21:1 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 man with you?
21:2 And 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 whereabout I send you, and what I have commanded you: and I have arranged a meeting with 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 And 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 And 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 will their vessels be holy?
21:6 So the priest gave him holy [bread]; for there was no bread there but the showbread, 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 slaves of Saul was there that day, detained before Yahweh; and his name was Doeg the Edomite, the chiefest of the herdsmen who belonged to Saul.
21:8 And David said to Ahimelech, And is there not here under your hand spear or sword? For I have neither brought my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king's business was urgent.
21:9 And the priest said, The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you slew in the valley of Elah, look, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod: if you will take that, take it; for there is no other but that here. And David said, There is none like that; give it to me.
21:10 And David arose, and fled that day for fear of Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath.
21:11 And the slaves of Achish said to him, Isn't this David the king of the land? Didn't they sing one to another of him in dances, saying, Saul has slain his thousands, And David his ten thousands?
21:12 And David laid up these words in his heart, and was very afraid of Achish the king of Gath.
21:13 And he changed his behavior before them, and feigned himself insane in their hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down on his beard.
21:14 Then Achish said to his slaves, Look, you+ see the man is insane; why then have you+ brought him to me?
21:15 Do I lack lunatics, that you+ have brought this fellow to play the lunatic in my presence? Will this fellow come into my house?