2 Samuel 21:2

Saul sought to slay them in his zeal. We gather from various incidental circumstances that Saul, in some part of his reign, manifested great zeal in an attempt to carry out literally the enactments of the Levitical Law; but he seems to have done so with the same ferocity as that which he displayed in slaughtering the priests at Nob with their wives and children. Thus he had put to death wizards and all who dealt with familiar spirits ( 1 Samuel 28:9 ), in accordance with Exodus 22:18 and Le Exodus 20:6 . In the same way he seems to have tried to exterminate the aboriginal inhabitants of Palestine, in accordance with Deuteronomy 7:2 , and had especially massacred a large number of Gibeonites, in violation of the covenant made with them by Joshua and all Israel ( Joshua 9:3 , Joshua 9:15-27 ). And as he would thus acquire "fields and vineyards" robbed from them to give to his captains, his conduct was probably popular, and the cause of a general system of wrong and oppression practised upon all the natives. It had thus become a national sin, and as such was punished by a national calamity. Amorites; that is highlanders, mountaineers. Strictly they were Hivites ( Joshua 9:7 ).