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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" /><title>1 Samuel 21 ESV</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/chapnew2.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /></head><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/1_samuel/21.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="../topmenuchap/1_samuel/21-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="http://biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="../">ESV</a> > 1 Samuel 21</div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../1_samuel/20.htm" title="1 Samuel 20">◄</a> 1 Samuel 21 <a href="../1_samuel/22.htm" title="1 Samuel 22">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading"><table width="100%"><tr><td width="99%" valign="top">English Standard Version</td><td width="1%" valign="top"><a href="/p/esv/nas/1_samuel/21.shtml" style="color:#001320" title="Parallel Chapters"> Par ▾ </a></tr></table></div></a><div class="chap"><p class="heading">David and the Holy Bread</p><p class="regular"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/21-1.htm"><b>1</b></a></span><span class="footnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="Ch 21:2 in Hebrew">a</a></sup></span> Then David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech came to meet David, trembling, and said to him, “Why are you alone, and no one with you?” <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/21-2.htm"><b>2</b></a></span>And David said to Ahimelech the priest, “The king has charged me with a matter and said to me, ‘Let no one know anything of the matter about which I send you, and with which I have charged you.’ I have made an appointment with the young men for such and such a place. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/21-3.htm"><b>3</b></a></span>Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever is here.” <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/21-4.htm"><b>4</b></a></span>And the priest answered David, “I have no common bread on hand, but there is holy bread—if the young men have kept themselves from women.” <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/21-5.htm"><b>5</b></a></span>And David answered the priest, “Truly women have been kept from us as always when I go on an expedition. The vessels of the young men are holy even when it is an ordinary journey. How much more today will their vessels be holy?” <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/21-6.htm"><b>6</b></a></span>So the priest gave him the holy bread, for there was no bread there but the bread of the Presence, which is removed from before the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span>, to be replaced by hot bread on the day it is taken away.</p> <p class="regular"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/21-7.htm"><b>7</b></a></span>Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span>. His name was Doeg the Edomite, the chief of Saul’s herdsmen.</p> <p class="regular"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/21-8.htm"><b>8</b></a></span>Then David said to Ahimelech, “Then have you not here a spear or a sword at hand? For I have brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king’s business required haste.” <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/21-9.htm"><b>9</b></a></span>And the priest said, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you struck down in the Valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you will take that, take it, for there is none but that here.” And David said, “There is none like that; give it to me.”</p> <p class="heading">David Flees to Gath</p><p class="regular"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/21-10.htm"><b>10</b></a></span>And David rose and fled that day from Saul and went to Achish the king of Gath. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/21-11.htm"><b>11</b></a></span>And the servants of Achish said to him, “Is not this David the king of the land? Did they not sing to one another of him in dances,</p><span class="block-indent"><p class="line-group"><span class="ln-group">‘Saul has struck down his thousands,</span><br /><span class="indent">and David his ten thousands’?”</span></p> <p class="same-paragraph"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/21-12.htm"><b>12</b></a></span>And David took these words to heart and was much afraid of Achish the king of Gath. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/21-13.htm"><b>13</b></a></span>So he changed his behavior before them and pretended to be insane in their hands and made marks on the doors of the gate and let his spittle run down his beard. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/21-14.htm"><b>14</b></a></span>Then Achish said to his servants, “Behold, you see the man is mad. Why then have you brought him to me? <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/21-15.htm"><b>15</b></a></span>Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this fellow to behave as a madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?”</p><A name="footnotes"></a><hr size="1" color="DDEEFF"><span class="mainfootnotes"><span class="mainfootnoteshdg">Footnotes:</span><br><span class="footnotesbot">a</span> <span class="fnverse">1</span> Ch 21:2 in Hebrew<br /></span></div></div><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">ESV Text Edition® (2016).<br /><br />The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®) copyright © 2001 by <a href="http://www.crossway.org/home/esv/">Crossway Bibles</a>, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. The ESV® text has been reproduced in cooperation with and by permission of Good News Publishers. Unauthorized reproduction of this publication is prohibited. All rights reserved.<br /><br />The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®) is adapted from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. 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