1Then David went to Nob, to Ahimelech, the priest; and Ahimelech was apprehensive at seeing David, and asked, “Why are you alone, and no one with you?” 2And David told Ahimelech, “The king has sent me on a mission, and told me, ‘Tell no man anything of the business for which I send you, and what I have commanded you’; and I have told my servants to meet me at such and such a place. 3Now, what do you have? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever is here.” 4And the priest replied, “There is no common bread here, but there is consecrated bread; if the young men have at least kept themselves from women.” 5And David answered the priest, “Of a truth, women have been kept from us these three days, since I left, and the vessels of the young men are holy, and the bread is in a manner common, yea, though it were sanctified this day in the vessel.” 6So the priest gave him consecrated bread; for there was no other bread except the showbread that was taken away from before the LORD, when replaced by hot bread of that day. 7Now among the servants of Saul that were there that day, detained before the LORD; was Doeg, an Edomite, Saul’s chief herdsman. 8And David said to Ahimelech, “And is there not a spear or sword here? For I have not brought my sword nor any weapons with me, because the king's business was urgent.” 9And the priest said, “The sword of Goliath, the Philistine, whom you killed in the valley of Elah, is here, wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you will take that, take it; for there is no other except it here.” And David said, “There is none like that; give it to me.”

10And David arose, and fled that day in fear of Saul, and went to Achish, the king of Gath. 11And the servants of Achish said to him, “Is this not David, the king of the land? Did they not sing one to another of him in dances, saying, ‘Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten-thousands?’” 12And David took these words to heart, and was very much wary of Achish, the king of Gath. 13So he altered his behavior before them, and feigned being mad, and scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle dribble down upon his beard. 14Then Achish said to his servants, “Look, you can see the man is mad; why then have you brought him to me? 15Do I have need of mad men, that you have brought this fellow to carry on in my presence? This fellow shall not enter my house!”