David receiveth holy bread of Achimelech, the priest: and feigneth
himself mad before Achis, king of Geth.
21:1. And David came to Nobe, to Achimelech, the priest and Achimelech
was astonished at David’s coming. And he said to him: Why art thou
alone, and no man with thee?
Nobe.... A city in the tribe of Benjamin, to which the tabernacle of
the Lord had been translated from Silo.
21:2. And David said to Achimelech, the priest: The king hath commanded
me a business, and said: Let no man know the thing for which thou art
sent by me, and what manner of commands I have given thee: and I have
appointed my servants to such and such a place.
21:3. Now therefore if thou have any thing at hand, though it were but
five loaves, give me, or whatsoever thou canst find.
21:4. And the priest answered David, saying: I have no common bread at
hand, but only holy bread, if the young men be clean, especially from
women?
If the young men be clean, etc.... If this cleanness was required of
them that were to eat that bread, which was a figure of the bread of
life which we receive in the blessed sacrament; how clean ought
Christians to be when they approach to our tremendous mysteries. And
what reason hath the church of God to admit none to be her ministers to
consecrate and daily receive this most pure sacrament, but such as
devote themselves to a life of perpetual purity.
21:5. And David answered the priest, and said to him: Truly, as to what
concerneth women, we have refrained ourselves from yesterday and the
day before, when we came out, and the vessels of the young men were
holy. Now this way is defiled, but it shall also be sanctified this day
in the vessels.
The vessels.... i. e., the bodies, have been holy, that is, have been
kept from impurity.—Ibid. Is defiled.... Is liable to expose us to
dangers of uncleanness.—Ibid. Be sanctified, etc.... That is, we shall
take care, notwithstanding these dangerous circumstances, to keep our
vessels holy, that is, to keep our bodies from every thing that may
defile us.
21:6. The priest therefore gave him hallowed bread: for there was no
bread there, but only the loaves of proposition, which had been taken
away from before the face of the Lord, that hot loaves might be set up.
21:7. Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day,
within the tabernacle of the Lord: and his name was Doeg, an Edomite,
the chiefest of Saul’s herdsmen.
21:8. And David said to Achimelech: Hast thou here at hand a spear, or
a sword? for I brought not my own sword, nor my own weapons with me,
for the king’s business required haste.
21:9. And the priest said: Lo, here is the sword of Goliath, the
Philistine, whom thou slewest in the valley of Terebinth, wrapped up in
a cloth behind the ephod: if thou wilt take this, take it, for here
there is no other but this. And David said: There is none like that,
give it me.
21:10. And David arose and fled that day from the face of Saul: and
came to Achis, the king of Geth:
21:11. And the servants of Achis, when they saw David, said to him: Is
not this David, the king of the land? Did they not sing to him in their
dances, saying: Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten
thousands?
21:12. But David laid up these words in his heart, and was exceedingly
afraid at the face of Achis, the king of Geth.
21:13. And he changed his countenance before them, and slipt down
between their hands: and he stumbled against the doors of the gate, and
his spittle ran down upon his beard.
21:14. And Achis said to his servants: You saw the man was mad: why
have you brought him to me?
21:15. Have we need of mad men, that you have brought in this fellow,
to play the madman in my presence? shall this fellow come into my
house?