21:1  Then David came to Nob to Ahimelech the priest; and Ahimelech came trembling to meet David and said to him, "Why are you alone and no one with you?"

21:2  David said to Ahimelech the priest, "The king has commissioned me with a matter and has said to me, `Let no one know anything about the matter on which I am sending you and with which I have commissioned you; and I have directed the young men to a certain place.'

21:3  "Now therefore, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever can be found."

21:4  The priest answered David and said, "There is no ordinary bread on hand, but there is consecrated bread; if only the young men have kept themselves from women."

21:5  David answered the priest and said to him, "Surely women have been kept from us as previously when I set out and the vessels of the young men were holy, though it was an ordinary journey; how much more then today will their vessels {be holy?}"

21:6  So the priest gave him consecrated {bread;} for there was no bread there but the bread of the Presence which was removed from before the LORD, in order to put hot bread {in its place} when it was taken away.

21:7  Now one of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the LORD; and his name was Doeg the Edomite, the chief of Saul's shepherds.

21:8  David said to Ahimelech, "Now is there not a spear or a sword on hand? For I brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king's matter was urgent."

21:9  Then the priest said, "The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the valley of Elah, behold, it is wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod; if you would take it for yourself, take {it.} For there is no other except it here. And David said, "There is none like it; give it to me.""

21:10  Then David arose and fled that day from Saul, and went to Achish king of Gath.

21:11  But the servants of Achish said to him, "Is this not David the king of the land? Did they not sing of this one as they danced, saying, `Saul has slain his thousands, And David his ten thousands'?"

21:12  David took these words to heart and greatly feared Achish king of Gath.

21:13  So he disguised his sanity before them, and acted insanely in their hands, and scribbled on the doors of the gate, and let his saliva run down into his beard.

21:14  Then Achish said to his servants, "Behold, you see the man behaving as a madman. Why do you bring him to me?

21:15  "Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this one to act the madman in my presence? Shall this one come into my house?"