Then the king sent to call Ahimelech the priest, the son of Ahitub, and all his father's house, the priests who were in Nob: and they came all of them to the king.
By this murder of a whole city of the priests of the Lord, Saul, in a sense, declared war on God Himself.  Satan, at this point, dominated the will of Saul completely.  How incredible is it that the man who refused to execute the [~cherem] or the "ban" against the Amalekites, even though God had commanded it, in this shameful episode executed the ban upon one of the cities of his own kingdom, "The city of the priests of the Lord"!