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 thus ordering the destruction of Nob in the manner of the "ban" ([~cherem]), as God had commanded the children of Israel regarding Jericho, "Saul so completely identified his revenge with the cause of Jehovah that he avenged an imaginary conspiracy against himself, identifying it as treason against Jehovah,"[7] and ordered Doeg to destroy Nob.