1 Samuel
1 Samuel 21
King James Version · tap any highlighted word for context
1 Samuel 21 — Scripture text (King James Version)
Then came to to the priest: and was afraid at the meeting of , and said unto him, Why art thou alone, and no man with thee? And said unto the priest, The king hath commanded me a business, and hath said unto me, Let no man know any thing of the business whereabout I send thee, and what I have commanded thee: and I have appointed my servants to such and such a place. Now therefore what is under thine hand? give me five loaves of bread in mine hand, or what there is present. And the priest answered , and said, There is no common bread under mine hand, but there is hallowed bread; if the young men have kept themselves at least from women. And answered the priest, and said unto him, Of a truth women have been kept from us about these three days, since I came out, 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. So the priest gave him hallowed bread: for there was no bread there but the shewbread, that was taken from before the LORD, to hot bread in the day when it was taken away. Now a certain man of the servants of was there that day, detained before the LORD; and his name was , an , the chiefest of the herdmen that belonged to . And said unto , And is there not here under thine hand or ? for I have neither brought my nor my weapons with me, because the king’s business required haste. And the priest said, The of the , whom thou slewest in the , behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the : if thou wilt take that, take it: for there is no other save that here. And said, There is none like that; give it me. And arose, and fled that day for fear of , and went to the king of . And the servants of said unto him, Is not this the king of the land? did they not sing one to another of him in dances, saying, hath slain his thousands, and his ten thousands? And laid up these words in his heart, and was sore afraid of the king of . And he changed his behaviour before them, and feigned himself mad in their hands, and scrabbled the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down upon his beard. Then said unto his servants, Lo, ye see the man is mad: wherefore then have ye brought him to me? Have I need of mad men, that ye have brought this fellow to play the mad man in my presence? shall this fellow come into my house?