1 Samuel 21:2

2 David answered Ahimelech the Priest, "The king sent me on a mission and gave strict orders: 'This is top secret - not a word of this to a soul.' I've arranged to meet up with my men in a certain place.

1 Samuel 21:2 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 21:2

And David said unto Ahimelech the priest
In reply to his question, and to account for such an appearance he made without an equipage:

the king hath commanded me a business, and hath said unto me, let no
man know anything of the business thereabout I send thee, and what I
have commanded thee;
he pretended he was upon a secret expedition, by the order of Saul, which none were to know of, no, not his own servants, and that was the reason why he came to him alone; which was a downright lie, and was aggravated by its being told only for the sake of getting a little food; and especially told to an high priest, and at the tabernacle of God, and when he was come to inquire of the Lord there; and was attended with a dreadful consequence, the slaughter of the Lord's priests there, which afterwards lay heavy on David's mind, ( 1 Samuel 22:22 ) ; and is the very sin he is thought to refer to in ( Psalms 119:28 Psalms 119:29 ) . This shows the weakness of the best of men, when left to themselves; David who as much hated lying as any man did, fell into it himself:

and I have appointed [my] servants to such and such a place;
to such a place, of such an one, not naming place nor person, that they might not be known; so the Targum calls it a place hidden and kept; and that David had some servants, though not now with him, who ate of the shewbread, appears from ( Matthew 12:3 ) ; whom Jonathan might send after him, to a place agreed on and appointed between them; so that this might be true.

1 Samuel 21:2 In-Context

1 avid went on his way and Jonathan returned to town. David went to Nob, to Ahimelech the Priest. Ahimelech was alarmed as he went out to greet David: "What are you doing here all by yourself - and not a soul with you?"

2 David answered Ahimelech the Priest, "The king sent me on a mission and gave strict orders: 'This is top secret - not a word of this to a soul.' I've arranged to meet up with my men in a certain place.

3 Now, what's there here to eat? Do you have five loaves of bread? Give me whatever you can scrounge up!"

4 "I don't have any regular bread on hand," said the priest. "I only have holy bread. If your men have not slept with women recently, it's yours."

5 David said, "None of us has touched a woman. I always do it this way when I'm on a mission: My men abstain from sex. Even when it is an ordinary mission we do that - how much more on this holy mission."