1 Samuel

21 And David came to Nob, to Priest Ahimelec; and Ahimelec came in alarm to meet David, and said to him “How comes it you are alone and nobody with you?” 2 And David said to Priest Ahimelec “The king gave me an order and said to me ‘Let nobody know anything of the matter that I am sending you on and have given you orders for’; and I have made an appointment with my men for such and such a place. 3 And now what have you on hand? give me half a dozen cakes of bread in my hand, or whatever there is.” 4 And the priest answered David “I have no everyday bread, but sacred bread there is, if the men have only kept themselves from womankind.” 5* And David answered the priest “O, but we are barred from womankind as we used to be; when I left, the men’s things were in a sacred condition though it was everyday business they were on—how much more when today it is every way sacred!” 6* And the priest gave him sacred, because there was not any bread there except the showbread that had been removed from before Jehovah to put on hot bread on the day when it was taken. 7 And there was a man there that day who was one of Saul’s servants, detained before Jehovah; his name was Doeg the Edomite, the fighting man of Saul’s shepherds.

8 And David said to Ahimelec “And is there not in your hands here such a thing as a spear or a sword? because I did not take with me either my sword or my other things, since the king’s affair was urgent.” 9** And the priest said “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in Terebinth Vale—there is that, wrapped in a cloak behind the ephod; if you would take that for yourself, take it; for there is no other on these premises but that.” And David said “There is none like that; let me have it.”

10 And David rose and fled from Saul that day, and came to King Akish of Gath. 11 And Akish’s officers said to him “Why, this is David, the king of the country; the one of whom they sing in the dances ‘Saul has killed by the thousand, David by the ten-thousand.’” 12 And David took note of these words and became very much afraid of King Akish of Gath, 13* and pretended to them that his wits were unsettled, and drummed on the gates and let his saliva run down on his beard. 14* And Akish said to his officers “There, when you see an insane man, why do you bring him to me? 15 Am I short of lunatics, that you bring that fellow to play his insane tricks around me? is that creature to come into my house?”