1 Samuel 21:1–7

David and the Holy Bread

21Now David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. And ^aAhimelech was ^bafraid when he met David, and said to him, “Why are you alone, and no one is with you?”

²So David said to Ahimelech the priest, “The king has ordered me on some business, and said to me, ‘Do not let anyone know anything about the business on which I send you, or what I have commanded you.’ And I have directed my young men to such and such a place. ³Now therefore, what have you on hand? Give me five loaves of bread in my hand, or whatever can be found.”

⁴And the priest answered David and said, “There is no ¹common bread on hand; but there is ^choly ²bread, ^dif the young men have at least kept themselves from women.”

⁵Then David answered the priest, and said to him, “Truly, women have been kept from us about three days since I came out. And ³the ^evessels of the young men are holy, and the bread is in effect common, even though it was consecrated ^fin the vessel this day.”

⁶So the priest ^ggave him holy bread; for there was no bread there but the showbread ^hwhich had been taken from before the Lord, in order to put hot bread in its place on the day when it was taken away.

⁷Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord. And his name was ⁱDoeg, an Edomite, the chief of the herdsmen who belonged to Saul.