21:1 David went to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. Ahimelech trembled when he met him, and asked, “Why are you alone? Why is no one with you?”
21:2 David answered Ahimelech the priest, “The king charged me with a certain matter and said to me, ‘No one is to know anything about your mission and your instructions.’ As for my men, I have told them to meet me at a certain place.
21:3 Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever you can find.”
21:4 But the priest answered David, “I don’t have any ordinary bread on hand; however, there is some consecrated bread here–provided the men have kept themselves from women.”
21:5 David replied, “Indeed women have been kept from us, as usual whenever I set out. The men’s things are holy even on missions that are not holy. How much more so today!”
21:6 So the priest gave him the consecrated bread, since there was no bread there except the bread of the Presence that had been removed from before the LORD and replaced by hot bread on the day it was taken away.
21:7 Now one of Saul’s servants was there that day, detained before the LORD; he was Doeg the Edomite, Saul’s head shepherd.
21:8 David asked Ahimelech, “Don’t you have a spear or a sword here? I haven’t brought my sword or any other weapon, because the king’s business was urgent.”
21:9 The priest replied, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the Valley of Elah, is here; it is wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you want it, take it; there is no sword here but that one.” David said, “There is none like it; give it to me.”
21:10 That day David fled from Saul and went to Achish king of Gath.
21:11 But the servants of Achish said to him, “Isn’t this David, the king of the land? Isn’t he the one they sing about in their dances: “‘Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands’?”
21:12 David took these words to heart and was very much afraid of Achish king of Gath.
21:13 So he pretended to be insane in their presence; and while he was in their hands he acted like a madman, making marks on the doors of the gate and letting saliva run down his beard.
21:14 Achish said to his servants, “Look at the man! He is insane! Why bring him to me?
21:15 Am I so short of madmen that you have to bring this fellow here to carry on like this in front of me? Must this man come into my house?”
21:1 And David went to Nob to Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech came trembling to meet David and said to him, Why are you alone, and no one with you?
21:2 And David said to Ahimelech the priest, The king has charged me with some matter, and he said to me, Let no man know anything about the matter that I have sent you on and charged you with. So I have made an appointment with my young men at such and such a place.
21:3 Now then what do you have on hand? Give five loaves of bread into my hand, or whatever there is to be found.
21:4 And the priest answered David and said, There is no common bread on hand; yet there is holy bread, but only if the young men have kept themselves from women.
21:5 And David answered the priest and said to him, Women have indeed been kept from us, as previously when I went forth; and the vessels of the young men were holy, even if it was a common journey. How much more then today will their vessels be holy!
21:6 So the priest gave him what was holy, for there was no bread there except the bread of the Presence, which was taken from before Jehovah, to be replaced by hot bread at the time it was taken.
21:7 Now one of Saul s servants was there that day, detained before Jehovah. His name was Doeg the Edomite, the chief of the shepherds that belonged to Saul.
21:8 And David said to Ahimelech, And is there not a spear or a sword here on hand? For I have brought neither my sword nor my equipment with me, for the king s matter was urgent.
21:9 And the priest said, The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you struck down in the valley of Elah, is here, wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you will take it, take it; for there is no other here but that one. And David said, There is none like it; give it to me.
21:10 Then David rose up and fled that day from before Saul, and he went to Achish the king of Gath.
21:11 But the servants of Achish said to him, Is this not David the king of the land? Is this not him of whom they sang to one another in dances, saying, Saul has struck down his thousands; / But David, his ten thousands?
21:12 And David took these words to heart and feared Achish the king of Gath greatly.
21:13 So he disguised his sanity in their sight and acted like a madman before them, and he made marks on the doors of the gate and let his spittle run down his beard.
21:14 And Achish said to his servants, Look, you see that the man is mad. Why have you brought him to me?
21:15 Do I lack madmen that you have brought this one to me to be a madman before me? Shall this one come into my house?