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?

21:2 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 about which I send you, and what I have commanded you: and I have appointed the young men to such and such a place.

21:3 Now therefore what is under your hand? give me five loaves of bread in my hand, or whatever there is present.

21:4 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.

21:5 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 today shall their vessels be holy?

21:6 So the priest gave him holy [bread]; for there was no bread there but the show bread, that was taken from before Yahweh, to put hot bread in the day when it was taken away.

21:7 Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before Yahweh; and his name was Doeg the Edomite, the best of the herdsmen who belonged to Saul.

21:8 David said to Ahimelech, Isn`t there 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.

21:9 The priest said, The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed 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 except that here. David said, There is none like that; give it me.

21:10 David arose, and fled that day for fear of Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath.

21:11 The servants of Achish said to him, "Isn`t this David the king of the land? Didn`t they sing one to another about him in dances, saying, `Saul has slain his thousands, David his ten thousands?`"

21:12 David laid up these words in his heart, and was very afraid of Achish the king of Gath.

21:13 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 on his beard.

21:14 Then said Achish to his servants, Look, you see the man is mad; why then have you brought him to me?