1 Samuel 21

1 Then David came to Nob to Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech came to meet David trembling, and said to him, Why are thou alone, and no man with thee?

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 about which I send thee, and what I have commanded thee, and I have assigned the young men to such and such a place.

3 Now therefore what is under thy hand? Give me five loaves of bread in my hand, or whatever there is present.

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.

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 shall their vessels be holy?

6 So the priest gave him holy bread, for there was no bread there but the showbread that was taken from before Jehovah 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 Jehovah. And his name was Doeg the Edomite, the foremost of the herdsmen who belonged to Saul.

8 And David said to Ahimelech, And is there not here under thy 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 killed in the vale of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If thou will take that, take it, for there is no other except that here. And David said, There is none like that. Give it to 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 to him, Is not this David the king of the land? Did they not sing one to another of him in dances, saying, Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands?

12 And David laid up these words in his heart, and was very afraid of Achish the king of Gath.

13 And 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 upon his beard.

14 Then Achish said to his servants, Lo, ye see the man is mad. Why then have ye brought him to me?

15 Do I lack madmen, that ye have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?