1 Samuel 21:3

3 Now what do you have here with you? Give me five loaves of bread or whatever you can find."

1 Samuel 21:3 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 21:3

Now therefore what is under thine hand?
&c.] Meaning, what food had he in his house?

give [me] five [loaves of] bread in mine hand;
to take with him, for him and his servants in such a place:

or what there is present;
or to be found ^F7 in the tabernacle; if not five loaves, two, or three, or four, or what food soever he had by him.

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FOOTNOTES:

F7 (aumnh) "quicquid inveneris", V. L, "inventum", Montanus; "quicquid inventum fuerit", Tigurine version.

1 Samuel 21:3 In-Context

1 David came to Nob where Ahimelech was priest. Ahimelech was shaking in fear when he met David. "Why are you alone? Why is no one with you?" he asked.

2 David answered Ahimelech the priest, "The king has given me orders, but he instructed me, ‘Don't let anyone know anything about the mission I'm sending you on or about your orders.' As for my troops, I told them to meet me at an undisclosed location.

3 Now what do you have here with you? Give me five loaves of bread or whatever you can find."

4 "I don't have any regular bread on hand," the priest answered David, "just holy bread—but only if your troops have abstained from sexual activity."

5 "Definitely," David answered the priest. "Whenever I go out to war, women are off-limits; that's our standard operating procedure. Even on regular missions, the men's gear is kept holy. That's even more true today, with the mission holy along with the gear."