Study Desk

Then David came to ^(C1)Nob, to Ahimelech the priest; and Ahimelech ^(C2)came trembling to meet David and said to him, "Why are you alone, and no one with you?"

David said to Ahimelech the priest, "The king has commissioned me with a matter and has said to me, '^(C1)No one is to know anything about the matter on which I am sending you and with which I have commissioned you; and I have directed the young men to a certain place.'

"Now then, what ^(F1)do you have on hand? Give ^(F2)me five loaves of bread, or whatever can be found."

The priest answered David and said, "There is no ordinary bread ^(F1)on hand, but there is ^(C1)consecrated bread, if only the young men have ^(C2)kept themselves from women."

David answered the priest and said to him, "^(C1)Be assured, women have been denied to us as previously when I left and the ^(F1)(C2)bodies of the young men were consecrated, though it was an ordinary journey; how much more then will ^(F2)their bodies be consecrated today?"

So ^(C1)the priest gave him consecrated bread; for there was no bread there except the ^(C2)bread of the Presence which was removed from its place before the LORD, in order to put hot bread in its place on the day it was taken away.