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The priest said to David, “I don’t have any plain bread here, but I do have some holy bread.[a] You may eat it if your men have kept themselves from women.”

David answered, “No women have been near us for days. My men always keep themselves holy, even when we do ordinary work. And this is especially true when the work is holy.”

So the priest gave David the holy bread from the presence of God because there was no other. Each day the holy bread was replaced with hot bread.

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Footnotes

  1. 21:4 holy bread This was the bread that showed the people were in the presence of God. Normally only the priests ate this bread.

But the priest answered David, “I don’t have any ordinary bread(A) on hand; however, there is some consecrated(B) bread here—provided the men have kept(C) themselves from women.”

David replied, “Indeed women have been kept from us, as usual(D) whenever[a] I set out. The men’s bodies are holy(E) even on missions that are not holy. How much more so today!” So the priest gave him the consecrated bread,(F) 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.

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Footnotes

  1. 1 Samuel 21:5 Or from us in the past few days since

And the priest answered David, and said, There is no common bread under mine hand, but there is hallowed bread; if the young men have kept themselves at least from women.

And David answered the priest, and said unto him, Of a truth women have been kept from us about these three days, since I came out, and the vessels of the young men are holy, and the bread is in a manner common, yea, though it were sanctified this day in the vessel.

So the priest gave him hallowed bread: for there was no bread there but the shewbread, that was taken from before the Lord, to put hot bread in the day when it was taken away.

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