David Flees to Nob

21 David went to the priest Ahimelech^(A) at Nob.^(B) Ahimelech was afraid to meet David, so he said to him, “Why are you alone and no one is with you?”

² David answered the priest Ahimelech, “The king gave me a mission, but he told me, ‘Don’t let anyone know anything about the mission I’m sending you on or what I have ordered you to do.’ I have stationed my young men at a certain place. ³ Now what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread or whatever can be found.”

⁴ The priest told him, “There is no ordinary bread on hand. However, there is consecrated bread,^(C) but the young men may eat it^[a] only if they have kept themselves from women.”^(D)

⁵ David answered him, “I swear that women are being kept from us, as always when I go out to battle.^(E) The young men’s bodies^[b] are consecrated^(F) even on an ordinary mission, so of course their bodies are consecrated today.” ⁶ So the priest gave him the consecrated bread,^(G) for there was no bread there except the Bread of the Presence^(H) that had been removed from the presence of the Lord. When the bread was removed, it had been replaced with warm bread.

⁷ One of Saul’s servants, detained before the Lord, was there that day. His name was Doeg the Edomite,^(I) chief of Saul’s shepherds.

⁸ David said to Ahimelech, “Do you have a spear or sword on hand? I didn’t even bring my sword or my weapons since the king’s mission was urgent.”

⁹ The priest replied, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine,^(J) whom you killed in the Valley of Elah, is here, wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you want to take it for yourself, then take it, for there isn’t another one here.”

“There’s none like it!” David said. “Give it to me.”