1 Then came David to Nob to Ahimelech the priest. Ahimelech came to meet David trembling, and said to him, "Why are you alone, and no man with you?" 2 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.' 3 Now therefore what is under your hand? Give me five loaves of bread in my hand, or whatever there is present." 4 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." 5 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?" 6 So the priest gave him holy (bread); for there was no bread there but the show bread, that was taken from before Yahweh, to put hot bread in the day when it was taken away. 7 Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before Yahweh; and his name was Doeg the Edomite, the best of the herdsmen who belonged to Saul. 8 David said to Ahimelech, "Isn't there 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." 9 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." David said, "There is none like that. Give it to me." 10 David arose, and fled that day for fear of Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath. 11 The servants of Achish said to him, "Isn't this David the king of the land? Didn't they sing one to another about him in dances, saying, 'Saul has slain his thousands, David his ten thousands?'" 12 David laid up these words in his heart, and was very afraid of Achish the king of Gath. 13 He changed his behavior before them, and pretended to be mad in their hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down on his beard. 14 Then Achish said to his servants, "Look, you see the man is mad. Why then have you brought him to me? 15 Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?"
David comes to Ahimelech at Nob, receives provisions from him, and the sword of Goliath; and is noticed by Doeg, one of the servants of Saul, 1-Samuel 21:1-9. He leaves Nob, and goes to Achish, king of Gath, 1-Samuel 21:10. But on being recognised as the vanquisher of Goliath by the servants of Achish, he feigns himself deranged, and Achish sends him away, 1-Samuel 21:11-15.
INTRODUCTION TO FIRST SAMUEL 21
This chapter relates that David went to Nob, and pretending he was on secret business for the king, got shewbread, and the sword of Goliath, from Ahimelech the priest, 1-Samuel 21:1; and that passing from thence to Gath, where he was known, through fear feigned himself mad, and so escaped from thence, 1-Samuel 21:10.
(1-Samuel 21:1-9) David with Ahimelech.
(1-Samuel 21:10-15) David at Gath feigns himself mad.
David's Flight to Nob, and Thence to Gath - 1-Samuel 21:1-15
After the information which David had received from Jonathan, nothing remained for him in order to save his life but immediate flight. He could not return to the prophets at Ramah, where he had been miraculously preserved from the first outbreak of Saul's wrath, because they could not ensure him permanent protection against the death with which he was threatened. He therefore fled first of all to Nob, to Ahimelech the high priest, to inquire the will of God through him concerning his future course (1-Samuel 22:10, 1-Samuel 22:15), and induced him to give him bread and the sword of Goliath, also, under the pretext of having to perform a secret commission from the king with the greatest speed; for which Saul afterwards took fearful vengeance upon the priests at Nob when he was made acquainted with the affair through the treachery of Doeg (1-Samuel 21:1-9). David then fled to Gath to the Philistian king Achish; but here he was quickly recognised as the conqueror of Goliath, and obliged to feign insanity in order to save his life, and then to flee still farther (1-Samuel 21:10-15). The state of his mind at this time he poured out before God in the words of Psalm 56:1-13; Psalm 52:1-9, and 34.
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