The present article focuses on two stories dealing with acts of big blood shed.
I Sam 22,6-23 relates the massacre of the priests of Nob; II Sam 21,1-14 is about
the execution of seven descendents of Saul, as atonement for Saul's attempt to
exterminate the Gibeonites. Most researchers consider both stories or at least
certain parts of them old.1 For both stories few verses are regarded as secondary.
In this paper I try to reassess the analysis of these stories and will point to
indices favoring a late date of origin for both of them. They concern the language
in use, intertextual connections and particular motifs. A further indication consists
in the fact that the reported events of the stories lack significant resonance in the
corpus of the Hebrew Bible. There are only two texts, I Sam 2,33 and Ps 52,2,
which allude or refer to I Sam 22,6-23.With regard to the importance of the related
events and acts this silence in the Biblical context is astonishing. Interestingly,
also in the Book of Chronicles one does not find any allusions to these stories.
This raises the question whether the latter were composed after the formation of
the book of Chronicles.