1And David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech trembled when he met David, and said to him, Why are you alone, and no one is with you? 2And David said to Ahimelech the priest, The king has charged me with some business, and said to me, Let no one know anything of the matter about which I am sending you, or what I have commanded you. And I have directed my young men to such and such a place. 3Now therefore, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread in my hand, or whatever can be found. 4And the priest answered David and said, There is no common bread on hand; but there is holy bread, if the young men have at least kept themselves from women. 5And David answered the priest, and said to him, Truly, women have been kept from us about three days since I came out. And the vessels of the young men are holy, and in a way the bread is common, even though it was consecrated in the vessel today. 6So the priest gave him holy bread; for there was no bread there but the Bread of the Presence which had been taken from before Jehovah, in order to put hot bread in its place on the day when it was taken away. 7Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before Jehovah. And his name was Doeg, an Edomite, the chief of Saul’s shepherds. 8And David said to Ahimelech, Is there not here on hand a spear or a sword? For I have brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king’s business came about urgently. 9And the priest said, The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the Valley of Elah, behold, it is wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you will take that, take it. For there is no other except that one here. And David said, There is none like it; give it to me. 10And David rose up and fled that day from the face 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 of him in dances, saying: Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands? 12And David took these words to heart, and was very much afraid before Achish the king of Gath. 13And he changed his behavior in their eyes, acted like a mad man in their hands, scratched marks on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall into his beard. 14Then Achish said to his servants, Behold, see how the man is mad. Why did you bring him to me? 15Have I need of madmen, that you have brought this fellow to show madness in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?