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1 Samuel 21:4-6
New English Translation
1 Samuel 21:4-6
New English Translation
4 The priest replied to David, “I don’t have any ordinary bread at my disposal. Only holy bread is available, and then only if your soldiers[a] have abstained from relations with women.”[b] 5 David said to the priest, “Certainly women have been kept away from us, just as on previous occasions when I have set out. The soldiers’[c] equipment[d] is holy, even on an ordinary journey. How much more so will they be holy today, along with their equipment!”
6 So the priest gave him holy bread, for there was no bread there other than the Bread of the Presence. It had been removed from before the Lord in order to replace it with hot bread on the day it had been taken away.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 1 Samuel 21:4 tn Heb “servants.”
- 1 Samuel 21:4 tn Heb “have kept themselves from women” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV); TEV “haven’t had sexual relations recently”; NLT “have not slept with any women recently.” sn Temporary sexual abstinence was part of the requirements of a war campaign (Deut 23:9-14), since God was pictured as coming among the camp (compare the abstinence in Exod 19:15). Besides David’s claim that it was standard practice for he and his men, it is also evident through the account of Uriah (2 Sam 11:11-12).
- 1 Samuel 21:5 tn Heb “servants’.”
- 1 Samuel 21:5 tn Or “things”; or “weapons”; Heb “vessels,” which some understand as a reference to the soldiers’ bodies (so NIV).
1 Samuel 21:4-6
New International Version
1 Samuel 21:4-6
New International Version
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!” 6 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.
Footnotes
- 1 Samuel 21:5 Or from us in the past few days since
New English Translation (NET)
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New International Version (NIV) 
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