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?”

Then came David to Nob to Ahimelech the priest: and Ahimelech was afraid at the meeting of David, and said to him, Why [art] thou alone, and no man with thee?

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 Ahimelech the priest, The king hath commanded me a business, and hath said to me, Let no man know any thing of the business about which I send thee, and what I have commanded thee: and I have appointed [my] servants to such and such a place.

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

Now therefore what is under thy hand? give [me] five [loaves of] bread in my hand, or what there is present.

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 is] no common bread under my hand, but there is hallowed bread; if the young men have kept themselves at least from women.

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, 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, yes, though it were sanctified this day in the vessel.

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 the priest gave him hallowed [bread]: for there was no bread there but the show-bread, that was taken from before the LORD, to put hot bread in the day when it was taken away.

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.

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 chief of the herdmen that [belonged] to 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 Ahimelech, And is there not here under thy hand a spear or sword? for I have neither brought my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king's business required haste.

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, 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 to me.

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

And David arose, and fled that day for fear of Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath.

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 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 hath slain his thousands, 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 these words in his heart, and was greatly afraid of Achish the king of Gath.

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

Then said Achish to his servants, Lo, ye see the man is mad: why [then] have ye brought him 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?”

Have I need of mad-men, that ye have brought this [man] to play the mad-man in my presence? shall this [man] come into my house?