1Then David came to Nob to Ahimelech the priest: and Ahimelech came to meet David trembling, and said to him, Why are you alone, and no man with you? 2And 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 appointed the young men to such and such a place. 3Now therefore what is under your hand? give me five loaves of bread in my hand, or whatever there is present. 4And the priest answered David, and said, There is no common bread under my hand, but there is holy bread; if only the young men have kept themselves from women. 5And David answered the priest, and said to him, Truly women have been kept from us about these three days; when I came out, the vessels of the young men were holy, though it was but a common journey; how much more then today shall their vessels be holy? 6So the priest gave him holy bread; for there was no bread there but the showbread, that was taken from before Yehovah, to put hot bread in the day when it was taken away. 7Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before Yehovah; and his name was Doeg the Edomite, the chief of the herdsmen who belonged to Saul. 8And David said to Ahimelech, And is there not here under your 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 you killed in the Valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod: if you will take that, take it; for there is no other except that here. And David said, There is none like that; give it to me. 10And David arose, and fled that day for fear of Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath. 11And the servants of Achish said to him, Is this not David the king of the land? did they not sing one to another of him in dances, saying, Saul has slain his thousands, And David his ten thousands? 12And David laid up these words in his heart, and was greatly afraid of Achish the king of Gath. 13And he changed his behavior before them, and pretended to be mad in their hands, and scratched on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down on his beard. 14Then Achish said to his servants, Look, you see the man is mad; why then have you brought him to me? 15Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence? shall this fellow come into my house?