1Sa 21:1-6 | NETfull | STEP | [Heb. 21:2] David went to Ahimelech the priest in Nob. Ahimelech was shaking with fear when he met David, and said to him, “Why are you by yourself with no one accompanying you?”

1 Samuel 21:1-6

1 [Heb. 21:2] David went to Ahimelech the priest in Nob. Ahimelech was shaking with fear when he met ^{▼▼ Heb “trembled to meet.”} David, and said to him, “Why are you by yourself with no one accompanying you?” 2 David replied to Ahimelech the priest, “The king instructed me to do something, but he said to me, ‘Don’t let anyone know the reason I am sending you or the instructions I have given you.’ ^{▼▼ Heb “let not a man know anything about the matter [for] which I am sending you and [about] which I commanded you.”} I have told my soldiers ^{▼▼ Heb “servants.”} to wait at a certain place. ^{▼▼ The Hebrew expression here refers to a particular, but unnamed, place. It occurs in the OT only here, in 2 Kgs 6:8, and in Ruth 4:1, where Boaz uses it to refer to Naomi’s unnamed kinsman-redeemer. A contracted form of the expression appears in Dan 8:13.} 3 Now what do you have at your disposal? ^{▼▼ Heb “under your hand.”} Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever can be found.”

4 The priest replied to David, “I don’t have any ordinary bread at my disposal. Only holy bread is available, and then only if your soldiers ^{▼▼ Heb “servants.”} have abstained from sexual relations with women.” ^{▼▼ Heb “have kept themselves from women” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV); TEV “haven’t had sexual relations recently”; NLT “have not slept with any women recently.”} 5 David said to the priest, “Certainly women have been kept away from us, just as on previous occasions when I have set out. The soldiers’ ^{▼▼ Heb “servants’.”} equipment is holy, even on an ordinary journey. How much more so will they be holy today, along with their equipment!”

6 So the priest gave him holy bread, for there was no bread there other than the bread of the Presence. It had been removed from before the Lord in order to replace it with hot bread on the day it had been taken away.