The First of Samuel, 21

¹ Later David came into Nob to A·himʹe·lech the priest; and A·himʹe·lech began to tremble at meeting David and then said to him: “Why is it you are by yourself, and no one is with you?”

² At this David said to A·himʹe·lech the priest: “The king himself commanded me as to a matter, and he went on to say to me, ‘Let no one know anything at all of the matter concerning which I am sending you and concerning which I have commanded you.’ And I have made an appointment with the young men^*1 for such and such a place.

³ And now, if there are five loaves of bread at your disposal, just give them into my hand, or^*1 whatever may be found.”

⁴ But the priest answered David and said: “There is no ordinary bread under my hand, but there is holy bread; provided that the young men have at least kept themselves from womankind.”

⁵ So David answered the priest and said to him: “But womankind has been kept away from us the same as formerly when I went out,^*1 and the organisms^*2 of the young men continue holy, although the mission itself is ordinary. And how much more so today, when one becomes holy in [his] organism?”

⁶ At that the priest gave him what was holy, because there happened to be no bread there but the showbread^*1 that had been removed from before Jehovah so as to place fresh^*2 bread there on the day of its being taken away.

⁷ Now one of Saul’s servants was there on that day, detained before Jehovah, and his name was Doʹeg the Eʹdom·ite, the principal one of the shepherds^*1 that belonged to Saul.

⁸ And David went on to say to A·himʹe·lech: “And is there nothing here at your disposal, a spear or a sword? For neither my own sword nor my weapons did I take in my hand, because the king’s matter proved to be urgent.”

⁹ To this the priest said: “The sword of Go·liʹath the Phi·lisʹtine, whom you struck down in the low plain of Eʹlah—here it is, wrapped up in a mantle, behind the ephʹod. If it is what you would take for yourself, take it, because there is no other here except it.” And David went on to say: “There is none like it. Give it to me.”

¹⁰ Then David rose up and continued running away on account of Saul on that day, and at length came to Aʹchish the king of Gath.

¹¹ And the servants of Aʹchish began to say to him: “Is not this David the king of the land? Was it not to this one that they kept responding with^*1 dances, saying, ‘Saul has struck down his thousands, And David his tens of thousands’?”^*2

¹² And David began to take these words to his heart, and he became very much afraid on account of Aʹchish the king of Gath.

¹³ So he disguised his sanity under their eyes and began acting insane in their hand and kept making cross marks^*1 on the doors of the gate^*2 and let his saliva run down upon his beard.

¹⁴ Finally Aʹchish said to his servants: “Here YOU see a man behaving crazy. Why should YOU bring him to me?

¹⁵ Am I in need of people driven crazy, so that YOU have brought this one to behave crazy by me? Should this one come into my home?”