21 Then came David to Nob to Ahimelech the priest: and Ahimelech came to meet David trembling, and said unto him, Why art thou alone, and no man with thee? ² And David said unto Ahimelech the priest, The king hath commanded me a business, and hath said unto me, Let no man know anything of the business whereabout I send thee, and what I have commanded thee: and I have appointed the young men to such and such a place. ³ Now therefore what is under thy hand? give me five loaves of bread in my hand, or whatsoever there is present. ⁴ And the priest answered David, and said, There is no common bread under my hand, but there is holy bread; if only the young men have kept themselves from women. ⁵ And David answered the priest, and said unto him, Of a truth women have been kept from us about these three days; when I came out, the vessels of the young men were holy, ^[a]though it was but a common journey; how much more then to-day shall their vessels be holy? ⁶ So the priest gave him holy bread; for there was no bread there but the showbread, that was taken from before Jehovah, to put hot bread in the day when it was taken away.

⁷ Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before Jehovah; and his name was Doeg the Edomite, the ^[b]chiefest of the herdsmen that belonged to Saul. ⁸ And David said unto Ahimelech, And is there not here under thy hand spear or sword? for I have neither brought my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king’s business required haste. ⁹ And the priest said, The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom thou slewest in the vale of ^[c]Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod: if thou wilt take that, take it; for there is no other save that here. And David said, There is none like that; give it me.

¹⁰ And David arose, and fled that day for fear of Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath. ¹¹ And the servants of Achish said unto him, Is not this David the king of the land? did they not sing one to another of him in dances, saying,

¹² And David laid up these words in his heart, and was sore afraid of Achish the king of Gath. ¹³ And he changed his behavior before them, and feigned himself mad in their hands, and ^[d]scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down upon his beard. ¹⁴ Then said Achish unto his servants, Lo, ye see the man is mad; wherefore then have ye brought him to me? ¹⁵ Do I lack madmen, that ye have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence? shall this fellow come into my house?