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David Takes Consecrated Bread

¹ Then David came to ^(C1)Nob to Ahimelech the priest; and Ahimelech ^(C2)came trembling to meet David and said to him, "Why are you alone, and no one is with you?"² And David said to Ahimelech the priest, "The king has commanded me with a matter and has said to me, '^(C1)Let no one know anything about the matter on which I am sending you and with which I have commanded you; and I have directed the young men to a certain place.'³ "So now, what ^(F1)do you have on hand? Give five loaves of bread into my hand, or whatever can be found."⁴ And the priest answered David and said, "There is no ordinary bread ^(F1)on hand, but there is ^(C1)consecrated bread; if only the young men have ^(C2)kept themselves from women."⁵ And David answered the priest and said to him, "^(C1)Surely women have been kept from us as previously when I set out and the ^(C2)vessels of the young men were holy, though it was an ordinary journey; how much more then today will ^(F1)their vessels be holy?"⁶ So ^(C1)the priest gave him consecrated bread; for there was no bread there but the ^(C2)bread of the Presence which was removed from before Yahweh, in order to put hot bread in its place when it was taken away.

⁷ Now one of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before Yahweh; and his name was ^(C1)Doeg the Edomite, the ^(C2)chief of Saul's shepherds.

⁸ And David said to Ahimelech, "Now is there not a spear or a sword ^(F1)on hand? For I brought neither my sword nor my weapons in my hand because the king's matter was urgent."⁹ Then the priest said, "^(C1)The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you struck down ^(C2)in the valley of Elah, behold, it is wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod; if you would take it for yourself, take it. For there is no other except it here." And David said, "There is none like it; give it to me."

David Flees to Gath

¹⁰ Then David arose and fled that day from Saul and went to ^(C1)Achish king of Gath.¹¹ But the ^(C1)servants of Achish said to him, "Is this not David the king of the land? ^(C2)Did they not sing of this one as they danced, saying,

'Saul has struck his thousands,
And David his ten thousands'?"