1 Samuel 21
21
1David went to the town of Nob to see Ahimelech the priest. Ahimelech was trembling in fear when he met him, and he asked, “Why are you here alone? Why isn't there anybody with you?”
2“The king has given me an assignment,” David replied. “He told me ‘Nobody must know anything about the assignment I have sent you to do.’ As for my men, I've told them where to meet me. 3So what do you have on hand to eat? Let me have five loaves of bread, or whatever you can find.”
4“There's no ordinary bread,” the priest told David, “but there's some holy bread, as long as your men have not slept with any women lately.”
5“We have not slept with any women,” David answered. “In fact that's the rule when I lead the troops on mission. They keep themselves pure even during ordinary missions, and all the more so right now.”
6So the priest gave him the holy bread as they didn't have any other bread there except this “Bread of the Presence,” which had been removed from the presence of the Lord#21:6. In other words removed from the Tent of Meeting. that day and replaced with fresh bread.
7One of Saul's servants happened to be there that day, trying to make himself right#21:7. “Make himself right”: literally “detained.” It appears Doeg was offering a sacrifice for some sin he had committed and that the priest Ahimelech was aware of. This seems to be one reason Doeg informed on David (22:9) and executed Saul's command to kill Ahimelech and the other priests. with the Lord. He was Doeg the Edomite, Saul's chief shepherd.
8“Have you got a spear or sword here?” David asked Ahimelech. “I didn't bring my sword or any of my weapons with me, because what the king needed me to do was urgent.”
9The priest replied, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine is here—the one you killed in the Valley of Elah. It's wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. You can take it if you want. It's the only one here.”
“It's better than any other sword! Please give it to me,” David replied.
10David ran away from Saul that day and went to Achish, king of Gath.#21:10. Gath was a Philistine town.
11But Achish's officials asked the king, “Isn't this David, the king of that country? Didn't they sing about him in their dances, ‘Saul has killed his thousands, and David his tens of thousands’?”
12David listened carefully to what they said and this made him very afraid of Achish, the king of Gath. 13So he changed the way he acted toward them and pretended to be crazy. He scratched marks on the town gates and let his spit run down his beard. 14Achish told his officials, “Look, you can see the man is completely mad! Why did you bring him to me? 15Is it because I need more mad people that you've brought this man to go crazy right in front of me? Do you think I'm going to let him come into my house?”
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1 Samuel 21: FBV
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Dr. Jonathan Gallagher. Released under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Unported License. Version 4.3. For corrections send email to jonathangallagherfbv@gmail.com
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.