1 Samuel 21:6

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4 And the priest answered David and said, “There is 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 have been kept from us about three days since I came out. And¹ the ^avessels of the young men are holy, and the bread is 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 in its place 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 was ^aDoeg, 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.”

Commentaries:

Adam Clarke

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1 Samuel 21:6

So the priest gave him hallowed bread - To this history our Lord alludes, Mark 2:25, in order to show that in cases of absolute necessity a breach of the ritual law was no sin. It was lawful for the priests only to eat the shew-bread; but David and his companions were starving, no other bread could be had at the time, and therefore he and his companions ate of it without sin.

**Other Adam Clarke entries containing 1 Samuel 21:6:**

Matthew 12:3-4

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