1 Samuel 21:1 - 21:9

David Takes Consecrated Bread

Then David came to Nob to Ahimelech the priest; and Ahimelech came trembling to meet David and said to him, “Why are you alone, and no one is with you?” 2 And David said to Ahimelech the priest, “The king has commanded me with a matter and has said to me, ‘Let no one know anything about the matter on which I am sending you and with which I have commanded you; and I have directed the young men to a certain place.’ 3 So now, what do you have on hand? Give five loaves of bread into my hand, or whatever can be found.” 4 And the priest answered David and said, “There is no ordinary bread on hand, but there is consecrated bread; if only the young men have kept themselves from women.” 5 And David answered the priest and said to him, “Surely women have been kept from us as previously when I set out and the vessels of the young men were holy, though it was an ordinary journey; how much more then today will their vessels be holy?” 6 So the priest gave him consecrated bread; for there was no bread there but the bread of the Presence which was removed from before Yahweh, in order to put hot bread in its place when it was taken away. 7 Now one of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before Yahweh; and his name was Doeg the Edomite, the chief of Saul’s shepherds. 8 And David said to Ahimelech, “Now is there not a spear or a sword on hand? For I brought neither my sword nor my weapons in my hand because the king’s matter was urgent.” 9 Then the priest said, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you struck down in the valley of Elah, behold, it is wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod; if you would take it for yourself, take it. For there is no other except it here.” And David said, “There is none like it; give it to me.”

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