1 Samuel 21:7-15

7 Now Doeg the Edomite, Saul’s chief herdsman, was there that day, having been detained before the LORD .

8 David asked Ahimelech, “Do you have a spear or sword? The king’s business was so urgent that I didn’t even have time to grab a weapon!”

9 “I only have the sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the valley of Elah,” the priest replied. “It is wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. Take that if you want it, for there is nothing else here.” “There is nothing like it!” David replied. “Give it to me!”

10 So David escaped from Saul and went to King Achish of Gath.

11 But the officers of Achish were unhappy about his being there. “Isn’t this David, the king of the land?” they asked. “Isn’t he the one the people honor with dances, singing, ‘Saul has killed his thousands, and David his ten thousands’?”

12 David heard these comments and was very afraid of what King Achish of Gath might do to him.

13 So he pretended to be insane, scratching on doors and drooling down his beard.

14 Finally, King Achish said to his men, “Must you bring me a madman?

15 We already have enough of them around here! Why should I let someone like this be my guest?”

1 Samuel 21:7-15 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.

Footnotes

• [a]. The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.