⁵ “Take the finest flour and bake twelve loaves of bread,^(A) using two-tenths of an ephah^[a](B) for each loaf.

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

²³ and set out the bread^(A) on it before the Lord, as the Lord commanded^(B) him.

³¹ Elijah took twelve stones, one for each of the tribes descended from Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come, saying, “Your name shall be Israel.”^(A)

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.”

⁵ David replied, “Indeed women have been kept from us, as usual^(D) whenever^[a] I set out. The men’s bodies are holy^(E) even on missions that are not holy. How much more so today!”

1 James,^(A) a servant of God^(B) and of the Lord Jesus Christ,

To the twelve tribes^(C) scattered^(D) among the nations:

Greetings.^(E)

⁷ This is the promise our twelve tribes^(A) are hoping to see fulfilled as they earnestly serve God day and night.^(B) King Agrippa, it is because of this hope that these Jews are accusing me.^(C)

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.^(A)