1 Samuel 21:3-15 ▼

3 [David added,] |Now, what do you have [to eat]? Give me five loaves of bread or whatever you can find.|

4 |I don't have any ordinary bread,| the chief priest answered David. |But there is holy bread for the young men if they haven't had sexual intercourse [today].|

5 David answered the priest, |Of course women have been kept away from us as usual when we go [on a mission]. The young men's bodies are kept holy even on ordinary campaigns. How much more then will their bodies be holy today?|

6 So the priest gave him holy [bread] because he only had the bread of the presence which had been taken from the LORD's presence and replaced with warm bread that day.

7 That same day one of Saul's servants who was obligated to stay in the LORD's presence was there. His name was Doeg. A foreman for Saul's shepherds, he was from Edom.

8 David asked Ahimelech, |Don't you have a spear or a sword here? I didn't take either my spear or any other weapon because the king's business was urgent.|

9 The chief priest answered, |The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the Elah Valley, is here. It is wrapped in a cloth behind the priestly ephod. If you want to take it, take it. There's no other weapon here.| David said, |There's none like it. Let me have the sword.|

10 That day David left. He was [still] fleeing from Saul when he came to King Achish of Gath.

11 Achish's officers asked, |Isn't this David, the king of [his] country? He's the one they used to sing about in the dances: 'Saul has defeated thousands but David tens of thousands.'|

12 When David realized what they had said, he was terrified of King Achish of Gath.

13 So he changed his behavior [when he was] in their presence and acted insane [as long as he was] under their authority. He scribbled on the doors of the city gate and let his spit run down his beard.

14 Achish said to his officers, |Look at him! Don't you see [that he's] insane? Why bring him to me?

15 Do I have such a shortage of lunatics that you bring this man so that he can show me he is insane? Does this man have to come into my house?|