21:1  Then David came to Nob to Ahimelech the priest; and Ahimelech came trembling to meet David and said to him, "Why do you stay 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 send 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 you can find."

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

21:5  David answered the priest and said to him, "Surely we have stayed away from women as previously when I set out and the vessels of the young men had become designated as holy, though it proved an ordinary journey; how much more then today will their vessels remain holy?"

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

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

21:8  David said to Ahimelech, "Now do you have a spear or a sword on hand? For I brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king's matter seemed urgent."

21:9  Then the priest said, "The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the valley of Elah, behold, we have wrapped it in a cloth behind the ephod; if you would take it for yourself, take it. For we have no other except it here." And David said, "We have 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, "Do we not see 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?"