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The Blue Letter Bible

1 Samuel 21 :: English Standard Version (ESV)

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David and the Holy Bread

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 21:1

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 21:1 - [fn] 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?”

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 21:2

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 21:2 - 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.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 21:3

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 21:3 - Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever is here.”

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 21:4

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 21:4 - 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.”

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 21:5

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 21:5 - 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?”

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 21:6

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 21:6 - 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 LORD, to be replaced by hot bread on the day it is taken away.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 21:7

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 21:7 - Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the LORD. His name was Doeg the Edomite, the chief of Saul’s herdsmen.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 21:8

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 21:8 - 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.”

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 21:9

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 21:9 - 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.”

David Flees to Gath

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 21:10

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 21:10 - And David rose and fled that day from Saul and went to Achish the king of Gath.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 21:11

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 21:11 - 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,
‘Saul has struck down his thousands,
and David his ten thousands’?”

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 21:12

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 21:12 - And David took these words to heart and was much afraid of Achish the king of Gath.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 21:13

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 21:13 - 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.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 21:14

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 21:14 - Then Achish said to his servants, “Behold, you see the man is mad. Why then have you brought him to me?

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 21:15

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 21:15 - 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?”
See the ESV Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).
ESV Footnotes
Ch 21:2 in Hebrew
ESV

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001, 2007, 2011, 2016 by Crossway Books and Bibles, a Publishing Ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

See detailed copyright information.

For more information on this translation, see the ESV Preface.

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1 Samuel Chapter 21 — Additional Translations:

King James Version New King James Version New Living Translation New International Version Christian Standard Bible New American Standard Bible 2020 New American Standard Bible 1995 Legacy Standard Bible Amplified Bible New English Translation Revised Standard Version American Standard Version Young's Literal Translation Darby Translation Webster's Bible Hebrew Names Version Latin Vulgate Westminster Leningrad Codex Septuagint Smith Van Dyck Arabic Bible Open New Arabic Version Brenton's English Septuagint Reina Valera 1909 Reina-Valera 1960 Bible in Basic English Chinese Traditional Union Espanol Moderno Korean Holy Bible Louis Segond German Luther Russian Synodal Translation Sagradas Escrituras