The Edomite Informer and the Slaughter of the Priests
The Old Testament is a record of both faithfulness and treason, loyalty and betrayal. Doeg the Edomite is cemented in Scripture as the agent of one of the most brutal and faithless acts recorded during the reign of King Saul: the mass murder of the priests of the Lord. His story is a chilling testament to the danger of malicious self-interest and the spiritual consequence of informing against the anointed of God.
The Identity and Treachery
Doeg was an Edomite, a descendant of Esau, serving in the court of Saul as the chief of the herdsmen (or chief of the servants). Though he was not an Israelite, he occupied a position of trust and influence:
“Now when Saul heard that David was discovered, and the men that were with him, (now Saul abode in Gibeah under a tree in Ramah, having his spear in his hand, and all his servants were standing about him;) Then said Saul unto his servants that stood about him, Hear now, ye Benjamites; will the son of Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards, and make you all captains of thousands, and captains of hundreds; That all of you have conspired against me, and there is none that sheweth me that my son hath made a league with the son of Jesse, and there is none of you that is sorry for me, or sheweth unto me that my son hath stirred up my servant against me, to lie in wait, as at this day? Then answered Doeg the Edomite, which was set over the servants of Saul, and said, I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahimelech the son of Ahitub.” (I Samuel 22:6-9, KJV)
Doeg was the lone man who betrayed David. When David fled Saul and sought refuge at the Tabernacle in Nob, the priest Ahimelech offered David provisions and the sword of Goliath, unaware of the animosity between David and Saul. Doeg was present and witnessed this act of aid.
The Massacre of the Priests
Driven by malice and a desire for reward from the paranoid King Saul, Doeg immediately informed on Ahimelech. Saul, believing the priests were conspiring with David, ordered his guards to execute them. When the Israelite guards refused to lift their hand against the Lord’s priests, Saul turned to the non-Israelite, Doeg:
“And the king said to Doeg, Turn thou, and fall upon the priests. And Doeg the Edomite turned, and he fell upon the priests, and slew on that day fourscore and five persons that did wear a linen ephod. And Nob, the city of the priests, smote he with the edge of the sword, both men and women, children and sucklings, and oxen, and asses, and sheep, with the edge of the sword.” (I Samuel 22:18-19, KJV)
This chilling account establishes Doeg as an utterly uncompromised agent of cruelty. He performed the act that the Israelite soldiers—despite their loyalty to the king—knew was an unpardonable sin against the Lord. Doeg’s self-serving murder of eighty-five priests, and the subsequent slaughter of the entire city of Nob, was not just an act of regicide; it was a direct attack on the spiritual order and the defense of the truth vested in the priesthood.
The Prophetic Condemnation
David himself prophetically condemned Doeg in the Psalms, ensuring that his name would be forever synonymous with treachery and ultimate divine judgment:
“Why boastest thou thyself in mischief, O mighty man? the goodness of God endureth continually. Thy tongue deviseth mischiefs; like a sharp razor, working deceitfully.… God shall likewise destroy thee for ever, he shall take thee away, and pluck thee out of thy dwelling place, and root thee out of the land of the living. Selah.” (Psalm 52:1-5, KJV)
Doeg the Edomite remains the enduring biblical warning against using knowledge for malicious ends. His fate confirms the certain truth that those who align themselves with the enemies of God’s anointed and shed innocent blood will receive the full measure of divine and everlasting retribution.