1 David went to Ahimelech the priest at Nob. Ahimelech was afraid to meet David, so he said to him, “Why are you alone and no one is with you? ”
2 David answered Ahimelech the priest, “The king gave me a mission, but he told me, ‘Don’t let anyone know anything about the mission I’m sending you on or what I have ordered you to do.’ I have stationed my young men at a certain place.
3 Now what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread or whatever can be found.”
4 The priest told him, “There is no ordinary bread on hand . However , there is consecrated bread, but the young men may eat it only if they have kept themselves from women.”
5 David answered him , “I swear that women are being kept from us, as always when I go out to battle. The young men’s bodies are consecrated even on an ordinary mission, so of course their bodies are consecrated today .”
6 So the priest gave him the consecrated bread, for there was no bread there except the •bread of the Presence that had been removed from the presence of the LORD . When the bread was removed, it had been replaced with warm bread.
7 One of Saul’s servants, detained before the LORD , was there that day. His name was Doeg the Edomite, chief of Saul’s shepherds.
8 David said to Ahimelech, “Do you have a spear or sword on hand? I didn’t even bring my sword or my weapons since the king’s mission was urgent.”
9 The priest replied, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the Valley of Elah, is here, wrapped in a cloth behind the •ephod. If you want to take it for yourself, then take it, for there isn’t another one here .” “There’s none like it ! ” David said. “Give it to me.”
