CHAPTER 21
1 Forsooth David came into Nob to Ahimelech, the priest; and Ahimelech wondered, for David had come; and he said to David, Why art thou alone, and no man is with thee?
2 And David said to Ahimelech the priest, The king hath commanded to me a word, and said, No man know this thing, for which thou art sent from me, and what manner behests I have given to thee; for I said also to my children, that they should go into that and that place;
3 now therefore if thou hast anything at hand, either five loaves, give thou to me, either whatever thing thou findest.
4 And the priest answered to David, and said to him, I have not lay, that is, common, loaves at hand, but only holy bread; whether the children be clean, and mostly of women?
5 And David answered to the priest, and said to him, And soothly if it is done of women, we have abstained us from yesterday and the third day ago, when we went out, and the vessels, that is, bodies, of the children were clean; certainly this way is defouled, but and it shall be hallowed today in the vessels.
6 Therefore the priest gave to him hallowed bread, for none other bread was there, but only loaves of setting forth, that were taken away from the face of the Lord, that hot loaves shall be set forth.
7 And a man of the servants of Saul was there that day, within in the tabernacle of the Lord; and his name was Doeg of Idumea, the mightiest man of the herdsmen of Saul.
8 And David said to Ahimelech, If thou hast here at hand spear, either sword, give it to me; for I took not with me my sword, neither mine arms; for why the king’s word constrained me to go in haste.
9 And the priest said, Lo! the sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom thou killedest in the valley of Terebinth, is wrapped in a cloth next after [the] ephod; if thou wilt take this, take it; for there is none other except that. And David said, None other is like this, give thou it to me.
10 And so David rose up, and fled in that day from the face of Saul, and came to Achish, the king of Gath.
11 And the servants of Achish said to him, when they had seen David, Whether this is not David, [the] king of the land? Whether they sang not to him by quires [or with dances], and said, Saul smote a thousand, and David smote ten thousand?
12 And David took these words in his heart, and he dreaded greatly of the face of Achish, king of Gath.
13 And David changed his mouth before Achish, and felled down betwixt their hands, and he painted on the doors of the gate, and his dribbles, that is, spittles, flowed down into his beard.
14 And Achish said to his servants, See ye the mad man? why brought ye him to me?
15 whether mad men fail to us? why have ye brought in him, that he should be mad, while I am present? Deliver ye him from hence, lest he enter into mine house.