1.Samuel 21,11 | New International Reader’s Version

David at Nob

1 David went to Ahimelek the priest at Nob. Ahimelek trembled with fear when he met him. He asked David, ‘Why are you alone? Why isn’t anyone with you?’ 2 David answered Ahimelek the priest, ‘The king gave me a special job to do. He said to me, “I don’t want anyone to know what I’m sending you to do. So don’t say anything about it.” I’ve told my men to meet me at a certain place. 3 Do you have anything for us to eat? Give me five loaves of bread, or anything else you can find.’ 4 But the priest answered David, ‘I don’t have any bread that isn’t holy. I only have some holy bread here. But it’s for men who haven’t slept with women recently.’ 5 David replied, ‘Well, we haven’t slept with women recently. That’s the way it is every time I lead my men out to battle. We keep ourselves holy even when we do jobs that aren’t holy. And that’s even more true today.’ 6 So the priest gave him the holy bread. It was the only bread he had. It had been removed from the table that was in front of the LORD. On the same day, hot bread had been put in its place. 7 One of Saul’s servants was there that day. He had been made to stay at the holy tent for a while. He was Doeg from Edom. Doeg was Saul’s chief shepherd. 8 David asked Ahimelek, ‘Don’t you have a spear or sword here? I haven’t brought my sword or any other weapon. That’s because the job the king gave me to do had to be done right away.’ 9 The priest replied, ‘The sword of Goliath, the Philistine, is here. You killed him in the Valley of Elah. His sword is wrapped in a cloth. It’s behind the sacred linen apron. If you want it, take it. It’s the only sword here.’ David said, ‘There isn’t any sword like it. Give it to me.’

David at Gath

10 That day David ran away from Saul. He went to Achish, the king of Gath. 11 But the servants of Achish spoke to him. They said, ‘Isn’t this David, the king of the land? Isn’t he the one the Israelites sing about when they dance? They sing, ‘ “Saul has killed thousands of men. David has killed tens of thousands.” ’ 12 David paid close attention to what the servants were saying. He became very much afraid of what Achish, the king of Gath, might do. 13 So he pretended to be out of his mind when he was with them. As long as he was in Gath, he acted like a crazy person. He made marks on the doors of the city gate. He let spit run down his beard. 14 Achish said to his servants, ‘Just look at the man! He’s out of his mind! Why are you bringing him to me? 15 Don’t I have enough crazy people around me already? So why do you have to bring this fellow here? Just look at how he’s carrying on in front of me! Why do you have to bring this man into my house?’

English Standard Version

David and the Holy Bread

1 * Then David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech came to meet David, trembling, and said to him, “Why are you alone, and no one with you?” 2 And David said to Ahimelech the priest, “The king has charged me with a matter and said to me, ‘Let no one know anything of the matter about which I send you, and with which I have charged you.’ I have made an appointment with the young men for such and such a place. 3 Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever is here.” 4 And the priest answered David, “I have no common bread on hand, but there is holy bread—if the young men have kept themselves from women.” 5 And David answered the priest, “Truly women have been kept from us as always when I go on an expedition. The vessels of the young men are holy even when it is an ordinary journey. How much more today will their vessels be holy?” 6 So the priest gave him the holy bread, for there was no bread there but the bread of the Presence, which is removed from before the Lord, to be replaced by hot bread on the day it is taken away. 7 Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord. His name was Doeg the Edomite, the chief of Saul’s herdsmen. 8 Then David said to Ahimelech, “Then have you not here a spear or a sword at hand? For I have brought neither 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 struck down in the Valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you will take that, take it, for there is none but that here.” And David said, “There is none like that; give it to me.”

David Flees to Gath

10 And David rose and fled that day from 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 to one another of him in dances, ‘Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands’?” 12 And David took these words to heart and was much afraid of Achish the king of Gath. 13 So he changed his behavior before them and pretended to be insane in their hands and made marks on the doors of the gate and let his spittle run down his beard. 14 Then Achish said to his servants, “Behold, you see the man is mad. Why then have you brought him to me? 15 Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this fellow to behave as a madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?”

1.Samuel 21,11 | New International Reader’s Version English Standard Version

David at Nob

David at Gath

David and the Holy Bread

David Flees to Gath