1 Samuel 21
21
David at Nob
1David went to Ahimelek the priest at Nob. Ahimelek trembled with fear when he met him. He asked David, “Why are you alone? Why isn’t anyone with you?”
2David answered Ahimelek the priest, “The king gave me a special job to do. He said to me, ‘I don’t want anyone to know what I’m sending you to do. So don’t say anything about it.’ I’ve told my men to meet me at a certain place. 3Do you have anything for us to eat? Give me five loaves of bread, or anything else you can find.”
4But the priest answered David, “I don’t have any bread that isn’t holy. I only have some holy bread here. But it’s for men who haven’t slept with women recently.”
5David replied, “Well, we haven’t slept with women recently. That’s the way it is every time I lead my men out to battle. We keep ourselves holy even when we do jobs that aren’t holy. And that’s even more true today.” 6So the priest gave him the holy bread. It was the only bread he had. It had been removed from the table that was in front of the Lord. On the same day, hot bread had been put in its place.
7One of Saul’s servants was there that day. He had been made to stay at the holy tent for a while. He was Doeg from Edom. Doeg was Saul’s chief shepherd.
8David asked Ahimelek, “Don’t you have a spear or sword here? I haven’t brought my sword or any other weapon. That’s because the job the king gave me to do had to be done right away.”
9The priest replied, “The sword of Goliath, the Philistine, is here. You killed him in the Valley of Elah. His sword is wrapped in a cloth. It’s behind the sacred linen apron. If you want it, take it. It’s the only sword here.”
David said, “There isn’t any sword like it. Give it to me.”
David at Gath
10That day David ran away from Saul. He went to Achish, the king of Gath. 11But the servants of Achish spoke to him. They said, “Isn’t this David, the king of the land? Isn’t he the one the Israelites sing about when they dance? They sing,
“ ‘Saul has killed thousands of men.
David has killed tens of thousands.’ ”
12David paid close attention to what the servants were saying. He became very much afraid of what Achish, the king of Gath, might do. 13So he pretended to be out of his mind when he was with them. As long as he was in Gath, he acted like a crazy person. He made marks on the doors of the city gate. He let spit run down his beard.
14Achish said to his servants, “Just look at the man! He’s out of his mind! Why are you bringing him to me? 15Don’t I have enough crazy people around me already? So why do you have to bring this fellow here? Just look at how he’s carrying on in front of me! Why do you have to bring this man into my house?”
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1 Samuel 21: NIrV
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1 Samuel 21
21
1 Then David came to Nob to Ahimelech the priest. Ahimelech came to meet David trembling, and said to him, “Why are you alone, and no man with you?” 2David said to Ahimelech the priest, “The king has commanded me to do something, and has said to me, ‘Let no one know anything about the business about which I send you, and what I have commanded you. I have sent the young men to a certain place.’ 3Now therefore what is under your hand? Please give me five loaves of bread in my hand, or whatever is available.”
4 The priest answered David, and said, “I have no common bread, but there is holy bread; if only the young men have kept themselves from women.”
5 David answered the priest, and said to him, “Truly, women have been kept from us as usual these three days. When I came out, the vessels of the young men were holy, though it was only a common journey. How much more then today shall their vessels be holy?” 6So the priest gave him holy bread; for there was no bread there but the show bread that was taken from before the LORD, to be replaced with hot bread in 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 Doeg the Edomite, the best of the herdsmen who belonged to Saul.
8 David said to Ahimelech, “Isn’t there here under your hand spear or sword? For I haven’t brought my sword or my weapons with me, because the king’s business required haste.”
9 The priest said, “Behold, the sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the valley of Elah, is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you would like to take that, take it, for there is no other except that here.”
David said, “There is none like that. Give it to me.”
10 David arose and fled that day for fear of Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath. 11The servants of Achish said to him, “Isn’t this David the king of the land? Didn’t they sing to one another about him in dances, saying,
‘Saul has slain his thousands,
and David his ten thousands’?”
12 David laid up these words in his heart, and was very afraid of Achish the king of Gath. 13He changed his behaviour before them and pretended to be insane in their hands, and scribbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down on his beard. 14Then Achish said to his servants, “Look, you see the man is insane. Why then have you brought him to me? 15Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence? Should this fellow come into my house?”
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