1 Samuel 21 David and His Men Eat Showbread 1 Now David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech was afraid when he met David, and said to him, “Why are you alone, and no one is with you?”2 So David said to Ahimelech the priest, “The king has ordered me on some business, and said to me, ‘Do not let anyone know anything about the business on which I send you, or what I have commanded you.’ And I have directed my young men to such and such a place. 3 Now therefore, what have you on hand? Give me five loaves of bread in my hand, or whatever can be found.” 4 And the priest answered David and said, “There is no common bread on hand; but there is holy bread, if the young men have at least kept themselves from women.” 5 Then David answered the priest, and said to him, “Truly, women have been kept from us about three days since I came out. And the vessels of the young men are holy, and the bread is in effect common, even though it was consecrated in the vessel this day.” 6 So the priest gave him holy bread; for there was no bread there but the showbread which had been taken from before the LORD, in order to put hot bread in its place on the day when it was taken away. “Finding that his beloved Jonathan cannot defend him from the wrath of Saul, David next flies to the high priest, to inquire of the Lord concerning his way.” (Daniel Whedon) — “to make some inquiry of the Divine oracle, the Urim and Thuinmim, concerning his... future.” (C. J. Ellicott) and his own direction in preserving his life. Thus he became a wanderer. “Our great and splendid cathedrals are of small avail; the ark still wanders, and dwells in tents.” (Sutcliffe) After Shiloh fell, the ark is seen round about, but here is the first sign of the functional, ancient tabernacle of the wanderings at Nob, ‘a city of priests,’ as it is called in 1 Samuel 22:19. It was thus called, “either, 1. Because it was assigned to the priests. For though it be not expressed by this name among their cities, Joshua 21, yet it might be one of those cities there named by some other name, which name might be changed; or another new name added to the old for some reason now unknown, as was very usual among the Hebrews: compare 1 Ch 6. Or, 2. Because it was now inhabited by the priests for the service of the tabernacle, which now was here; as appears from 1 Samuel 21:7,9; for as the kings of Israel were to consult with God’s oracle in all their weighty affairs, so they endeavoured to have it in or near their own habitations.” (Matthew Poole)
“Now David came to Nob,”— “situated on the road from the north to Jerusalem, near Anathoth, and within sight of the holy city Isaiah 10:32; Nehemiah 11:32…” (Albert Barnes)— desiring that True Bread, which came down from heaven, not that bread which perisuhes. David came particularly to a person- Ahimelech (my brother is King), the [high] priest.— the great grandson of Eli— ‘to ask counsel of the Lord.” (Geneva Study Bible) So, there was more in the church of Samuel's day than prophets. There was still a faithful priesthood, after Eli. And the house of Eli emerges here as still in office. At Nob, "no less than-five persons ministered there in the white linen dress of the priesthood.” (Stanley, Lectures on the Jewish Church, Lect. 12)
Ahimelech was afraid when he met David alone- “as were likewise the Bethlehemites at the coming of Samuel. [1 Samuel16:4]” (John Trapp) —the prophet. So, here is like righteous fear of God’s anointed. And he said to David, “Why are you alone, and no one is with you?’” “David had left the few servants who accompanied him in his flight somewhere in the neighbourhood, as we may gather from 1 Samuel 21:2, because he wished to converse with the high priest alone. Ahimelech's anxious inquiry led David to resort to the fabrication described in 1 Samuel 21:2: ‘The king has ordered me on some business, and said to me, ‘Do not let anyone know anything about the business on which I send you, or what I have commanded you.’” (Keil & Delitzsch) This protected the priest from the charge of collaboration in a righteous court. David asked for the bread that was in the hands of the high priest. And he answered David and said, “There is no common bread on hand; but there is holy bread...” etc. “Loaves of bread placed on a special table in the sanctuary or Holy Place of the tabernacle and later in the temple. Two other terms in the OT are used to describe the ‘bread of the Presence,’ which means bread that has been set before the Lord's face (Ex 25:23, 30; 35:13; 39:36; 1 Kgs 7:48; 2 Chr 4:19). The term ‘showbread’ (KJV ‘shewbread’) refers to the arrangement of the bread in rows on the table (1 Chr 9:32; 23:29; 28:16; 2 Chr 2:4; 13:11; 29:18).” (Tyndale Bible Dictionary) The bread in the hands of the high priest “was removed the day before the Sabbath when it became lawful for the priests to use it (Leviticus 24:9) [— to eat it]. David might have it under the circumstances, if only he and his companions (supposed to be elsewhere) had complied with a requirement of the Levitical law... It was the Sabbath, and with the new bread having been put on the table, there was no risk in giving David the old. (Compare 1 Samuel 22:10 with Matthew 12:3, Mark 2:25, and Luke 6:3.)” (Gray’s Commentary) But ritualistic cleaning was needed “to consist in three things—(1) ablution, or washing of the person; (2) washing of clothes; and (3) abstinence from sexual intercourse (Exo19:15).” (C. J. Ellicott) It was only a type or picture of holiness without which no one will God.
