1David came to Nob to see Ahimelech the priest. Ahimelech trembled when he saw David and asked, 'Why are you alone? Why is no one with you?'
2David told Ahimelech, 'The king has sent me on a mission and instructed me to tell no one what it is about or what I have been ordered to do. I have arranged for my men to meet me at a certain place.'
3'Now, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever you can find.'
4The priest answered David, 'I don't have any ordinary bread. The only bread I have is the consecrated bread — but you can have it if your men have kept themselves from women.'
5David replied, 'We have kept away from women, as we always do when I go out on a mission. The men's bodies are holy even when the mission is ordinary, so of course they are holy today.'
6So the priest gave him the consecrated bread, since the only bread there was the bread of the Presence that had been removed from the LORD's table and replaced with fresh bread that same day.
7One of Saul's servants was there that day, detained before the LORD. His name was Doeg the Edomite, who was Saul's chief shepherd.
8David asked Ahimelech, 'Do you have a spear or sword? I didn't bring my weapon with me because the king's mission was urgent.'
9The priest replied, 'The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the valley of Elah, is here. It is wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you want it, take it — there is no other sword here.' David said, 'There is none like it — give it to me.'
10That day David fled from Saul and went to King Achish of Gath.
11Achish's servants said to him, 'Isn't this David, the king of that land? Didn't they sing about him in their dances, Saul has killed his thousands, and David his tens of thousands?'
12David took these words to heart and was deeply afraid of King Achish of Gath.
13So he pretended to be insane, scratching on the doors of the city gate and letting drool run down his beard.
14Achish said to his servants, 'Look at this man — he is clearly out of his mind! Why did you bring him to me?'
15'Do I need any madmen? Why bring this fellow here to act like a lunatic in my presence? Should this man come into my house?'