21Now David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech came trembling to meet David, and he said to him, “Why are you alone and there are no men with you?” ²So David said to Ahimelech the priest, “The king charged me with a matter and said to me, ‘No one must know anything about this matter on which I am sending you, with which I have charged you and the servants.’ ” So I have arranged to meet with my servants at a certain place.^a ³Now then, what do you have at hand?^b Give me five loaves of bread or whatever is here.”^c ⁴The priest answered David and said, “There is no ordinary bread here at hand;^d there is only holy bread, but only if the young men have kept themselves from women.” ⁵David answered the priest and said to him, “Indeed, women were held back from us as it has been when I’ve gone out before.^e And the things^f of the young men are holy when^g it is an ordinary journey. How much more^h todayⁱ will the things^j be holy?” ⁶So the priest gave him the holy bread, for there was no bread there except the bread of the Presence, which was removed from before Yahweh, in order to set hot bread there on the day when it was taken away.

⁷Now there was a man from the servants of Saul on that day, detained before Yahweh, whose name was Doeg the Edomite, the chief of Saul’s shepherds. ⁸David asked Ahimelech, “Is there not at your disposal^k a spear or a sword? For I took neither my sword nor my weapons with me because the king’s matter was urgent.” ⁹So the priest said, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine whom you killed in the valley of Elah is here, wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you want to take it for yourself, then 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 Achish in Gath

¹⁰So David got up and fled on that day from the presence of Saul, and he came to Achish the king of Gath. ¹¹The servants of Achish said to him, “Is not this David the king of the land? Is it not for this one that they sang in the dances, saying, ‘Saul killed his thousands, but David his ten thousands?’ ” ¹²David took these words seriously^l and felt severely threatened by^m Achish the king of Gath. ¹³So he changed his behavior before themⁿ and pretended to be mad in their presence.^o He made scratches on the doors of the gate and let his saliva run down into his beard. ¹⁴Then Achish said to his servants, “Look, you see a madman! Why did you bring him to me? ¹⁵Do I lack madmen that you have brought this one to act like a madman before me? Should this one enter my household?”

Saul Takes Revenge on the Priests Who Helped David

22David went from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam. When his brothers and all his father’s household^a heard, they came down to him there. ²Every man in distress and every man who had a creditor and every embittered man gathered to him, and he became their commander.^b Now there were about four hundred men with him. ³And David went up from there to Mizpah of Moab. He said to the king of Moab, “Please let my father and my mother stay^c with you until I know what God will do for me.” ⁴So he brought them before the king of Moab,^d and they stayed with him all the days David was in the stronghold.

⁵Then Gad the prophet said to David, “You should not stay in the stronghold; leave and go into the land of Judah.” So David left and came to the forest of Hereth. ⁶Now Saul heard that David and the men who were with him had been located. Saul was sitting at Gibeah under the tamarisk tree at Ramah. Now his spear was in his hand and all his servants were stationed around him. ⁷Then Saul said to the servants who were standing around him, “Please listen, Benjaminites!^e Will the son of Jesse give you all fields and vineyards? Will he make all of you commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds? ⁸For all of you have conspired against me, and no one discloses to me^f the making^g of an agreement between my son and the son of Jesse! None of you have had sympathy for me or disclosed to me^h that my son commissioned my servant against me to ambush meⁱ as has been done this day!”

⁹But Doeg the Edomite, who was stationed among the servants of Saul, answered and said, “I saw the son of Jesse going to Nob, to Ahimelech the son of Ahitub. ¹⁰And he inquired of Yahweh for him and gave him provisions and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine.” ¹¹So the king sent to summon Ahimelech the son of Ahitub the priest, and all his father’s household, the priests who were at Nob. So all of them came to the king. ¹²Saul said, “Listen please, son of Ahitub.” He said, “Here I am, my lord.” ¹³Then Saul said to him, “Why did you conspire against me, you and the son of Jesse, when you gave to him bread and a sword, and by inquiring of God for him so that he might arise against me to ambush me as has been done this day?” ¹⁴But Ahimelech answered the king and said, “And who among all your servants is as faithful as David? He is the son-in-law of the king who moves quickly to safeguard you and is honored in your house. ¹⁵Only today I began to inquire of God for him. Far be it from me that the king should impute anything against his servant^j or against my father’s household, for your servant has not known any of this matter, little or much.” ¹⁶Then the king said, “You must certainly die, Ahimelech, you and all your father’s household!” ¹⁷So the king said to the runners who were stationed around him, “Turn and kill the priests of Yahweh, because they also support David^k and because they knew that he was fleeing and did not disclose it to me.”^l But the servants of the king were not willing to raise their hand to attack the priests of Yahweh. ¹⁸Then the king said to Doeg, “You turn and attack the priests!” So Doeg the Edomite turned and attacked the priests himself, and on that day he killed eighty-five men who wore the linen ephod. ¹⁹And he put to the sword^m Nob, the city of the priests, from man to woman, from child to infant, and ox and donkey and sheep;ⁿ all to the sword.^o

²⁰But, one of the sons of Ahimelech the son of Ahitub, whose name was Abiathar, escaped and fled after David. ²¹Abiathar told David that Saul had killed the priests of Yahweh. ²²Then David said to Abiathar, “I knew on that day that Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would certainly tell Saul. I am responsible for the deaths of all your father’s household!^p ²³Stay with me! Do not fear, because he who seeks my life seeks your life. You are in good care with me.”

Read in Logos

Footnotes

aLiterally “I have made an appointment with my servants/young men to a place, a certain one”
bLiterally “what is there under your hand”
cLiterally “that which is found”
dLiterally “under my hand”
eLiterally “as yesterday three days ago my going out”
fOr possibly “equipment” or “weapons”
gOr “and”
hLiterally “And even that”
iLiterally “the day”
jOr possibly “equipment” or “weapons”
kLiterally “under your hand”
lLiterally “David put these words in his heart”
mLiterally “he was very afraid from the face of”
nLiterally “in their eyes”
oLiterally “in their hands”
aOr “family”
bLiterally “over them as commander”
cLiterally “come/go out”
dLiterally “he led them into the presence of the king of Moab”
eLiterally “children of Benjamin”
fLiterally “there is no one revealing to my ear”
gLiterally “cutting”
hLiterally “revealing to my ear”
iLiterally “my son has raised my servant against me to an ambush”
jLiterally “the king will not put against his servant a matter”
kLiterally “also their hand is with David”
lLiterally “did not reveal it to his ear”; the Masoretic Hebrew text (Kethib) reads “his,” but the reading tradition (Qere) has “my”
mLiterally “he killed with the mouth of the sword”
nOr “goats”; literally, “small livestock animals”
oLiterally “with the mouth of the sword”
pLiterally “I have turned against all the life of your father’s house”