans and confusion, nonetheless did not turn away from their intent of persecuting his faith with raging steps. With these both having been driven away from the watch of the tomb, the Lord himself did not delay to gradually reveal the glory of his resurrection, which he had assumed secretly, to his followers. And with this truth confirmed and taught, soon through them thundered the proclamation of free preaching, calling back benignly to the remedy of repentance and his love those who had turned away from him, his persecutors. To those whom he reconciled to himself with the first words of humanity and piety, he diligently taught some of them to look back after him, that is, to repent of their crime against God.
1 Samuel 24:8
And bowing himself, David prostrated on the ground and worshiped. The Savior, with his compassionate heart, bowed down to help and aid earthly and weak hearts, showing through the ministers of His word, He Himself first presented examples of worship and reconciliation with God to those who had already offended Him long ago. He said to the people of the Jews through the heralds of the Gospel: "Why do you listen to the words of human wisdom, of the Scribes and Pharisees speaking: Jesus seeks harm against you; if we let Him go on like this, everyone will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation" (John 11). Behold, at the time of My passion with so many miracles appearing, whoever could truly see, saw in you that the Lord had delivered you into My power, since at a single gentle word of My response when I said, "I am He," such a large armed band fell trembling, and when I was crucified, an unusual darkness covered the whole sky at midday; when I gave up My spirit, the whole earth was moved, rocks were split, tombs were opened, and countless bodies of the dead were raised. Finally, at the appearance of an angel testifying to My resurrection, an immense earthquake occurred, and your guards were stunned and became like the dead. And indeed I thought that if you did not repent, I would destroy you; but patient regard of My compassion spared you, favoring that through penance you might deserve pardon and salvation. For I said: I will not strike completely, nor will I remove from the midst the people, although sinful and hostile to Me, from which I received the form of a servant, in which I would win back the whole world; which in the fathers long ago divine generosity imbued with the blessing of singular grace.
1 Samuel 24:11
Rather, my father, see, etc. Rather, says the Lord, my people, since I was called and was the Son of Man to confirm the promises of the fathers, it did not displease me to be incarnate. See and recognize the boundary of your royal state in my power; for when I cut off the summit of your earthly kingdom, calling many from its defense, which is carried out through arms, strife, and wars, to the simplicity of my faith and religion, giving many into the hands of enemies for the guilt of perfidy, I did not wish to extend the hand of open vengeance against you. Consider and see that there is nothing evil or wicked in my work, and recognize that I am he of whom the prophet testifies: "He committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth" (Isa. LIII). Who among you convicts me of sin (John VIII), you who conspire to erase the memory of my name from the land of the living?
1 Samuel 24:14
Whom do you persecute, king of Israel? Whom do you persecute? etc. Israel means a man seeing God. Whom then do you persecute, O people, who were chosen before all other nations to see the glory of divine brightness? Whom do you persecute? Is it that great and most vigilant shepherd of holy sheep, whom you did not hesitate to betray to death and continue to hate even after his death? He who was lowly in human appearance but swift in the leap of resurrection, having escaped your hands when you attempted to seize him, you foolishly think that you can again grasp him thundering from heaven? Indeed, I do not seek my glory; there is one who seeks and judges. Let it seem absurd to no one that a dead dog or a flea bears the Lord's figure, since in another place due to the frailty of the flesh, which he received from a virgin's flesh without male seed, he says of himself: "But I am a worm, and not a man" (Psalm XXII). And due to the glory of the resurrection, which he quickly and swiftly completed from death to life as if by a leap: "And I am shaken out as a locust" (Psalm CVIII).
1 Samuel 24:16
And Saul lifted up his voice, and wept, etc. And as the Lord taught through the apostles, the people of the Jews, among those who were predestined to eternal life, lifted up their voice in the confession of faith, which they had long sunk low by denying, and washed away the stains of ancient guilt with worthy tears of repentance, confessing both the justice and goodness of the Lord; and also recalling the errors of their own wickedness, that they indeed had fiercely handed over the author of all goodness to death: but He, given to death unjustly, being omnipotent, preferred to save than to destroy those who killed Him.
1 Samuel 24:20
And now because I know for certain that you will reign, etc. This is the voice of the penitent people of the Jews, seeking the path of salvation from Christ whom they acknowledged. And now because I know for certain that you are He of whom it is said, "His government will be multiplied, and there will be no end of peace" (Isa. IX), having in your dominion that kingdom in which the pure in heart will see God without any end to their blessedness, confirm, I pray, the faith which you have granted by the largess of your sacraments, and augment that same faith in me with your heavenly gifts, so that, having received the pledge of the Spirit, I may have confidence that the offspring of my works, born from my heart, will be saved from eternal destruction after the dissolution of the body. Nor take away my name from the house of the heavenly habitation, which you have deigned to give to my fathers, who awaited you faithfully and lovingly through the law to come. But as for some of the Jews who poured forth these and similar words of confession, the Lord justly granted their petition, and imbued with the sacraments of the Gospel, He made them faithful from among the catechumens and the competent.
