David Takes Consecrated Bread

21 Then David came to ^(A)Nob to Ahimelech the priest; and Ahimelech ^(B)came trembling to meet David and said to him, “Why are you alone and no one with you?” ² David said to Ahimelech the priest, “The king has commissioned me with a matter and has said to me, ‘^(C)Let no one know anything about the matter on which I am sending you and with which I have commissioned you; and I have directed the young men to a certain place.’ ³ Now therefore, what ^[a]do you have on hand? Give ^[b]me five loaves of bread, or whatever can be found.” ⁴ The priest answered David and said, “There is no ordinary bread ^[c]on hand, but there is ^(D)consecrated bread; if only the young men have ^(E)kept themselves from women.” ⁵ David answered the priest and said to him, “^(F)Surely women have been kept from us as previously when I set out and the ^(G)vessels of the young men were holy, though it was an ordinary journey; how much more then today will ^[d]their vessels be holy?” ⁶ So ^(H)the priest gave him consecrated bread; for there was no bread there but the ^(I)bread of the Presence which was removed from before the Lord, in order to put hot bread in its place when it was taken away.

⁷ Now one of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord; and his name was ^(J)Doeg the Edomite, the ^(K)chief of Saul’s shepherds.

⁸ David said to Ahimelech, “Now is there not a spear or a sword ^[e]on hand? For I brought neither my sword nor my weapons ^[f]with me, because the king’s matter was urgent.” ⁹ Then the priest said, “^(L)The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you ^[g]killed ^(M)in the valley of Elah, behold, it is wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod; if you would take it for yourself, take it. For there is no other except it here.” And David said, “There is none like it; give it to me.”

¹⁰ Then David arose and fled that day from Saul, and went to ^(N)Achish king of Gath. ¹¹ But the ^(O)servants of Achish said to him, “Is this not David the king of the land? ^(P)Did they not sing of this one as they danced, saying,

¹² David ^(Q)took these words ^[h]to heart and greatly feared Achish king of Gath. ¹³ So he ^(R)disguised his sanity before them, and acted insanely in their hands, and scribbled on the doors of the gate, and let his saliva run down into his beard. ¹⁴ Then Achish said to his servants, “Behold, you see the man behaving as a madman. Why do you bring him to me? ¹⁵ Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this one to act the madman in my presence? Shall this one come into my house?”