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.

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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”