I Samuel 21

1. And David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech was afraid at the meeting of David, and said to him, “Why are you alone, and no man with you?”

2. And David said to Ahimelech the priest, “The king has commanded me a business and has said to me, ‘Let no man know anything of the business about which I send you, and what I have commanded you.’ And I have sent servants to such and such a place.

3. And therefore, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or what there is to be found.”

4. And the priest answered David and said, “There is no common bread on hand, but there is holy bread if the young men have kept themselves at least from women.”

5. And David answered the priest and said to him, “Truly women have been kept from us for about three days, since I came out, and the vessels of the young men are holy, even when it is a common journey. How much more today when there is holy bread in their vessels?”

6. And the priest gave him holy bread, for there was no bread there but the showbread that was taken from before the LORD, in order to put hot bread in the day when it was taken away.

7. And a man from the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the LORD. And his name was Doeg, an Edomite, the chief of Saul’s herdsmen.

8. And David said to Ahimelech, “And is there not here a spear or a sword on hand? For I have not brought my sword nor my weapons with me because the king’s business needed haste.”

9. And the priest said, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the valley of Elah, behold, it is wrapped in a cloth under the ephod, if you will take it, take it for yourself, for there is none other here except that one.” And David said, “There is none like that. Give it to me.”

10. And David arose and fled that day for fear of Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath.

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, saying, ‘Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands’?”

12. And David laid up these words in his heart, and was very much afraid of Achish the king of Gath.

13. And he changed his behavior before them, and pretended himself to be mad in their hands, and marked on the doors of the gate and let his spittle fall down upon his beard.

14. Then Achish said to his servants, “Lo, you see the man is mad. Why have you brought him to me?

15. Do I have need of mad men that you have brought this one to show madness in my presence? Shall this one come into my house?”