King James Version1 Samuel21

1 Samuel

1 Then came David to Nob to Ahim­elech the priest: and Ahim­elech was afraid at the meet­ing of David, and said unto him, Why art thou alone, and no man with thee? 2 And David said unto Ahim­elech the priest, The king hath com­mand­ed me a busi­ness, and hath said unto me, Let no man know any thing of the busi­ness where­about I send thee, and what I have com­mand­ed thee: and I have ap­point­ed my ser­vants to such and such a place. 3 Now there­fore what is un­der thine hand? give me five loaves of bread in mine hand, or what there is pre­sent. 4 And the priest an­swered David, and said, There is no com­mon bread un­der mine hand, but there is hal­lowed bread; if the young men have kept them­selves at least from wom­en. 5 And David an­swered the priest, and said unto him, Of a truth wom­en have been kept from us about these three days, since I came out, and the ves­sels of the young men are holy, and the bread is in a man­ner com­mon, yea, though it were sanc­ti­fied this day in the ves­sel. 6 So the priest gave him hal­lowed bread: for there was no bread there but the shew­bread, that was tak­en from be­fore the LORD, to put hot bread in the day when it was tak­en away. 7 Now a cer­tain man of the ser­vants of Saul was there that day, de­tained be­fore the LORD; and his name was Doeg, an Edomite, the chiefest of the herd­men that belonged to Saul. 8 And David said unto Ahim­elech, And is there not here un­der thine hand spear or sword? for I have nei­ther brought my sword nor my weapons with me, be­cause the king's busi­ness re­quired haste. 9 And the priest said, The sword of Go­liath the Philis­tine, whom thou slewest in the val­ley of Elah, be­hold, it is here wrapped in a cloth be­hind the ephod: if thou wilt take that, take it: for there is no oth­er save that here. And David said, There is none like that; give it me. 10 And David arose, and fled that day for fear of Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath. 11 And the ser­vants of Achish said unto him, Is not this David the king of the land? did they not sing one to an­oth­er of him in dances, say­ing, Saul hath slain his thou­sands, and David his ten thou­sands? 12 And David laid up these words in his heart, and was sore afraid of Achish the king of Gath. 13 And he changed his be­haviour be­fore them, and feigned him­self mad in their hands, and scrab­bled on the doors of the gate, and let his spit­tle fall down upon his beard. 14 Then said Achish unto his ser­vants, Lo, ye see the man is mad: where­fore then have ye brought him to me? 15 Have I need of mad men, that ye have brought this fellow to play the mad man in my pres­ence? shall this fellow come into my house?