1Then came David to Nob to Ahimelech the priest: and Ahimelech was afraid at the meeting of David, and said unto him, Why art thou alone, and no man with thee?
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1Then came David to Nob to Ahimelech the priest: and Ahimelech was afraid at the meeting of David, and said unto him, Why art thou alone, and no man with thee?
After Jonathan's arrow test showed that David was unsafe around Saul, he went to the land of Nob.
The priest (Ahimelech) didn't trust David and asked him,
Why are you alone?
2 And David said unto Ahimelech the priest, The king hath commanded me a business, and hath said unto me, Let no man know any thing of the business whereabout I send thee, and what I have commanded thee: and I have appointed my servants to such and such a place.
David lied to Ahimelech, saying,
The king sent me on business to "such and such a place." [1]
3 Now therefore what is under thine hand? give me five loaves of bread in mine hand, or what there is present.
Give me five loaves of bread (or more if you've got it).
4 And the priest answered David, and said, There is no common bread under mine hand, but there is hallowed bread; if the young men have kept themselves at least from women.
The priest said,
I only have holy bread for men who have never been around women. [2]
5 And David answered the priest, and said unto him, Of a truth women have been kept from us about these three days, since I came out, and the vessels of the young men are holy, and the bread is in a manner common, yea, though it were sanctified this day in the vessel.
David said,
I haven't been around women for three days, and the young men's vessels are holy. [3]
6 So the priest gave him hallowed bread: for there was no bread there but the shewbread, that was taken from before the LORD, to put hot bread in the day when it was taken away.
7 Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the LORD; and his name was Doeg, an Edomite, the chiefest of the herdmen that belonged to Saul.
So the priest gave David the holy bread.
8And David said unto Ahimelech, And is there not here under thine hand spear or sword? for I have neither brought my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king's business required haste.
9And the priest said, The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom thou slewest in the valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod: if thou wilt take that, take it: for there is no other save that here. And David said, There is none like that; give it me.
David asked Ahimelech if he had any spears or swords. The priest said,
Yes, I just happen to have Goliath's sword. [4]
David said,
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 unto him, Is not this David the king of the land? did they not sing one to another of him in dances, saying, Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands?
When he arrived, everyone said:
Isn't this king David, of whom the dancing girls sang: Saul has killed thousands and David tens of thousands? [5]
12 And David laid up these words in his heart, and was sore afraid of Achish the king of Gath.
13 And he changed his behaviour before them, and feigned himself mad in their hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down upon his beard.
When David heard the dancing girls' words, he was afraid of Achish, the king of Gath.
So he pretended to be insane, scribbling on the gates of Gath, letting spit run down his beard.
14Then said Achish unto his servants, Lo, ye see the man is mad: wherefore then have ye brought him to me?
15Have I need of mad men, that ye have brought this fellow to play the mad man in my presence? shall this fellow come into my house?
Achish said to his servants,
Lo, this man is mad!Why did you bring him to me?
Do you think I need mad men? [6]
When David fled to Nob, what was the priest's name?
According to the note for this verse in The HarperCollins Study Bible, Ahimelech was referencing Exodus 19:15 here, which reads:
And he said unto the people, Be ready against the third day: come not at your wives. Exodus 19:15
I'm not sure I see the connection, though. Moses was telling the men to abstain from sex the night before God appeared to them on Mount Sinai. What does that have to do with "holy bread"?
In its note for this verse, The Oxford Annotated Bible refers to Leviticus 24:5-9, which doesn't seem to apply much either.. .
I guess a young man's penis is holy if it hasn't made contact with any females lately.
And it came to pass as they came, when David was returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, that the women came out of all cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet king Saul, with tabrets, with joy, and with instruments of musick.
And the women answered one another as they played, and said, Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands. 1 Samuel 18:6-7
Is this where the title of "Mad Men" came from?