“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.”

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.”

So the priest gave them the holy bread. It was the only bread he had, Bread of the Presence that had been removed from God’s presence and replaced by fresh bread at the same time.

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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.”

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!” So the priest gave him the consecrated bread,(F) since there was no bread there except the bread of the Presence that had been removed from before the Lord and replaced by hot bread on the day it was taken away.

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Footnotes

  1. 1 Samuel 21:5 Or from us in the past few days since