² So David said to Ahimelech the priest, “The king has ordered me on some business, and said to me, ‘Do not let anyone know anything about the business on which I send you, or what I have commanded you.’ And I have directed my young men to such and such a place. ³ Now therefore, what have you on hand? Give me five loaves of bread in my hand, or whatever can be found.”

⁴ And the priest answered David and said, “There is no ^[a]common bread on hand; but there is ^(A)holy^[b] bread, ^(B)if the young men have at least kept themselves from women.”

⁵ Then David answered the priest, and said to him, “Truly, women have been kept from us about three days since I came out. And ^[c]the ^(C)vessels of the young men are holy, and the bread is in effect common, even though it was consecrated ^(D)in the vessel this day.”

⁶ So the priest ^(E)gave him holy bread; for there was no bread there but the showbread ^(F)which had been taken from before the Lord, in order to put hot bread in its place on the day when it was taken away.

⁷ Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord. And his name was ^(G)Doeg, an Edomite, the chief of the herdsmen who belonged to Saul.