1 Samuel 21
21
David and the Holy Bread
1 # 21:1 Ch 21:2 in Hebrew Then David came to #ch. 22:9, 11, 19; Neh. 11:32; Isa. 10:32 Nob, to #[ch. 14:3; Mark 2:26] Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech #[ch. 16:4]came to meet David, trembling, and said to him, “Why are you alone, and no one with you?” 2And David said to Ahimelech the priest, “The king has charged me with a matter and said to me, ‘Let no one know anything of the matter about which I send you, and with which I have charged you.’ I have made an appointment with the young men for such and such a place. 3Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever is here.” 4And the priest answered David, “I have no common bread on hand, but there is #Ex. 25:30; Lev. 24:5; Matt. 12:3, 4; Mark 2:25, 26; Luke 6:3, 4 holy bread—#Ex. 19:15if the young men have kept themselves from women.” 5And David answered the priest, “Truly women have been kept from us as always when I go on an expedition. The vessels of the young men are holy even when it is an ordinary journey. How much more today will their vessels be holy?” 6So the priest gave him #[See ver. 4 above] the holy bread, for there was no bread there but the bread of the Presence, #Lev. 24:8, 9which is removed from before the Lord, to be replaced by hot bread on the day it is taken away.
7Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord. His name was #ch. 22:9; See Ps. 52Doeg the Edomite, the chief of Saul’s herdsmen.
8Then David said to Ahimelech, “Then have you not here a spear or a sword at hand? For I have brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king’s business required haste.” 9And the priest said, #ch. 17:51 “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you struck down in #ch. 17:2the Valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you will take that, take it, for there is none but that here.” And David said, “There is none like that; give it to me.”
David Flees to Gath
10And David rose and fled that day from Saul and went to #See Ps. 34Achish the king of Gath. 11And the servants of Achish said to him, “Is not this David the king of the land? #ch. 18:7; 29:5Did they not sing to one another of him in dances,
‘Saul has struck down his thousands,
and David his ten thousands’?”
12And David #[Luke 2:19]took these words to heart and was much afraid of Achish the king of Gath. 13So he changed his behavior before them and pretended to be insane in their hands and made marks on the doors of the gate and let his spittle run down his beard. 14Then Achish said to his servants, “Behold, you see the man is mad. Why then have you brought him to me? 15Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this fellow to behave as a madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?”
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1 Samuel 21: ESV
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The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
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1 Samuel 21
21
1And David cometh in to Nob, unto Ahimelech the priest, and Ahimelech trembleth at meeting David, and saith to him, ‘Wherefore [art] thou thyself alone, and no man with thee?’
2And David saith to Ahimelech the priest, ‘The king hath commanded me a matter, and he saith unto me, Let no man know anything of the matter about which I am sending thee, and which I have commanded thee; and the young men I have caused to know at such and such a place;
3and now, what is there under thy hand? five loaves give into my hand, or that which is found.’
4And the priest answereth David, and saith, ‘There is no common bread under my hand, but there is holy bread; if the youths have been kept only from women.’
5And David answereth the priest, and saith to him, ‘Surely, if women have been restrained from us as heretofore in my going out, then the vessels of the young men are holy, and it [is] a common way: and also, surely to-day it is sanctified in the vessel.’
6And the priest giveth to him the holy thing, for there was no bread there except the bread of the Presence which is turned aside from the presence of Jehovah to put hot bread in the day of its being taken away.
7And there [is] a man of the servants of Saul on that day detained before Jehovah, and his name [is] Doeg the Edomite, chief of the shepherds whom Saul hath.
8And David saith to Ahimelech, ‘And is there not here under thy hand spear or sword? for neither my sword nor my vessels have I taken in my hand, for the matter of the king was urgent.’
9And the priest saith, ‘The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom thou didst smite in the valley of Elah, lo, it is wrapped in a garment behind the ephod, if it thou dost take to thyself, take; for there is none other save it in this [place].’ And David saith, ‘There is none like it — give it to me.’
10And David riseth and fleeth on that day from the face of Saul, and cometh in unto Achish king of Gath;
11and the servants of Achish say unto him, ‘Is not this David king of the land? is it not of this one they sing in dances, saying, ‘Saul smote among his thousands, and David among his myriads?’
12And David layeth these words in his heart, and is exceedingly afraid of the face of Achish king of Gath,
13and changeth his behaviour before their eyes, and feigneth himself mad in their hand, and scribbleth on the doors of the gate, and letteth down his spittle unto his beard.
14And Achish saith unto his servants, ‘Lo, ye see a man acting as a madman; why do ye bring him in unto me?
15A lack of madmen [have] I, that ye have brought in this one to act as a madman by me! doth this one come in unto my house?’
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