1 Samuel 21:4-6

4 The priest answered David and said, "There is no ordinary bread on hand, but there is ¹consecrated bread; if only the young men have ²kept themselves from women."

5 David answered the priest and said to him, "³Surely * women have been kept from us as previously when I set out and the ⁴vessels of the young men were holy, though it was an ordinary journey; how much * more * then today will their vessels be holy?"

6 So ⁵the priest gave him consecrated bread; for there was no bread there but the ⁶bread of the Presence which was removed from before the LORD, in order to put hot bread in its place when it was taken away.

1 Samuel 21:4-6 Meaning and Commentary

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, 1Sa 21:1-9; and that passing from thence to Gath, where he was known, through fear feigned himself mad, and so escaped from thence, 1Sa 21:10-15.

Cross References

• 1. Exodus 25:30; Leviticus 24:5-9; Matthew 12:4
• 2. Exodus 19:15
• 3. Exodus 19:14, 15
• 4. 1 Thessalonians 4:4
• 5. Matthew 12:3, 4; Luke 6:3, 4
• 6. Leviticus 24:5-9

Footnotes

• [a]. Lit "under my hand"
• [b]. Lit "it" be holy "in the vessel"