﻿1 Samuel.
Chapter 21.
David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. Ahimelech came trembling to meet David and said to him, “Why are you alone, with no one with you?” 
David said to Ahimelech the priest, “The king has charged me with a matter and said to me, ‘Let no one know anything about the matter on which I am sending you or what I have commanded you.’ I have directed the young men to a certain place. 
Now what do you have at hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever is available.” 
The priest answered David, “I have no common bread at hand, only holy bread, provided the young men have kept themselves from women.” 
David answered the priest, “Indeed, women have been kept from us, as on former occasions when I set out. The young men’s equipment was holy even on an ordinary journey. How much more will the equipment be holy today!” 
The priest gave him the holy bread, for there was no bread there except the bread of the Presence, which had been removed from before the LORD to be replaced with hot bread on the day it was taken away. 
Now one of Saul’s servants was there that day, detained before the LORD. His name was Doeg the Edomite, the chief of Saul’s shepherds. 
David said to Ahimelech, “Is there not a spear or sword here at hand? I brought neither my sword nor my weapons, for the king’s business was urgent.” 
The priest said, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you struck down in the Valley of Elah, is here, wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you wish to take it, take it, for there is no other here.” David said, “There is none like it. Give it to me.” 
David rose and fled from Saul that day and came to Achish king of Gath. 
The servants of Achish said to him, “Is this not David, the king of the land? Is it not of him that they sing to one another in dances, ‘Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his tens of thousands’?” 
David took these words to heart and was greatly afraid of Achish king of Gath. 
He changed his behavior before them and pretended to be mad in their hands. He made marks on the doors of the gate and let his saliva run down his beard. 
Achish said to his servants, “You see that the man is mad. Why have you brought him to me? 
Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this fellow to act madly before me? Shall this man enter my house?” 
