1 Samuel 21:3-6

3 Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever you can find.”

4 But the priest answered David, “I don’t have any ordinary bread on hand; however, there is some consecrated bread here—provided the men have kept themselves from women.”

5 David replied, “Indeed women have been kept from us, as usual whenever^[a] I set out. The men’s bodies are holy even on missions that are not holy. How much more so today!”

6 So the priest gave him the consecrated bread, since there was no bread there except the bread of the Presence that had been removed from before the LORD and replaced by hot bread on the day it was taken away.

1 Samuel 21:3-6 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. Leviticus 24:8-9
• 2. Exodus 25:30; Matthew 12:4
• 3. S Exodus 19:15; S Leviticus 15:18
• 4. Deuteronomy 23:9-11; Joshua 3:5; 2 Samuel 11:11
• 5. 1 Thessalonians 4:4
• 6. Leviticus 24:8-9; S Exodus 25:30; 1 Samuel 22:10; Matthew 12:3-4; Mark 2:25-28; Luke 6:1-5

Footnotes

• [a]. Or "from us in the past few days since"