Ahimelech would allow David and his men to eat the bread, if they had at least kept themselves from women. And then David answered the priest, and said to him, “Truly, women have been kept from us about three days since I came out.”— “And”— moreover— “the vessels of the young men are holy,” etc. — “i. e., their clothes and light, portable baggage—answering to the modern ‘knapsack.’ The Vulg. renders the Hebrew word by ‘vasa.’ David means to say, ‘Since we have just left home, you may readily suppose that no impurity has been contracted; it would be different if we were returning home from a journey, when on the way—especially in war—uncleanness might be contracted by the blood of enemies or otherwise.’—Seb. Schmidt... The LXX., by a very slight change in the Hebrew letters, instead of ‘the vessels of the young men,’ render, ‘all the young men.’” (C. J. Ellicott) “And” David reckons— finally— “the bread is in effect common, even though it was consecrated in the vessel this day.” “For though for a season, whilst it is to stand before the Lord, it be so holy, that the priest himself might not eat it; yet afterwards it is eaten by the priest, and by his whole family, as their common food; and so it may be by us, in our circumstances.” (Matthew Poole) The high priest listened to him and allowed it, which “was not contrary to the spirit of the law in cases of need, and is justified by our Lord. Mark 2:25.” (Sutcliffe) Perhaps it should not have been an uncommon thing, as the unadulterated purpose of the sanctuary was to make priest of people— to help them prepare to approach God in the holy place, even one day in the holy of holies, after this life. And surely the high priest of Israel knew of David’s anointing by Samuel, as well of his faith.
1 Samuel 21 Doeg and Sword of Goliath
7 Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the LORD. And his name was Doeg, an Edomite, the chief of the herdsmen who belonged to Saul. 8 And David said to Ahimelech, “Is there not here on hand a spear or a sword? For I have brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king’s business required haste.” 9 So the priest said, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the Valley of Elah, there it is, wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you will take that, take it. For there is no other except that one here.” And David said, “There is none like it; give it to me.”
“‘Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before Yahweh’; because it was sabbath day, and so he might not travel, at least no more than two thousand cubits; ‘and his name was Doeg, an Edomite,’ being by birth an Idumean, but a proselyte to the Jewish religion.— ‘the chiefest of the herdmen that belonged to Saul’; Saul had his herds and men to look after them, and this man was set over them all, to see that they faithfully discharged their trust.” (John Gill)
This man was “tarrying to worship before the ark.” (Geneva Study Bible) “Doeg may set his foot as far within the tabernacle as David, and seem to be as devout: ‘but God knoweth your hearts,’saith our Saviour to the Pharisees, [Luke 16:15] and will wash off your paint with rivers of brimstone.” (John Trapp)
“And David said to Ahimelech, ‘Is there not here on hand a spear or a sword? For I have brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king’s business required haste.’. So the priest said, ‘The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the Valley of Elah, there it is, wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you will take that, take it. For there is no other except that one here.’” “Poor David in his flight came unarmed. It is good to furnish our armoury from the sanctuary. The sword of the Spirit is the word of God. The sword of Goliath was a sword of remembrance, and no doubt peculiarly valuable, to David. It was hardly possible for him to look upon it without giving a new edge to his faith. There is great sweetness in all our past experiences of God's mercy.” (Hawker's Poor Man's Commentary)
So David takes Goliath‘s sword from behind the ephod “in the place allowed for keeping the sacred vestments, of which the ephod is mentioned as the chief. The giant‘s sword was deposited in that safe custody as a memorial of the divine goodness in delivering Israel. ‘There is none like it’; — not only for its size and superior temper, but for its being a pledge of the divine favor to him, and a constant stimulus to his faith.— ‘Give it to me.’” (Jameison-Faussett-Brown)—it’s rightful owner.
