1 Samuel 21
David and the Holy Bread
Now David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. And aAhimelech was bafraid when he met David, and said to him, “Why are you alone, and no one is with you?”
2 So David said to Ahimelech the priest, “The king has ordered me on some business, and said to me, ‘Do not let anyone know anything about the business on which I send you, or what I have commanded you.’ And I have directed my young men to such and such a place. 3 Now therefore, what have you on hand? Give me five loaves of bread in my hand, or whatever can be found.”
4 And the priest answered David and said, “There is no common bread on hand; but there is aholy bread, bif the young men have at least kept themselves from women.”
5 Then David answered the priest, and said to him, “Truly, women have been kept from us about three days since I came out. And the avessels of the young men are holy, and the bread is in effect common, even though it was consecrated bin the vessel this day.”
6 So the priest agave him holy bread; for there was no bread there but the showbread bwhich had been taken from before the Lord, in order to put hot bread in its place on the day when it was taken away.
7 Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord. And his name was aDoeg, an Edomite, the chief of the herdsmen who belonged to Saul.
8 And David said to Ahimelech, “Is there not here on hand a spear or a sword? For I have brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king’s business required haste.”
9 So the priest said, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in athe Valley of Elah, bthere it is, wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you will take that, take it. For there is no other except that one here.”
And David said, “There is none like it; give it to me.”
David Flees to Gath
10 Then David arose and fled that day from before Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath. 11 And athe servants of Achish said to him, “Is this not David the king of the land? Did they not sing of him to one another in dances, saying:
b‘Saul has slain his thousands,
And David his ten thousands’?”
12 Now David atook these words to heart, and was very much afraid of Achish the king of Gath. 13 So ahe changed his behavior before them, pretended madness in their hands, scratched on the doors of the gate, and let his saliva fall down on his beard. 14 Then Achish said to his servants, “Look, you see the man is insane. Why have you brought him to me? 15 Have I need of madmen, that you have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?” The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Copyright © 1982 Thomas Nelson.
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