Now David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech came trembling to meet David, and he said to him, "Why are you alone and there are no men with you?"

So David said to Ahimelech the priest, "The king charged me [with] a matter and said to me, 'No one must know anything about this matter [on] which I am sending you, [with] which I have charged you and the servants.'" So {I have arranged to meet with my servants at a certain place}.

So David got up and fled on that day from the presence of Saul, and he came to Achish the king of Gath.

So the priest said, "The sword of Goliath the Philistine whom you killed in the valley of Elah [is] here, wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you want to take it for yourself, [then] take it, for there is no other except it here." And David said, "There is none like it; give it to me."

David asked Ahimelech, "Is there not {at your disposal} a spear or a sword? For I took neither my sword nor my weapons with me because the king's matter was urgent."

{David took these words seriously} and {felt severely threatened by} Achish the king of Gath.

Now there was a man from the servants of Saul on that day, detained before Yahweh, whose name [was] Doeg the Edomite, the chief of Saul's shepherds.

The priest answered David and said, "There is no ordinary bread {here at hand}; there is only holy bread, [but] only if the young men have kept themselves from women."

Do I lack madmen that you have brought this one to act like a madman before me? Should this one enter my household?"

The servants of Achish said to him, "[Is] not this David the king of the land? [Is] it not for this [one] that they sang in the dances, saying, 'Saul killed his thousands, but David his ten thousands?'"

So the priest gave him [the] holy [bread], for there was no bread there except the bread of the Presence, which was removed from before Yahweh, in order to set hot bread [there] on the day when it was taken away.

So he changed his behavior {before them} and pretended to be mad {in their presence}. He made scratches on the doors of the gate and let his saliva run down into his beard.

Then Achish said to his servants, "Look, you see a madman! Why did you bring him to me?

David answered the priest and said to him, "Indeed, women [were] held back from us {as it has been when I've gone out before}. And the things of the young men are holy when it [is] an ordinary journey. {How much more} {today} will the things be holy?"

Now then, {what do you have at hand}? Give me five [loaves] of bread or {whatever is here}."