1And Dawiḏ came to Noḇ, to Aḥimeleḵ the priest. And Aḥimeleḵ trembled when he met Dawiḏ, and asked him, “Why are you alone, and no one is with you?”

2And Dawiḏ said to Aḥimeleḵ the priest, “The sovereign has commanded me a word, and said to me, ‘Let no one know whatever of the word about which I send you, and which I have commanded you.’ And I have directed my young men to such and such a place.

3“And now, what do you have on hand? Give five loaves into my hand, or whatever is found.”

4And the priest answered Dawiḏ and said, “There is no ordinary bread on hand, but there is set-apart bread – provided the young men have kept themselves from women.”

5And Dawiḏ answered the priest, and said to him, “Truly, women have been kept from us about three days since I came out. And the vessels of the young men are set-apart, and it is an ordinary mission, and also, it was set-apart in the vessel today.”

6Then the priest gave him set-apart bread, for there was no bread there except the showbread which had been taken from before יהוה, in order to put hot bread in on the day it is taken away.

7Now one of the servants of Sha’ul was there that day, detained before יהוה. And his name was Do’ĕg̅, an Eḏomite, the chief of the herdsmen who belonged to Sha’ul.

8And Dawiḏ said to Aḥimeleḵ, “Is there not here on hand a spear or a sword? For I have brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me, because the matter of the sovereign was urgent.”

9And the priest said, “The sword of Golyath the Philistine, whom you smote in the Valley of Ělah. See, it is wrapped in a garment behind the shoulder garment. If you would take it, take it. For there is none other except this one here.” And Dawiḏ said, “There is none like it, give it to me.”

10And Dawiḏ rose and fled that day from before Sha’ul, and went to Aḵish the sovereign of Gath.

11But the servants of Aḵish said to him, “Is this not Dawiḏ the sovereign of the land? Did they not sing of him to each other in dances, saying, ‘Sha’ul smote his thousands, and Dawiḏ his ten thousands’?”

12And Dawiḏ took these words to heart, and was very much afraid of Aḵish the sovereign of Gath,

13and changed his behaviour before them, and feigned madness in their hands, and scratched on the doors of the gate, and let his saliva run down on his beard.

14Then Aḵish said to his servants, “Look, you see the man is acting like a madman. Why do you bring him to me?

15“Am I short of madmen, that you have brought this one to act as a madman near me? Should this one come into my house?”