The nations that surrounded Judah rushed in with the sole intention of destroying the kingdom of Judah and of removing the sons of the kingdom from its midst. So too with their corruption they corrupted the high priests, scribes and Pharisees—and even the heretics. They forbade the sons of the kingdom (certainly, a reference to the leaders of that kingdom) from preaching or worshiping the grace of the Holy Spirit in their sincere heart. That is the meaning of their striking down Jonathan, the gift of the dove. They forbade praising the Father through a worthy confession, who made us his sons not by nature but by adoption. The death of Abinadab pointed to this, for his name means Father of his own volition. They resisted so that they would not believe in the salvation that was coming into the world through Christ’s kingdom. The death of Malchishua pointed to this, since his name means My king is my salvation. I believe that the philosopher who seduced Arius^[1] killed Malchishua, as it were, just as the one who seduced Macedonius^[2] killed Jonathan, and the one who seduced Mani^[3] killed Abinadab. I say that because the master of corruption taught Arius to deny the omnipotence of Christ the king, Macedonius to detract from the gift of the Holy Spirit, and Mani to blaspheme the goodness of our great God.

I will inebriate my arrows with blood, and my sword will devour flesh.^[1] These are the spiritual arrows of the Lord with which he strikes the heart of the human race and drains our spiritual blood. For just as Christ himself is called an arrow, chosen by the hand of the Father,^[2] so also his apostles are named arrows metaphorically, whom his powerful bow dispersed throughout the entire breadth of the world. Perhaps Jonathan shot the same arrows as a sign that David should flee from the hand of his cruel king.^[3] And Saul was struck by these very arrows, that such an obviously worthless king would be deprived of the Israelite kingdom. These are the arrows that drink the blood of our infidelity and carnal sins, for which reason it is said concerning them: They will eat the sins of my people.^[4]

The armor bearer of Saul represents the teachers of the law, for just as the arms and arrows of the Philistines are the deceptions of depraved people, so in contrast the arms of the Israelites cannot be understood in any other way other than to refer mystically to the words of spiritual teaching by which the people of God ought to have protected themselves from all dangers. But when Saul had been wounded by the archers and was at the point of despair, he preferred to die by the sword of his armor bearer than by the sword of the uncircumcised. The chiefs of the kingdom of the Jews, once they had spent the course of their life in their sins and being at the point of death, preferred to perish as their teachers set aside the commandments of the law and taught them to do the same rather than to perish by consorting with the Gentiles and so defiling themselves, since they called the Gentiles profane and unclean. At last they feared even to enter the governor’s residence so that they might not be contaminated but be able to eat the Passover.^[1] To be sure, that Passover ended up harming them by the very law which they had accepted, for they did not fear to contaminate that Passover with the blood of an innocent man.