¹David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest; and Ahimelech shuddered to meet David and said to him, "Why are you alone, and there is no man with you?"

²David said to Ahimelech the priest, "The king commanded me a word and said to me, 'Let no one know anything of the word that I am sending you on, and that I commanded you.' As for the boys, I have directed them to such and such a place.

³And now, what is there under your hand? Give five loaves into my hand, or whatever is found."

⁴The priest answered David and said, "There is no common food under my hand, but there is holy food, if only the boys have kept themselves from a woman."

⁵David answered the priest and said to him, "Indeed, women have been held back from us, as yesterday and the day before, when I went out; and the vessels of the boys were holy. Though it is a common way, how much more so today will it be set apart in the vessel."

⁶So the priest gave him what was holy, for there was no food there except the food of the faces, the ones removed from before the face of Yahweh, to put hot food on the day it was taken away.

⁷And a man from the slaves of Saul was there that day, held back before the face of Yahweh; and his name was Doeg the Edomite, the mightiest of the shepherds who were Saul's.

⁸David said to Ahimelech, "And is there here under your hand a spear or a sword? For I took neither my sword nor my weapons in my hand, for the king's word was pressing."

⁹The priest said, "The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you struck down in the vale of Elah — look, it is wrapped in a garment behind the ephod. If you will take it for yourself, take it, for there is no other except it here." David said, "There is none like it; give it to me."

¹⁰David rose that day and fled from before Saul, and came to Achish the king of Gath.

¹¹And the slaves of Achish said to him, "Is this not David, the king of the land? Did they not answer one another about him in the dances, saying, 'Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands'?"

¹²David put these words in his heart and feared exceedingly from before Achish the king of Gath.

¹³So he changed his taste in their eyes and played mad in their hand, and scratched on the doors of the gate, and let his drool come down onto his beard.

¹⁴Achish said to his slaves, "Look, you see a man acting mad; why do you bring him to me?

¹⁵Am I lacking madmen, that you have brought this one to act mad over me? Shall this one come into my house?"