1 SAMUEL 21



1S 21:1And David went to Nob to Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech came trembling to meet David and said to him, Why are you alone, and no one with you?

1S 21:2And David said to Ahimelech the priest, The king has charged me with some matter, and he said to me, Let no man know anything about the matter that I have sent you on and charged you with. So I have made an appointment with my young men at such and such a place.

1S 21:3Now then what do you have on hand? Give five loaves of bread into my hand, or whatever there is to be found.

1S 21:4And the priest answered David and said, There is no common bread on hand; yet there is holy bread, but only if the young men have kept themselves from women.

1S 21:5And David answered the priest and said to him, Women have indeed been kept from us, as previously when I went forth; and the vessels of the young men were holy, even if it was a common journey. How much more then today will their vessels be holy!

1S 21:6So the priest gave him what was holy, for there was no bread there except the bread of the Presence, which was taken from before Jehovah, to be replaced by hot bread at the time it was taken.

1S 21:7Now one of Saul’s servants was there that day, detained before Jehovah. His name was Doeg the Edomite, the chief of the shepherds that belonged to Saul.

1S 21:8And David said to Ahimelech, And is there not a spear or a sword here on hand? For I have brought neither my sword nor my equipment with me, for the king’s matter was urgent.

1S 21:9And the priest said, The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you struck down in the valley of Elah, is here, wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you will take it, take it; for there is no other here but that one. And David said, There is none like it; give it to me.

1S 21:10Then David rose up and fled that day from before Saul, and he went to Achish the king of Gath.

1S 21:11But the servants of Achish said to him, Is this not David the king of the land? Is this not him of whom they sang to one another in dances, saying,
Saul has struck down his thousands; / But David, his ten thousands?

1S 21:12And David took these words to heart and feared Achish the king of Gath greatly.

1S 21:13So he disguised his sanity in their sight and acted like a madman before them, and he made marks on the doors of the gate and let his spittle run down his beard.

1S 21:14And Achish said to his servants, Look, you see that the man is mad. Why have you brought him to me?

1S 21:15Do I lack madmen that you have brought this one to me to be a madman before me? Shall this one come into my house?

1 Samuel 20 1 Samuel 22

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