1 ¶ Then David went to Nob to Ahimelech the priest: and Ahimelech trembled as he came to meet David, and asked him, Why are you alone, and no one with you?

2 And David said to Ahimelech the priest, The king has commissioned me with a task, and has said to me, Do not let anyone know anything about the business on which I am sending you, or what I have commanded you: I have stationed my young men at a certain place.

3 Now then what do you have at hand? let me have five loaves of bread to take with me, or whatever you have.

4 And the priest answered David, There is no ordinary bread at hand, but there is hallowed bread; if the young men have at least kept themselves from women.

5 And David told the priest, Truly women have been kept from us for about these three days, since I left, and the vessels of the young men are clean, even though this is a common mission, their vessels are certainly clean today.

6 So the priest gave him hallowed bread: for there was no bread there but the showbread, that was taken from the presence of the LORD, to be replaced with hot bread when it was taken away.

7 Now a certain one of Saul’s servants was there that day, detained before the LORD; and his name was Doeg, an Edomite, the chief of Saul’s herdsmen.

8 And David asked Ahimelech, Do you have a sword or a spear at hand? for I did not bring my sword or my weapons with me, because the king’s business required haste.

9 And the priest said, The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you slew in the valley of Elah, is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod: if you want to take that, go ahead: for there is nothing else here. And David said, There is none like that; give it to me.

10 ¶ Then David arose, and fled for fear of Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath.

11 And the servants of Achish asked him, Is not this 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?

12 And David took those words to heart, and was very much afraid of Achish the king of Gath.

13 So he changed the way he was acting around them, and pretended to be insane in their presence, and scribbled on the gates, and let his spit run down his beard.

14 Then Achish said to his servants, Look, you can see the man is crazy: so why have you brought him to me?

15 Do I need mad men, that you have brought this man to act crazy in my presence? should such a person be my guest?