1 Samuel · chapter 21 of 31
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1 Samuel 21 tells how David, fleeing from Saul, comes to Nob, where the priest Ahimelech gives him the consecrated bread and Goliath's sword. Doeg the Edomite witnesses what happens. David then flees to Gath, to the Philistine king Achish, and, feeling in danger, pretends to be insane to save his life.
In chapter 20 David and Jonathan parted in tears, and David was left as a fugitive. Chapter 21 shows the first steps of that flight: without food or weapons, asking a priest for help and resorting to a deception that will have tragic consequences. It also shows a vulnerable and frightened David.
David comes to Nob, where the priest Ahimelech is, who comes out to meet him trembling and asks why he is alone. David lies: he says the king has charged him with a secret matter and that his men are waiting for him at a certain place. He asks for five loaves or whatever is there. Ahimelech answers that he has only consecrated bread, and that he can give it if the young men have kept themselves from women. David assures him that they have, and the priest gives him the bread of the Presence that had been removed from before the Lord.
On that day Doeg the Edomite, Saul's chief shepherd, is there, detained before the Lord. David asks Ahimelech whether he has a spear or sword at hand, because the king's business was urgent and he did not bring his weapons. The priest says that he has only the sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom David killed in the valley of Elah, wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. David says there is none like it, and takes it.
David rises that day and flees from Saul to Achish, king of Gath. The servants of Achish say that this is David, the king of the land, of whom they sang that Saul had struck down his thousands and David his ten thousands. David takes these words to heart and is very afraid of Achish. So he changes his behavior before them, pretends to be insane, scratches marks on the doors and lets his spittle run down his beard. Achish tells his servants that he has enough madmen already and drives him from his house.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
David tells Ahimelech that the king has charged him with a matter and that no one should know. It is a lie born of fear, which will later have a terrible cost for the priests of Nob.
Since there is no other bread, the priest gives David the bread of the Presence, which only priests ate. Jesus will recall this episode to teach that mercy and human need matter more than the ritual letter (Mark 2:25-26).
David receives Goliath's sword, which was kept behind the ephod, and says there is none like it. It is a reminder of the Lord's victory, but now a fugitive carries it.
David changes his behavior, pretends madness and scratches on the doors. The anointed king survives by disguising himself as a madman before his enemies, a picture of deep weakness.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: To Nob, where the priest Ahimelech was. — 1 Samuel 21:1
Answer: The consecrated bread of the Presence, because he had no other. — 1 Samuel 21:4-6
Answer: Doeg the Edomite, Saul's chief shepherd. — 1 Samuel 21:7
Answer: The sword of Goliath the Philistine. — 1 Samuel 21:9
Answer: Because the servants of Achish recognized him as the David of whom they sang victories. — 1 Samuel 21:11-12
Answer: He pretended to be insane, scratching on the doors and letting spittle run down his beard. — 1 Samuel 21:13
This chapter shows that even a servant of God can act out of fear and resort to a lie. David lied to Ahimelech, and that decision would have painful consequences for others. In a small group you can speak honestly about the moments when fear leads us to hide the truth, and about how to trust God in danger.
It also shows God's compassion toward the hungry: consecrated bread feeds the fugitive. And it reminds us that the faith of the great figures of the Bible was not perfect; God works despite their weaknesses, and the psalms this period inspired show how David came back to trusting the Lord.
1 Samuel 21 ends with David driven out of Gath and once more in the open. In chapter 22 he will take refuge in the cave of Adullam, where about four hundred men will join him, and the cost of Doeg's presence at Nob will become clear.
According to the law, that bread was only for the priests (Leviticus 24:5-9). Here the priest gives it out of need, on the condition that the young men are ritually clean. Jesus used this episode to show that mercy toward the hungry stands above a rigid application of ritual (Matthew 12:3-4).
The headings of Psalms 34 and 56 connect those songs with David's time among the Philistines of Gath. We cannot say exactly when he wrote them, but they help us read this episode as an experience of fear that ended in trust in the Lord.