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1 Samuel 21:1-6

David and the Holy Bread

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Ch 21:2 in Hebrew} Then David came to ^bNob to ^cAhimelech the priest. And Ahimelech ^dcame to meet David trembling and said to him, “Why are you alone, and no one with you?” 2 And David said to Ahimelech the priest, “The king has charged me with a matter and said to me, ‘Let no one know anything of the matter about which I send you, and with which I have charged you.’ I have made an appointment with the young men for such and such a place. 3 Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever is here.” 4 And the priest answered David, “I have no common bread on hand, but there is ^eholy bread— ^fif the young men have kept themselves from women.” 5 And David answered the priest, “Truly women have been kept from us as always when I go on an expedition. The vessels of the young men are holy even when it is an ordinary journey. How much more today will their vessels be holy?” 6 So the priest gave him ^gthe holy bread, for there was no bread there but the bread of the Presence, ^hwhich is removed from before the Lord, to be replaced by hot bread on the day it is taken away.