² “The king ordered me to do something,” David answered the priest Ahimelech, “and he told me, ‘No one must know anything about this mission I’m sending you on and about the orders I’ve given you. I’ve stationed ^[a] my young men at a certain place.’ ” ³ ⌞David added,⌟ “Now, what do you have ⌞to eat⌟? Give me five loaves of bread or whatever you can find.”

⁴ “I don’t have any ordinary bread,” the chief priest answered David. “But there is holy bread for the young men if they haven’t had sexual intercourse ⌞today⌟.”