1 Samuel 24:22
So Saul went to his house, etc. The people of the Jews who were able to repent from their faithlessness through the teaching of the apostles went to work on the care of their inner salvation. On the other hand, the Lord himself and his preachers, knowing that many from the same people would wage wars against the faith, having left the lowly and earthly things, soon ascended to safer and higher places, that is, those who would rightly believe and firmly persevere, by illuminating the hearts of the Samaritans and nearby nations. This reading’s memory, and its spiritual reference to Christ, is taught by the title of the fifty-sixth Psalm, which is inscribed thus: To the end, do not destroy David, in the inscription of the title, when he fled from the face of Saul into the cave. Although it seems to be written about David in two words; it opens up in two others, because it truly signifies Christ entirely. That which says “Do not destroy David” seems to prohibit from destroying him, who had been prepared by the Lord’s promise for the kingdom, from the insidious enemy. And what it adds in the closure: When he fled from the face of Saul into the cave, it smiles upon the particular moment of time in which he was thought to be able to be destroyed.
Nevertheless, what is placed in the beginning, to the end, forewarns that everything should be referred to him, who remains the perfection of all good things for us, because when we came to him, there is no longer any need to seek anything beyond. And what follows, in the inscription of the title, expresses the very title of the Lord’s passion, which Pilate wrote in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin; and which itself, in figure of an unshakeable kingdom, could not be destroyed by any reasoning or by him who wrote it. Therefore, the sense of this entire title is the same, commanding the Jews not to suspect that they can take away the glory of Christ, even when he is killed and buried: To the end, do not destroy David, in the inscription of the title, when he fled from the face of Saul into the cave, understand the psalm as sung to him who is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes; so that you may seek not to destroy Christ by taking away or diminishing his kingdom, which is marked by the true inscription of the title, even when you see him enter the closed tomb through his death due to the impious harassing him; and indeed, the tomb’s closed doors were fled from the face of those pursuing him, so that they would have no power to pursue or even see him any longer.
Moreover, that very psalm, according to the tenor of this same reading, openly and appropriately celebrates the Lord’s passion, burial, and resurrection, and also the faith of the Gentiles, which is mystically contained within the end of the present reading, where among other things about the triumphal passion: He gave, he says, those trampling me to reproach. (Psalm LVI). Of the burial and resurrection: He delivered my soul from the midst of the lions' whelps, I slept troubled. This trouble is better understood in his members who had not yet fully believed in his resurrection while he slept in the tomb. Likewise, of the resurrection: I will arise early. But concerning the Gentiles, inspired and cooperating to faith: I will confess to you among the peoples, O Lord, I will sing a psalm to you among the nations. And the damnation of the Jewish nation, which is marked by the cutting of Saul’s cloak in this reading, the aforementioned psalm describes this way: They dug a pit before my face, and they themselves fell into it.
1 Samuel 25:1
(I Reg. XXV.) Samuel died, etc. The shadow predicting truth to come waned with the dawning Gospel, nor could the people be removed from the rites of the customary ceremonies without sorrow, which they did not doubt had been established by the institution of the divine law. Hence James, speaking to the apostle Paul, said: “You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews have believed, and they are all zealous for the law” (Acts 21). Yet, as the custom of Judaizing gradually ceased in the Church, just as the prophet's lifeless members were removed from human view, they were laid in their house in Ramah, that is, in a high place; because while the sacraments of the law had ceased to be celebrated outwardly, all began to be sought, understood, and tested inwardly in Christ and the Church. Indeed, the prophet’s house is the church of the believers, and this is situated in that high place, of which it is written: “And the Most High has established her” (Psalm 86). And elsewhere: “For he is exalted” (Isaiah 2).
1 Samuel 25:1
But David arose and went down to the wilderness of Paran. Paran is interpreted as wild ass, or fruitful, or their fierceness. Therefore, with the type of prophecy ceasing, and with Rama, that is in Christ, as it is said, and the Church fulfilled, Judea being left behind, the truth of faith has deigned to approach the nations long wild and of untamed spirit, but now about to be fruitful with the fruit of justice. And not only because of its wild or fierce name, but also because of its fierce and savage inhabitants, Paran is most fittingly suitable to signify the nations. For Scripture narrates that Ishmael, from whom the Saracens descend, lived in the wilderness of Paran, he concerning whom it is said: "Cast out the bondwoman and her son; for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman" (Gen. XXI). The son of the free woman, that is, the people renewed by spiritual grace, dreading the turbulent neighborhood, complains, saying: "Woe is me, that my sojourning is prolonged, I have dwelt among the tents of Kedar" (Psalm CXIX), and so forth, until the end of the psalm, which describe the Saracens as special adversaries of the Church in a general manner. But so that Christ might call also the sons of the bondwoman, that is, the people serving this world, to freedom, and make them sons of the promise like Isaac, He descended to the wilderness of Paran, that is, the humbled hearts of the Gentiles, and infused them with the grace of His mercy.