1 Samuel 21:1-6

David and the Holy Bread

¹ ₁ Then David came to _v Nob to _w Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech _x came to meet David trembling and said to him, "Why are you alone, and no one with you?" ² And David said to Ahimelech the priest, "The king has charged me with a matter and said to me, 'Let no one know anything of the matter about which I send you, and with which I have charged you.' I have made an appointment with the young men for such and such a place. ³ Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever is here." ⁴ And the priest answered David, "I have no common bread on hand, but there is _y holy bread - _z if the young men have kept themselves from women." ⁵ And David answered the priest, "Truly women have been kept from us as always when I go on an expedition. The vessels of the young men are holy even when it is an ordinary journey. How much more today will their vessels be holy?" ⁶ So the priest gave him _y the holy bread, for there was no bread there but the bread of the Presence, _a which is removed from before the Lord, to be replaced by hot bread on the day it is taken away.

1. Cross References
   1 Samuel 22:9
   Then answered Doeg the Edomite, who stood by the servants of Saul, "I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahimelech the son of Ahitub.
   1 Samuel 22:11
   Then the king sent to summon Ahimelech the priest, the son of Ahitub, and all his father's house, the priests who were at Nob, and all of them came to the king.
   1 Samuel 22:19
   And Nob, the city of the priests, he put to the sword; both man and woman, child and infant, ox, donkey and sheep, he put to the sword.
   Nehemiah 11:32
   Anathoth, Nob, Ananiah.
   Isaiah 10:32
   This very day he will halt at Nob; he will shake his fist at the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.
   
2. Cross References
   1 Samuel 14:3
   Including Ahijah the son of Ahitub, Ichabod's brother, son of Phinehas, son of Eli, the priest of the Lord in Shiloh, wearing an ephod. And the people did not know that Jonathan had gone.
   Mark 2:26
   How he entered the house of God, in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him?
   
3. Cross References
   1 Samuel 16:4
   Samuel did what the Lord commanded and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him trembling and said, "Do you come peaceably?
   
4. Cross References
   Exodus 25:30
   And you shall set the bread of the Presence on the table before me regularly.
   Leviticus 24:5
   You shall take fine flour and bake twelve loaves from it; two tenths of an ephah shall be in each loaf.
   Matthew 12:3 - 4
   He said to them, "Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and those who were with him:
   Mark 2:25 - 26
   And he said to them, "Have you never read what David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him:
   Luke 6:3 - 4
   And Jesus answered them, "Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him:
   
5. Cross References
   Exodus 19:15
   And he said to the people, "Be ready for the third day; do not go near a woman.
   
6. Cross References
   1 Samuel 21:4
   And the priest answered David, "I have no common bread on hand, but there is holy bread - if the young men have kept themselves from women.
   
7. Cross References
   Leviticus 24:8 - 9
   Every Sabbath day Aaron shall arrange it before the Lord regularly; it is from the people of Israel as a covenant forever.