1 Samuel 21

1 David went to the town of Nob to see Ahimelek the priest. Ahimelek was trembling in fear when he met him, and he asked, “Why are you here alone? Why isn't there anybody with you?”

And David comes to Nomba to Abimelech the priest: and Abimelech was amazed at meeting him, and said to him, Why [are] you alone, and nobody with you?

2 “The king has given me an assignment,” David replied. “He told me ‘Nobody must know anything about the assignment I have sent you to do.’ As for my men, I've told them where to meet me.

And David said to the priest, The king gave me a command today, and said to me, Let no one know the matter on which I send you, an concerning which I have charged you: and I have charged my servants [to be] in the place that is called, The faithfulness of God, Phellani Maemoni.

3 So what do you have on hand to eat? Let me have five loaves of bread, or whatever you can find.”

And now if there are under your hand five loaves, give into my hand what is ready.

4 “There's no ordinary bread,” the priest told David, “but there's some holy bread, as long as your men have not slept with any women lately.”

And the priest answered David, and said, There are no common loaves under my hand, for I have none but holy loaves: if the young men have been kept at least from women, then they shall eat [them].

5 “We have not slept with any women,” David answered. “In fact that's the rule when I lead the troops on mission. They keep themselves pure even during ordinary missions, and all the more so right now.”

And David answered the priest, and said to him, Yes, we have been kept from women for three days: when I came forth for the journey all the young men were purified; but this expedition is unclean, therefore it shall be sanctified this day because of my weapons.

6 So the priest gave him the holy bread as they didn't have any other bread there except this “Bread of the Presence,” which had been removed from the presence of the Lord that day and replaced with fresh bread.

So Abimelech the priest gave him the show bread; for there were no loaves there, but only the presence loaves which had been removed from the presence of the Lord, in order that hot bread should be set on, on the day on which he took them.

7 One of Saul's servants happened to be there that day, trying to make himself right with the Lord. He was Doeg the Edomite, Saul's chief shepherd.

And there was there on that day one of Saul's servants detained before the Lord, and his name [was] Doec the Syrian, tending the mules of Saul.

8 “Have you got a spear or sword here?” David asked Ahimelech. “I didn't bring my sword or any of my weapons with me, because what the king needed me to do was urgent.”

And David said to Abimelech, See if there is here under your hand spear or sword, for I have not brought in my hand my sword or my weapons, for the word of the king was urgent.

9 The priest replied, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine is here—the one you killed in the Valley of Elah. It's wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. You can take it if you want. It's the only one here.” “It's better than any other sword! Please give it to me,” David replied.

And the priest said, Behold the sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you struck in the valley of Ela; and it is wrapt in a cloth: if you will take it, take it for yourself, for there is no other except it here. And David said, Behold, there is none like it; give it me.

10 David ran away from Saul that day and went to Achish, king of Gath.

And he gave it him; and David arose, and fled in that day from he presence of Saul: and David came to Anchus king of Geth.

11 But Achish's officials asked the king, “Isn't this David, the king of that country? Didn't they sing about him in their dances, ‘Saul has killed his thousands, and David his tens of thousands’?”

And the servants of Anchus said to him, [Is] not this David the king of the land? Did not the dancing women begin the son to him, saying, Saul has struck his thousand, and David his ten thousands?

12 David listened carefully to what they said and this made him very afraid of Achish, the king of Gath.

And David laid up the words in his heart, and was greatly afraid of Anchus king of Geth.

13 So he changed the way he acted toward them and pretended to be crazy. He scratched marks on the town gates and let his spit run down his beard.

And he changed his appearance before him, and feigned himself a false character in that day; and drummed upon the doors of the city, and used extravagant gestures with his hands, and fell against the doors of the gate, and his spittle ran down upon his beard.

14 Achish told his officials, “Look, you can see the man is completely mad! Why did you bring him to me?

And Anchus said to his servants, Behold! you see the man [is] mad: why have you brought him in to me?

15 Is it because I need more mad people that you've brought this man to go crazy right in front of me? Do you think I'm going to let him come into my house?”

[Am] I in lack of madmen, that you have brought him in to me to play the madman? He shall not come into the house.