Doeg the Edomite דּוֹאֵג הָאֲדֹמִי
he informed on the priests of Nob—and struck them himself when no one else would
An Edomite, chief of Saul's herdsmen. On the day David came to Nob he was there—"detained before the Lord" (I Samuel 21:8).
He told Saul what he had seen, and told it exactly: that the priest had inquired of God for David, and had given him provision, and had given him Goliath's sword (22:9–10). Not one word of it was false—and out of precisely that came all the rest.
When Saul condemned the house of Ahimelech, "the servants of the king would not put out their hand to fall upon the priests of the Lord." Then the king said to Doeg: "You turn and fall upon the priests." And he struck eighty-five men who wore the linen ephod, and afterwards destroyed the whole city of Nob (22:17–19).
In the Psalms. Psalm 52 is headed: "When Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul"—and it speaks of the tongue: "Your tongue devises destruction, like a sharpened razor… You love all devouring words, O deceitful tongue." Not of the sword, but of the tongue.
On the timeline
Related
Sources
Tanakh
- Shmuel I 21:8 — he was in Nob, “detained before the Lord”
- Shmuel I 22:9–19 — the informing and the killing of the priests when the servants refused
- Tehillim 52 — the psalm's heading and its words about the tongue
Basis: stated in the Tanakh.