Psalmów 55:14 Midrasz: Tanna DeBei Eliyahu Zuta, Midrash Tehillim, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition) & Bamidbar Rabbah

Said Rabbi Yochanan: Once I was walking on a path and I came across a man who was collecting firewood. I spoke to him but he did not respond to me. Afterwards he approached me and said "Rabbi, I am dead and not alive", I said to him: "If you are dead - why do you need the firewood?". He responded: "Rabbi, listen carefully to what I am saying to you, when I was alive, my friend and I were doing a sin in my palace and when we came here we were sentenced to punishment by fire, when I gather wood they burn my friend, and when my friend gathers wood they burn me". I asked him: "Till when do you have to endure this punishment?" He told me: "When I came here I left my wife pregnant and I know she is pregnant with a son, therefore, please take caution with him and from the time he is born until he is five years old take him to he house of his rabbi to learn biblical verse (mikrah) because when he can say Barchu Et Hashem HaMevorach then I will be saved from the punishment of Gehenna".

"Many are rising against me" - Many in stature. Many in Torah. (2 Samuel 10:18) "Shobach" - Why was he called Shobach? Because his stature was like this shobach (rod). And his name was "Shophach" (1 Chronicles 19:18) because he would shed blood. And so too Goliath, of whom it is written (1 Samuel 17:4) "Whose height was six cubits and a span." And so too, "Many in Torah" refers to Doeg and Ahithophel. Doeg was the head of the court, as it is stated (1 Samuel 21:8) "The chiefest of the herdsmen that belonged to Saul." And Ahithophel was a counselor, as it is stated (2 Samuel 16:23) "And the counsel of Ahithophel...was as if a man inquired of the word of God." "A man of my rank" - but it is not written "a man," for he was not a man but an angel. And so David says (Psalms 55:13) "For it is not an enemy who reproached me, then I could bear it." (Ibid. 14) "But you, a man like myself, my companion." (Ibid. 15) "We who enjoyed a friendly intimacy." This then is "Many are rising against me."

R. Ami said: "Doeg did not die before he had forgotten all his studies, as it is said (Pr. 5, 23) He will indeed die for want of correction; and through the abundance of his folly will he sink into error." R. Jochanan said: "Three angels of destruction attended Doeg; one who caused him to forget his study, and one who burned his soul, and the third who scattered his ashes in the houses of prayer and study." R. Jochanan said further: "Doeg and Achitophel did not see each other, as Doeg was in the days of Saul and Achitophel in the days of David." R. Jochanan said further: "Both Doeg and Achitophel have not lived half of their days." We are also taught so in the following Baraitha: All the years of Doeg were only thirty-four, and those of Achitophel, thirty-three.