Chapter 21
The Priest and the Holy Band. 1 David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. Ahimelech was afraid when he encountered David and he said to him, “Why are you alone? Why is no one with you?” 2 David said to Ahimelech the priest, “The king sent me on some business, and he said to me, ‘Do not let anyone know anything about this task on which I am sending you or what I commanded you to do.’ I have sent my young men to such and such a place. 3 Now, therefore, what do you have at hand? Give me five loaves of bread or whatever can be found.”
4 The priest answered David saying, “I do not have any regular bread at hand, but there is consecrated bread, if the young men have abstained from being with women.” 5 David answered the priest saying, “We have assuredly abstained from being with women these three days since I set out. The young men’s gear is consecrated even on missions that are not consecrated. How much more is their gear consecrated today.”
6 So the priest gave him the consecrated bread, because there was no other bread than the shewbread. The shewbread had been removed from before the Lord and taken away when it was replaced by the hot bread.[a]
7 One of Saul’s servants was there that day, detained before the Lord. His name was Doeg, the Edomite, and he was Saul’s chief shepherd.
Goliath’s Sword. 8 David asked Ahimelech, “Do you have a spear or a sword at hand? I did not bring either my sword nor any other weapon because the king’s mission had to be done in haste.” 9 The priest answered, “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.[b] If you want it, take it, because it is the only one here.” David said, “There is none like it, give it to me.”
10 That day David rose up and fled because he was afraid of Saul. He went to Achish, the king of Gath. 11 The servants of Achish said to him, “Is this not David, the king of the land? Is he not the one they sing about as they dance, ‘Saul has killed his thousands, David has killed his ten thousands.’ ”
12 David Pretends Insanity. David took these words to heart, and he was terrified of Achish, the king of Gath. 13 He pretended to be out of his mind in front of them. While he was on his hands he would pound on the doors to the gate, and he would drool down his beard. 14 Achish said to his servants, “Look at the man! He is out of his mind! Why did you bring him to me? 15 Am I so in need of people who are out of their mind that you brought me this man who is acting so strange? Must this man come into my house?”
Footnotes
- 1 Samuel 21:6 Ahimelech disregarded the law to give the holy bread—meant only for the priests—to David and his men. This act of kindness upheld the higher law (Lev 19:18). Jesus would later echo the precedence of the law of charity in Mt 12:1-8; Lk 6:1-5.
- 1 Samuel 21:9 Ephod: a vestment worn by a priest and apparently large enough to harbor Goliath’s sword. We do not know how it came to be there or why David, who slew the giant many years before, did not know of its whereabouts.