1 Samuel 21:3-5
The Message
2-3 David answered Ahimelech the Priest, “The king sent me on a mission and gave strict orders: ‘This is top secret—not a word of this to a soul.’ I’ve arranged to meet up with my men in a certain place. Now, what’s there here to eat? Do you have five loaves of bread? Give me whatever you can scrounge up!”
4 “I don’t have any regular bread on hand,” said the priest. “I only have holy bread. If your men have not slept with women recently, it’s yours.”
5 David said, “None of us has touched a woman. I always do it this way when I’m on a mission: My men abstain from sex. Even when it is an ordinary mission we do that—how much more on this holy mission.”
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1 Samuel 21:3-5
New International Version
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(A) on hand; however, there is some consecrated(B) bread here—provided the men have kept(C) themselves from women.”
5 David replied, “Indeed women have been kept from us, as usual(D) whenever[a] I set out. The men’s bodies are holy(E) even on missions that are not holy. How much more so today!”
Footnotes
- 1 Samuel 21:5 Or from us in the past few days since
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