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21 Then came Dovid to Nov to Achimelech HaKohen; and Achimelech was afraid at the meeting of Dovid, and said unto him, Why art thou alone, and no ish with thee?

(3) And Dovid said unto Achimelech HaKohen, HaMelech hath commanded me a matter, and hath said unto me, Let no ish know anything of the davar whereabout I send thee, and what I have commanded thee; and I have directed ne’arim to such and such a makom (place).

(4) Now therefore what is under thine yad? Give me five lechem in mine yad, or whatever there is found.

(5) And the Kohen answered Dovid, and said, There is no lechem chol (ordinary bread) under mine yad, but there is lechem kodesh; if the ne’arim have kept themselves at least from isha.

(6) And Dovid answered the Kohen, and said unto him, Indeed isha have been kept from us yesterday and the day before, since I set out, and the vessels of the ne’arim (young men) are kodesh, and if this is a derech chol (ordinary mission) indeed it will remain kodesh today in their vesels.

(7) So the Kohen gave him kodesh; for there was no lechem there but the Lechem HaPanim, that was taken from before Hashem, to be replaced with lechem cham on the day when it was taken away.

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David at Nob

21 [a]David went to Nob,(A) to Ahimelek the priest. Ahimelek trembled(B) when he met him, and asked, “Why are you alone? Why is no one with you?”

David answered Ahimelek the priest, “The king sent me on a mission and said to me, ‘No one is to know anything about the mission I am sending you on.’ As for my men, I have told them to meet me at a certain place. Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever you can find.”

But the priest answered David, “I don’t have any ordinary bread(C) on hand; however, there is some consecrated(D) bread here—provided the men have kept(E) themselves from women.”

David replied, “Indeed women have been kept from us, as usual(F) whenever[b] I set out. The men’s bodies are holy(G) even on missions that are not holy. How much more so today!” So the priest gave him the consecrated bread,(H) since there was no bread there except the bread of the Presence that had been removed from before the Lord and replaced by hot bread on the day it was taken away.

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Footnotes

  1. 1 Samuel 21:1 In Hebrew texts 21:1-15 is numbered 21:2-16.
  2. 1 Samuel 21:5 Or from us in the past few days since