| [an error occurred while processing this directive] | New Living Translation |
| 1[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 1 David went to the town of Nob to see Ahimelech the priest. Ahimelech trembled when he saw him. “Why are you alone?” he asked. “Why is no one with you?” |
| 2[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 2“The king has sent me on a private matter,” David said. “He told me not to tell anyone why I am here. I have told my men where to meet me later. |
| 3[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 3Now, what is there to eat? Give me five loaves of bread or anything else you have.” |
| 4[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 4“We don’t have any regular bread,” the priest replied. “But there is the holy bread, which you can have if your young men have not slept with any women recently.” |
| 5[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 5“Don’t worry,” David replied. “I never allow my men to be with women when we are on a campaign. And since they stay clean even on ordinary trips, how much more on this one!” |
| 6[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 6Since there was no other food available, the priest gave him the holy bread—the Bread of the Presence that was placed before the LORD in the Tabernacle. It had just been replaced that day with fresh bread. |
| 7[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 7Now Doeg the Edomite, Saul’s chief herdsman, was there that day, having been detained before the LORD. |
| 8[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 8David asked Ahimelech, “Do you have a spear or sword? The king’s business was so urgent that I didn’t even have time to grab a weapon!” |
| 9[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 9“I only have the sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the valley of Elah,” the priest replied. “It is wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. Take that if you want it, for there is nothing else here.” “There is nothing like it!” David replied. “Give it to me!” |
| 10[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 10So David escaped from Saul and went to King Achish of Gath. |
| 11[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 11But the officers of Achish were unhappy about his being there. “Isn’t this David, the king of the land?” they asked. “Isn’t he the one the people honor with dances, singing, ‘Saul has killed his thousands, and David his ten thousands’?” |
| 12[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 12David heard these comments and was very afraid of what King Achish of Gath might do to him. |
| 13[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 13So he pretended to be insane, scratching on doors and drooling down his beard. |
| 14[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 14Finally, King Achish said to his men, “Must you bring me a madman? |
| 15[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 15We already have enough of them around here! Why should I let someone like this be my guest?” |
| [an error occurred while processing this directive] | Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. |
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