2 So 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.
3 Now therefore, what have you on hand? Give me five loavesof bread in my hand, or whatever can be found.”
4 And the priest answered David and said, “Thereis no1 common bread on hand; but there is aholy bread, bif the young men have at least kept themselves from women.”
5 Then David answered the priest, and said to him, “Truly, women havebeen kept from us about three days since I came out. And1 the avessels of the young men are holy, and thebreadis in effect common, even though it was consecrated bin the vessel this day.”
6 So the priest agave him holy bread; for there was no bread there but the showbread bwhich had been taken from before the Lord, in order to put hot bread initsplace on the day when it was taken away.
7 Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord. And his name wasaDoeg, an Edomite, the chief of the herdsmen who belonged to Saul.
8 And David said to Ahimelech, “Is there not here on hand a spear or a sword? For I have brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king’s business required haste.”
there is hallowed bread—There would be plenty of bread in his house; but there was no time to wait for it. "The hallowed bread" was the old shew-bread, which had been removed the previous day, and which was reserved for the use of the priests alone (Leviticus 24:9). Before entertaining the idea that this bread could be lawfully given to David and his men, the high priest seems to have consulted the oracle (I Samuel 22:10) as to the course to be followed in this emergency. A dispensation to use the hallowed bread was specially granted by God Himself.
Other Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown entries containing 1 Samuel 21:4:
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