1Sam 21
1
Then came David to Nob to Ahimelech the priest: and Ahimelech came to meet David trembling,
and said to him, Why are you alone, and no man with you?
2
And David said to Ahimelech the priest, The king has commanded me a business, and
has said to me, Let no man know anything of the business whereabout I send you, and
what I have commanded you: and I have appointed the young men to such and such a place.
3
Now therefore what is under your hand? give me five loaves of bread in my hand, or
whatever there is present.
4
And the priest answered David, and said, There is no common bread under my hand, but
there is holy bread; if only the young men have kept themselves from women.
5
And David answered the priest, and said to him, Of a truth women have been kept from
us about these three days; when I came out, the vessels of the young men were holy,
though it was but a common journey; how much more then to-day shall their vessels
be holy?
6
So the priest gave him holy [bread]; for there was no bread there but the showbread,
that was taken from before YHWH, to put hot bread in the day when it was taken away.
7
Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before YHWH;
and his name was Doeg the Edomite, the chiefest of the herdsmen that belonged to Saul.
8
And David said to Ahimelech, And is there not here under your hand spear or sword?
for I have neither brought my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king`s business
required haste.
9
And the priest said, The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you slew in the vale
of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod: if you will take
that, take it; for there is no other save that here. And David said, There is none
like that; give it me.
10
And David arose, and fled that day for fear of Saul, and went to Achish the king of
Gath.
11
And the servants of Achish said to him, Is not this David the king of the land? did
they not sing one to another of him in dances, saying, Saul has slain his thousands,
And David his ten thousands?
12
And David laid up these words in his heart, and was sore afraid of Achish the king
of Gath.
13
And he changed his behavior before them, and feigned himself mad in their hands, and
scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down upon his beard.
14
Then said Achish to his servants, Behold, you see the man is mad; wherefore then have
you brought him to me?
15
Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence?
shall this fellow come into my house?