1 Samuel 21
21
David Runs from Saul
1 # 21:1 Verses 21:1-15 are numbered 21:2-16 in Hebrew text. David went to the town of Nob to see Ahimelech the priest. Ahimelech trembled when he saw him. “Why are you alone?” he asked. “Why is no one with you?”
2“The king has sent me on a private matter,” David said. “He told me not to tell anyone why I am here. I have told my men where to meet me later. 3Now, what is there to eat? Give me five loaves of bread or anything else you have.”
4“We don’t have any regular bread,” the priest replied. “But there is the holy bread, which you can have if your young men have not slept with any women recently.”
5“Don’t worry,” David replied. “I never allow my men to be with women when we are on a campaign. And since they stay clean even on ordinary trips, how much more on this one!”
6Since there was no other food available, the priest gave him the holy bread—the Bread of the Presence that was placed before the Lord in the Tabernacle. It had just been replaced that day with fresh bread.
7Now Doeg the Edomite, Saul’s chief herdsman, was there that day, having been detained before the Lord.#21:7 The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.
8David asked Ahimelech, “Do you have a spear or sword? The king’s business was so urgent that I didn’t even have time to grab a weapon!”
9“I only have the sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the valley of Elah,” the priest replied. “It is wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. Take that if you want it, for there is nothing else here.”
“There is nothing like it!” David replied. “Give it to me!”
10So David escaped from Saul and went to King Achish of Gath. 11But the officers of Achish were unhappy about his being there. “Isn’t this David, the king of the land?” they asked. “Isn’t he the one the people honor with dances, singing,
‘Saul has killed his thousands,
and David his ten thousands’?”
12David heard these comments and was very afraid of what King Achish of Gath might do to him. 13So he pretended to be insane, scratching on doors and drooling down his beard.
14Finally, King Achish said to his men, “Must you bring me a madman? 15We already have enough of them around here! Why should I let someone like this be my guest?”
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1 Samuel 21: NLT
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1 Samuel 21
21
David at Nob
1#1Sa 16:4; Ne 11:32Then David came to Nob to Ahimelek the priest. And Ahimelek trembled coming to meet David and said to him, “Why are you alone and no man is with you?”
2And David said to Ahimelek the priest, “The king commanded me a matter and said to me, ‘Let no man know anything of the business which I am sending you and what I have commanded you.’ But to the young men I made known a certain place to meet. 3Now therefore what is in your hand? Give me five loaves of bread in my hand, or whatever can be found.”
4#Ex 19:15; 25:30The priest answered David and said, “There is no common bread at hand. But there is holy bread, if the young men have indeed been kept from women.”
5David answered the priest and said to him, “Indeed women have been kept from us. As previously, when I went out the vessels of the young men were holy even if it was an ordinary journey. How much more then today will their vessels be holy?” 6#Mt 12:3–4; Lk 6:3–4So the priest gave him holy bread. For there was no bread there but the showbread that was removed from before the Lord, in order to place hot bread there on the day when it was taken away.
7#1Sa 22:9; 1Ch 27:29Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord. And his name was Doeg, the Edomite, chief of the shepherds of Saul.
8David said to Ahimelek, “Is there not a spear or a sword here at hand? For neither my sword nor my weapons did I bring with me, because the king’s business was urgent.”
9#1Sa 17:2The 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 that, take it. For there is none other but that here.”
And David said, “There is none like it. Give it me.”
David Flees to Gath
10David arose and fled that day from Saul. And he went to Achish the king of Gath. 11#1Sa 29:5The servants of Achish said to him, “Is this not David the king of the land? Did they not sing with dances for him, saying,
‘Saul has slain his thousands,
and David his ten thousands’? ”
12#Lk 2:19And David took these words to heart and greatly feared Achish the king of Gath. 13Therefore he changed his behavior before them and pretended to be insane in their hands. And he scratched on the doors of the gate and let his spittle run down his beard.
14Then said Achish to his servants, “You see the man is acting like a madman. Why then have you brought him to me? 15Am I one who lacks lunatics, that you brought this one to behave as a madman in my presence? Will this man come into my house?”
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