1 Samuel 21 David Flees to Gath 10 Then David arose and fled that day from before Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath. 11 And the servants of Achish said to him, “Is this not David the king of the land? Did they not sing of him to one another in dances, saying: ‘Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands’?”[1 Samuel 18:7] 12 Now David took these words to heart, and was very much afraid of Achish the king of Gath. 13 So he changed his behavior before them, pretended madness in their hands, scratched on the doors of the gate, and let his saliva fall down on his beard. 14 Then Achish said to his servants, “Look, you see the man is insane. Why have you brought him to me? 15 Have I need of madmen, that you have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?” “Mark his successive flights. First from the court of Saul to his own house, (1 Samuel 19:10;) thence to Samuel at Ramah, (18;) thence to Jonathan in the field of Gibeah, (1 Samuel 20:1;) thence to the high priest at Nob. 1 Samuel 21:1. He might well feel, at this point, that there was now no asylum for him in Israel.” (Daniel Whedon) Upon guidance of the divine oracles, ‘David arose and fled that day from before Saul,’ that is, out of Saul's domain.” (Geneva Study Bible)— “‘and went to Achish the king of Gath.’ which was one of the five principalities of the Philistines.” (Jamieson-Fausset-Brown)— particularly “that of Goliath, whom he had slain, and whose sword he had now with him.” (Thomas Coke) Question- But why did God send him there to Israel’s active enemy! God only knows, but other ally countries with “would certainly have delivered him up, upon Saul’s demands.” (Matthew Poole) God had spoken and now we follow David “down the slope of Mount Olivet, across the brook Kedron, and past the stronghold of Zion, and probably through the very valley of Elah where he had fought with the giant, David makes his way to Gath. It was surely a strange place to fly to...! What reception could the conqueror of Goliath expect in his city? What retribution was due to him for the hundred foreskins, and for the deeds of victory which had inspired the Hebrew singers when they sang of the tens of thousands whom David had slain?” (Expositor's Bible Commentary) “And the servants of Achish said to him, ‘Is this not David the king of the land?’... of the Philistines; so some render the words, ‘the king of this land’; which belongs unto him for his conquest of Goliath; for this was what was proposed by him, that whoever was the conqueror should possess the kingdom.” (Gill) — “Did they not sing of him to one another in dances, saying: ‘Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands’? [1 Samuel 18:7]” “That popular lilt, the folk-song of the Israelitish maidens, which sang of the prowess of David, the son of Jesse, was no doubt current in frontier towns like Gath, and at once the fugitive was recognised...’And David laid up these words’—Now, for the first time, David saw how widely travelled was a renown of which he in his humbleness of heart had thought so little, and at once a deadly fear took possession of him.” (C. J Ellicott ) And he “‘was very much afraid of Achish the king of Gath.”“When brought to King Achish he was as a sheep between two bands of wolves, an object of deadly hatred to the Philistines on the one hand, and exposed to equal persecutions from his own fellow-countrymen.” (John Calvin) “So he changed his behavior before them, pretended madness in their hands, scratched on the doors of the gate, and let his saliva fall down on his beard.” (12-13) In this scenario we find both doubt and faith in David’s heart. He pretends madness to save his own soul but the seed of faith had been both planted and watered, bearing fruit. Psalm 56 was later written by David of this incident. It is titled “Silent Dove in Distant Lands,” a Michtam of David— an “enigmatical form of denoting the subject, as given in the history referred to (1Sa 21:11, &c.), David being regarded as an uncomplaining, meek dove, driven from his native home to wander in exile. Beset by domestic and foreign foes, David appeals confidently to God, recites his complaints, and closes with joyful and assured anticipations of God's continued help.” (Jamieson-Fausset-Brown) He begins, “Be merciful to me, O God, for man would swallow me up;” etc. -“literally, ‘for man panteth after me ‘- like a wild beast after his prey. The contrast is sharp between ‘man’ (‘enosh’, ‘weak man’) and God (‘Elohim’, ‘the Mighty One’). He fighting daily oppreseeth me; rather, ‘all the day long is he fighting and oppressing me.’” (Pulpit Commentary) Achish generously drove him out. “It is highly probable, Achish was aware, that this madness was counterfeit. But being desirous to preserve David [as a friend], he speaks as if he thought it real.” (John Wesley) “David prospering at Gath would have been a miserable spectacle; David driven away by Achish is on the way to brighter and better days.” (Expositor's Bible Commentary)