1 Samuel 21:1–7

DAVID FLEES TO NOB

21David went to the priest Ahimelech^a at Nob.^b Ahimelech was afraid to meet David, so he said to him, “Why are you alone and no one is with you?”

²David answered the priest Ahimelech, “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. ³Now what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread or whatever can be found.”

⁴The priest told him, “There is no ordinary bread on hand. However, there is consecrated bread,^c but the young men may eat it^A only if they have kept themselves from women.”^d

⁵David answered him, “I swear that women are being kept from us, as always when I go out to battle.^e The young men’s bodies^B are consecrated^f even on an ordinary mission, so of course their bodies are consecrated today.” ⁶So the priest gave him the consecrated bread,^g for there was no bread there except the Bread of the Presence^h that had been removed from the presence of the Lord. When the bread was removed, it had been replaced with warm bread.

⁷One of Saul’s servants, detained before the Lord, was there that day. His name was Doeg the Edomite,ⁱ chief of Saul’s shepherds.