⁴ But the priest answered David, “I don’t have any ordinary bread^(A) on hand; however, there is some consecrated^(B) bread here—provided the men have kept^(C) themselves from women.”

³ He answered, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry?^{(A) 4} He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests.^(B)

¹⁵ Then he said to the people, “Prepare yourselves for the third day. Abstain^(A) from sexual relations.”

³⁰ Put the bread of the Presence^(A) on this table to be before me at all times.

⁵ Do not deprive each other except perhaps by mutual consent and for a time,^(A) so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan^(B) will not tempt you^(C) because of your lack of self-control.

³ by asking the priests of the house of the Lord Almighty and the prophets, “Should I mourn^(A) and fast in the fifth^(B) month, as I have done for so many years?”

⁶ So the priest gave him the consecrated bread,^(A) since there was no bread there except the bread of the Presence that had been removed from before the Lord and replaced by hot bread on the day it was taken away.

⁵ “Take the finest flour and bake twelve loaves of bread,^(A) using two-tenths of an ephah^[a](B) for each loaf. ⁶ Arrange them in two stacks, six in each stack, on the table of pure gold^(C) before the Lord. ⁷ By each stack put some pure incense^(D) as a memorial^[b] portion^(E) to represent the bread and to be a food offering presented to the Lord. ⁸ This bread is to be set out before the Lord regularly,^(F) Sabbath after Sabbath,^(G) on behalf of the Israelites, as a lasting covenant. ⁹ It belongs to Aaron and his sons,^(H) who are to eat it in the sanctuary area,^(I) because it is a most holy^(J) part of their perpetual share of the food offerings presented to the Lord.”