CHAPTER 21
Then David
came
to Nob,
to
Ahimelech
the priest.
And when Ahimelech
met
David,
he trembled
and asked
him,
“Why are
you
alone?
Why is
no one
with you?”
“The king
has ordered me
on some business,”
David
replied.
“He told
me
no one
is to know
about
the mission
or
instructions.
And
I have directed
my young men
to meet me
at a certain place.
“There is no
common
bread
on
hand,”
the priest
replied,
“but
there is some
consecrated
bread—
provided that
the young men
have kept themselves
from women.”
David
answered,
“Women have
indeed
been kept
from us,
as usual
when I set out.
And
the equipment
of the young men
is holy,
as it is
even on common
missions,
and all the more
at
this time.”
So the priest
gave
him
the consecrated bread,
since
there was
no
bread
there
but
the bread of the Presence,
which had been removed
from before
the LORD
and replaced with
hot
bread
on the day
it was taken away.
Now one
of Saul's
servants
was there
that
day,
detained
before
the LORD.
And his name was
Doeg
the Edomite,
the chief
shepherd
for
Saul.
Then David
asked
Ahimelech,
“Is there
not
a spear
or
sword
on
hand
here?
For
I have brought
neither
my sword
nor
my weapons
with me,
because
the king's
business
was
urgent."
The priest
replied,
“The sword
of Goliath
the Philistine,
whom
you killed
in the Valley
of Elah,
is here;
it is
wrapped
in a cloth
behind
the ephod.
If
you want,
you may take.
For
there is no
other
but this one."
And David
said,
“There is none
like it;
give it
to me."
But the servants
of Achish
said
to him,
“Is this
not
David,
the king
of the land?
Did they not
sing
about him
in their dances,
saying:
‘Saul
has slain
his thousands,
and David
his tens of thousands’?”
So he changed
his behavior
before them
and feigned madness
in their hands;
he scratched
on
the doors
of the gate
and let his saliva run down
his beard.
Then Achish
said
to
his servants,
“Look,
you can see
the man
is insane!
Why
have you brought
him
to me?
Am I
in need of
madmen,
that
you have brought
this man
to rave
in my presence?
Must this man
come
into
my house?”