1 Samuel 21:1-22:8

New American Standard Bible

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)No one is to 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 then, 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)Be assured, women have been denied to us as previously when I left and the ^[d](G)bodies of the young men were consecrated, though it was an ordinary journey; how much more then will ^[e]their bodies be consecrated today?” ⁶ So ^(H)the priest gave him consecrated bread; for there was no bread there except the ^(I)bread of the Presence which was removed from its place before the Lord, in order to put hot bread in its place on the day 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 no spear or sword ^[f]on hand? For I brought neither my sword nor my weapons ^[g]with me, because the king’s matter was urgent.” ⁹ Then the priest said, “^(L)The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you ^[h]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 set out 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 ^[i]to heart and greatly feared Achish king of Gath. ¹³ So he ^(R)disguised his sanity while in their sight and acted insanely in their ^[j]custody, and he scribbled on the doors of the gate, and drooled on his beard. ¹⁴ Then Achish said to his servants, “Look, you see the man is behaving like an insane person. Why do you bring him to me? ¹⁵ Do I lack insane people, that you have brought this one to behave like an insane person in my presence? Shall this one come into my house?”

Priests Killed at Nob

22 So David departed from there and ^(S)escaped to ^(T)the cave of Adullam; and when his brothers and all his father’s household heard about it, they went down there to him. ² Then everyone who was in distress, and everyone who ^[k]was in debt, and everyone who was ^[l]discontented gathered to him; and he became captain over them. Now there were ^(U)about four hundred men with him.

³ And David went from there to Mizpah of Moab; and he said to the king of Moab, “Please let my father and my mother come and stay with you until I know what God will do for me.” ⁴ Then he ^[m]left them with the king of Moab; and they stayed with him all the time that David was in the stronghold. ⁵ But ^(V)Gad the prophet said to David, “Do not stay in the stronghold; leave, and go into the land of Judah.” So David left and went into the forest of Hereth.

⁶ Then Saul heard that David and the men who were with him had been discovered. Now ^(W)Saul was in Gibeah, sitting under the tamarisk tree on the height with his spear in his hand, and all his servants were standing in front of him. ⁷ Saul said to his servants who were standing in front of him, “Hear now, you Benjaminites! Will the son of Jesse really give all of you fields and vineyards? ^(X)Will he make you all commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds? ⁸ For all of you have conspired against me so that there is no one who ^[n]informs me ^(Y)when my son makes a covenant with the son of Jesse, and there is none of you ^(Z)who cares about me or ^[o]informs me that my son has stirred up my servant against me to lie in ambush, as it is this day.”