21David went to the priest Ahimelech at Nob. Ahimelech trembled with fear when he met him. He asked David, “Why are you alone? Why isn’t anyone with you?”

²David answered the priest Ahimelech, “The king gave me a special job to do. He said to me, ‘I don’t want anyone to know what I’m sending you to do. So don’t say anything about it.’ I’ve told my men to meet me at a certain place. ³Do you have anything for us to eat? Give me five loaves of bread, or anything else you can find.”

⁴But the priest answered David, “I don’t have any bread that isn’t holy. I only have some holy bread here. But it’s for men who haven’t made love to women recently.”

⁵David replied, “Well, we haven’t made love to women recently. That’s the way it is every time I lead my men out to battle. We keep ourselves holy even when we do jobs that aren’t holy. And that’s even more true today.”

⁶So the priest gave him the holy bread. It was the only bread he had. It had been removed from the table that was in front of the Lord. On the same day, hot bread had been put in its place.

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