1 Samuel 21
21
David at Nob
# In Hebrew texts 21:1-15 is numbered 21:2-16. 1David went to Nob, to Ahimelek the priest. Ahimelek trembled when he met him, and asked, ‘Why are you alone? Why is no-one with you?’
2David answered Ahimelek the priest, ‘The king sent me on a mission and said to me, “No-one is to know anything about the mission I am sending you on.” As for my men, I have told them to meet me at a certain place. 3Now then, what have you to hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever you can find.’
4But the priest answered David, ‘I don’t have any ordinary bread to hand; however, there is some consecrated bread here – provided the men have kept themselves from women.’
5David replied, ‘Indeed women have been kept from us, as usual whenever#21:5 Or from us in the past few days since I set out. The men’s bodies are holy even on missions that are not holy. How much more so today!’ 6So 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.
7Now one of Saul’s servants was there that day, detained before the Lord; he was Doeg the Edomite, 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, because the king’s mission was urgent.’
9The 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.’
David at Gath
10That day David fled from Saul and went to Achish king of Gath. 11But 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”?’
12David took these words to heart and was very much afraid of Achish king of Gath. 13So he feigned insanity 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.
14Achish said to his servants, ‘Look at the man! He is insane! Why bring him to me? 15Am 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?’
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1 Samuel 21: NIVUK
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The Holy Bible, New International Version® (Anglicised), NIV®
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1 Kings 21
21
1And David came to Nobe to Achimelech the priest: and Achimelech was astonished at David's coming. And he said to him: Why art thou alone, and no man with thee?
2And David said to Achimelech the priest: The king hath commanded me a business, and said: Let no man know the thing for which thou art sent by me, and what manner of commands I have given thee. And I have appointed my servants to such and such a place.
3Now therefore if thou have any thing at hand, though it were but five loaves, give me, or whatsoever thou canst find.
4And the priest answered David, saying: I have no common bread at hand, but only holy bread, if the young men be clean, especially from women?
5And David answered the priest, and said to him: Truly, as to what concerneth women, we have refrained ourselves from yesterday and the day before, when we came out, and the vessels of the young men were holy. Now this way is defiled: but it shall also be sanctified this day in the vessels.
6The priest therefore gave him hallowed bread: for there was no bread there, but only the loaves of proposition, which had been taken away from before the face of the Lord, that hot loaves might be set up.
7Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, within the tabernacle of the Lord: and his name was Doeg, an Edomite, the chiefest of Saul's herdsmen.
8And David said to Achimelech: Hast thou here at hand a spear, or a sword? for I brought not my own sword, nor my own weapons with me, for the king's business required haste.
9And the priest said: Lo, here is the sword of Goliath the Philistine whom thou slewest in the valley of Terebinth, wrapped up in a cloth behind the ephod. If thou wilt take this, take it: for here is no other but this. And David said: There is none like that. Give it me.
10And David arose and fled that day from the face of Saul: and came to Achis the king of Geth:
11And the servants of Achis, when they saw David, said to him: Is not this David the king of the land? Did they not sing to him in their dances, saying: Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands?
12But David laid up these words in his heart, and was exceedingly afraid at the face of Achis the king of Geth.
13And he changed his countenance before them, and slipt down between their hands. And he stumbled against the doors of the gate; and his spittle ran down upon his beard.
14And Achis said to his servants: You saw the man was mad. Why have you brought him to me?
15Have we need of madmen, that you have brought in this fellow, to play the madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?
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An historical text maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society.