1 And David arose and departed, and Jonathan went into the city. 2 And David comes to Nob to Ahimelech the priest: and Ahimelech was amazed at meeting him, and said to him, Why [art] thou alone, and nobody with thee? 3 And David said to the priest, The king gave me a command today, and said to me, Let no one know the matter on which I send thee, and concerning which I have charged thee: and I have charged my servants [to be] in the place that is called, The faithfulness of God, phellani maemoni. 4 And now if there are under thy hand five loaves, give into my hand what is ready. 5 And the priest answered David, and said, There are no common loaves under my hand, for I have none but holy loaves: if the young men have been kept at least from women, then they shall eat [them]. 6 And David answered the priest, and said to him, Yea, we have been kept from women for three days: when I came forth for the journey all the young men were purified; but this expedition is unclean, wherefore it shall be sanctified this day because of my weapons. 7 So Ahimelech the priest gave him the showbread; for there were no loaves there, but only the presence loaves which had been removed from the presence of the Lord, in order that hot bread should be set on, on the day on which he took them. 8 And there was there on that day one of Saul’s servants detained before the Lord, and his name [was] Doeg the Syrian, tending the mules of Saul. 9 And David said to Ahimelech, See if there is here under thy hand spear or sword, for I have not brought in my hand my sword or my weapons, for the word of the king was urgent. 10 And the priest said, Behold the sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom thou smotest in the Valley of Elah; and it is wrapped in a cloth: if thou wilt take it, take it for thyself, for there is no other except it here. And David said, Behold, there is none like it; give it me. 11 And he gave it him; and David arose, and fled in that day from the presence of Saul: and David came to Achish king of Gath. 12 And the servants of Achish said to him, [Is] not this David the king of the land? Did not the dancing women begin the song to him, saying, Saul has smitten his thousands, And David his ten thousands? 13 And David laid up the words in his heart, and was greatly afraid of Achish king of Gath. 14 And he changed his appearance before him, and feigned himself a false character in that day; and drummed upon the doors of the city, and used extravagant gestures with his hands, and fell against the doors of the gate, and his spittle ran down upon his beard. 15 And Achish said to his servants, Lo! ye see the man [is] mad: why have ye brought him in to me? 16 [Am] I in want of madmen, that ye have brought him in to me to play the madman? he shall not come into the house.
1 Samuel · Updated Brenton English Septuagint
1 Samuel 21 Updated Brenton English Septuagint
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
Notes on this text (1)
- Same Septuagint text as Brenton, with modernised spelling.
People & places in this chapter
From this site's family tree and Bible maps, only where those guides cite this chapter.
People
Achish
King of Gath to whom David fled twice, first feigning madness and later living in his territory with Ziklag as his town, and who trusted David until the Philistine commanders sent…
Cited in the guide: 1 Samuel 21:10; 1 Samuel 21:12; 1 Samuel 27:2
Ahimelech
The priest at Nob who gave David the consecrated bread and Goliath's sword, and whom Saul had put to death with his father's household at Doeg's hands.
Cited in the guide: 1 Samuel 21:1; 1 Samuel 22:9; 1 Samuel 22:11
David
The shepherd who became Israel's greatest king and a man after God's own heart.
Cited in the guide: 1 Sam. 16 - 1 Kings 2; 2 Sam. 7; 1 Chron. 2:15; Matt. 1:6
Doeg
Saul's chief shepherd, an Edomite who saw David at Nob, reported it to Saul, and at Saul's command killed eighty-five priests and put the town of Nob to the sword.
Cited in the guide: 1 Samuel 21:7; 1 Samuel 22:9; 1 Samuel 22:18
Cross references (13)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Nehemiah 11:32; Mark 2:26; Isaiah 10:32; 1 Samuel 14:3; 1 Samuel 16:4
- 2 Colossians 3:9; Galatians 2:12; 1 Samuel 22:22; 1 Samuel 19:17; 1 Kings 13:18
- 3 1 Samuel 21:4; Isaiah 3:6; Judges 9:29
- 4 Matthew 12:3–4; Exodus 19:15; Exodus 25:30; 1 Samuel 21:6; Zechariah 7:3
- 5 Leviticus 24:9; Leviticus 8:26; Acts 9:15; 2 Timothy 2:20–21; 1 Thessalonians 4:3–4
- 6 Luke 6:3–4; Leviticus 24:5–9; Matthew 12:3–4; Mark 2:25–27
- 7 1 Samuel 22:9; Psalm 52:1–9; 1 Chronicles 27:29; 2 Chronicles 26:10; Jeremiah 7:9–11
- 9 1 Samuel 17:2; 1 Samuel 31:10; 1 Samuel 17:50–54; Exodus 28:6–14
- 10 1 Samuel 27:1–2; Jeremiah 26:21; 1 Kings 19:3; Psalm 34:1–22
- 11 1 Samuel 29:5; Psalm 56:1–13; 1 Samuel 16:1; 1 Samuel 18:7–8
- 12 Luke 2:19; Psalm 56:3; Psalm 34:4; Luke 2:51; Genesis 26:7
- 13 Proverbs 29:25; Ecclesiastes 7:7; Psalm 34:1–22
- 14 Ecclesiastes 7:7
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
… His Own Body and Blood: because when He commendeth His Own Body and Blood, He commendeth His Humility, in that which is written in this history, in that seeming madness of David, which we have passed by, "And his spittle ran down over his beard." When the Apostle was read, Ye heard the same spittle, but running down over the …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 8 (1888)
… him," then, "Allophyli in Geth." We find indeed, brethren, David himself, son of Jesse, king of Israel, to have been in a strange land among the Allophyli, when he was sought by Saul, and was in that city and with the king of that city, but that there he was detained we read not.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 8 (1888)