1 Samuel 21 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
Around 1015 BC, during Saul's growing suspicion of David
Location
Nob, a priestly town just northeast of Jerusalem on the ridge near the Mount of Olives, then Gath, one of the five main Philistine cities on the coastal plain to the southwest
Audience
Israelites under the monarchy, reading an account of how David survived as a fugitive without seizing power by force
Situation
David arrives alone at the sanctuary at Nob and talks the priest Ahimelech into giving him the consecrated bread and Goliath's sword. He then flees to the Philistine city of Gath and escapes King Achish by pretending to be insane.
Key Background
The bread of the Presence was twelve loaves set out weekly before God and normally eaten only by priests, and the priest's willingness to release it turns on ritual purity rather than on hunger. Nob housed the tabernacle and its priesthood after the destruction of Shiloh, making it the religious center of Israel at this moment. In the ancient Near East madness was widely thought to mark a person as touched by a god, so a king would avoid harming a madman, which is exactly the reaction David counts on in Gath.
David went to to the came out to meet David and asked him, "Why are you alone? Why is no one with you?"
David told Ahimelech the priest, "The king sent me on a and told me, 'No one is to know anything about the I'm sending you on or what I've ordered you to do.' I've arranged to meet my men at a certain place."
"Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me of or whatever you can find."
The priest answered David, "I don't have any on hand. The only here is for But the men can have it if they've from
David answered the priest, "Absolutely, women have been kept away from us. Whenever I go out on a mission, my men keep their bodies for even on an ordinary trip. How much more today!"
So the priest gave him the kept for God, since there was no other there except the of the which had been removed from before and replaced with fresh on the day it was taken away.
Now one of Saul's officials happened to be there that day, His name was the the chief of Saul's shepherds.
David asked Ahimelech, "Don't you have a spear or sword here? I didn't bring my sword or any of my weapons because the king's mission was urgent."
The priest said, "The sword of the — the one you killed in the of — it's here, wrapped in a cloth behind the If you want to take it, take it, because there's no other sword here besides that one." David said, "There's nothing like it. Give it to me."
That day David got up and fled from Saul. He went to the king of
The officials of Achish said to him, "Isn't this David, the of the Isn't he the one they sang about in their dances: 'Saul has down his thousands, and David his tens of thousands'?"
David these to and became very afraid of Achish, the king of Gath.
So he changed his behavior in front of them and to be while he was in their custody. He on the of the and let saliva run down his beard.
Achish said to his officials, "Look at this — the man is a Why are you bringing him to me?"
"Am I so short of that you've brought this one to carry on in front of me? Should this man come into my