1SAM 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?
1SAM 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.
1SAM 21:3 Now therefore what is under your hand? give me five loaves of bread in my hand, or whatever there is present.
1SAM 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.
1SAM 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?
1SAM 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.
1SAM 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.
1SAM 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.
1SAM 21:9 The priest said, The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the valley 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 to me.
1SAM 21:10 David arose, and fled that day for fear of Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath.
1SAM 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?'"
1SAM 21:12 David laid up these words in his heart, and was very afraid of Achish the king of Gath.
1SAM 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.
1SAM 21:14 Then said Achish to his servants, Look, you see the man is mad; why then have you brought him to me?
1SAM 21:15 Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence? shall this fellow come into my house?