¹⁷ Then the king said to the bodyguards^[a] who were standing around him, “Turn and kill the priests of the Lord, because their hand too is with David. They knew that he was fleeing, but they did not inform me.”

But the attendants of the king would not raise a hand against the priests of the Lord.

¹⁸ The king said to Doeg, “You turn and attack the priests!”

Doeg the Edomite turned and attacked the priests. On that day he killed eighty-five men who wore the special linen garment.^{[b] 19} He struck Nob, the city of the priests, with the edge of the sword, both men and women, children and nursing babies, as well as cattle, donkeys, and sheep—all of them with the edge of the sword.