Chapter Twenty-One
David Goes to Nob Looking for Food
21:1 Then David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech came to meet David, trembling, and said to him, “Why are you alone, and no one with you?”
David and his men come to Nob, a city within three miles southeast of Gibeah, just north of Jebus (Jerusalem), a location where the Tabernacle was located, or what was left of it after the Philistines raided Shiloh (believed to have occurred during the battle at Aphek, see 1 Samuel 4:1-22). Ahimelech (presumed to be the high priest) approached David trembling, the reason the priest is afraid has been interpreted a number of ways. Some believe he knew what happened in Ramah when the king sent messengers there to arrest David, while others believe Ahimelech was nervous seeing David arrive in town alone and determined that something was wrong. Here he asks David why he is alone.
The priest Ahimelech is first mentioned in the Bible in this chapter, he was the son of Ahitub (see 1 Samuel 22:9), the son of Phinehas, who was the son of Eli (see 1 Samuel 14:3).
21:2 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.”
David lied to Ahimelech, the king didn’t send him on some secret mission, nor was he told to not tell anyone. He further states that he going to meet up with some young men and then asks for provisions, he wants five loaves of bread, or whatever they have on hand. David is (or will be) traveling with several men (see 1 Samuel 22:6) but they are not with him in Nob.
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.” 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?”
Ahimelech tells David that he only has holy bread, the Bread of Presence (also known as Show or Shew Bread) that was baked every week and placed on the table in the first room of the Tabernacle and after one week this bread was to be eaten only by the priests (see Exodus 25:30; Leviticus 24:5-9). Ahimelech, concerned that David’s men were ceremonially clean, asks him if they have been around women (see also Exodus 19:15), David responded that the vessels (Hebrew ḵelê’, the root refers to bringing a process to completion, as a noun a piece of equipment, in context believed to refer to their genitalia) of the young men are holy (abstaining from sexual relations) whenever they on an expedition, but for a special mission like this one, even more true.
21:6 So the priest gave him the holy bread, for there was no bread there but the bread of the Presence, which is removed from before the LORD, to be replaced by hot bread on the day it is taken away.
Ahimelech gave David the consecrated bread, again summarizing that there was no other bread than the bread of Presence which was replaced every Sabbath with hot fresh bread (see Leviticus 24:8). David received the bread that was on the Table of Showbread on a Sabbath, after the new loaves were placed on the table.
21:7 Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the LORD. His name was Doeg the Edomite, the chief of Saul’s herdsmen.
Since it was a Sabbath day which God’s law required the Israelites to rest and do no work, they could not travel. One of Saul’s servants, Doeg, an Edomite, who was Saul’s chief of Saul’s herdsmen, could not return home in time for the Sabbath and was detained by the law from traveling that day (he may have been a proselyte) and he saw David there at Nob with Ahimelech.
21:8 Then David said to Ahimelech, “Then have you not here a spear or a sword at hand? For I have brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king’s business required haste.” 9 And the priest said, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you struck down in the Valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you will take that, take it, for there is none but that here.” And David said, “There is none like that; give it to me.”
David then asked Ahimelech if he had any weapons, and continuing the ruse, he said he left home quickly and did not bring any weapons with him. The priest told him that they did have the sword of Goliath, the same one that David used to kill Goliath with. Ahimelech said to take it, as that was all that they had there. David replied, there is none like it, and he was given the sword.
Considerations
A Lie or An Edict from the King?
Readers often stumble when they read the David used deception when he approached Ahimelech for food and weapons. But note in verse two that David does not name the king. While that may seem obvious that David was referring to King Saul, there may be an alternate way to interpret. Through the many Psalms that David wrote we can get an insight as to who David thought was the real king, for example in Psalms 5:2; 20:9; 24:7-10; 29:10; 68:24; 145:1, David referred to God as “the King.” Could we then apply that to verse two in this chapter and interpret it something like this, “God has charged me with a matter…”?
Breaking the Rules
The priest Ahimelech gave David the Bread of Presence that according to God’s law was to only be eaten by the priests. Why did he break the rules, after all, the regulation came from God, what man can change that? The quick answer is no one, unless He approves. Ahimelech understood that some rules can be temporarily ‘bent’ to meet a greater need. In this situation, the hunger of David and his men. This idea regarding “the law” versus compassion and need, is amplified by Jesus, who uses this event as an example. Sadly, due to Ahimelech’s willingness to help David and his men, Saul had him, and all the priests at Nob killed as reported in the next chapter.
Jesus Referred to this Event
Once when Jesus and His disciples were walking through some grain fields on a Sabbath, His disciples began to pluck the heads of grain and eat (which was allowable, See Deuteronomy 23:24-25). The Jewish leadership at that time had determined that this action was considered ‘work’ (although not according to God’s law) and in doing so would be a violation of the Sabbath laws. So when some Pharisees saw Jesus’ disciples plucking and eating they said to Him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.” (Matthew 12:2b, ESV) Jesus responded by teaching them a lesson, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? Or have you not read in the Law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.” (Matthew 12:3b-8, ESV) Jesus quoted Hosea 6:6, where it its written that God desires mercy and not sacrifice, a theme that Samuel had earlier reflected on in 1 Samuel 15:22, that obedience is greater than sacrifice. Later the same day Jesus was accused of healing on the Sabbath, resulting in a similar lesson (see Matthew 12:9-13; Mark 3:1-5; Luke 6:6-10).
David Flees Saul and Heads to Gath
21:10 And David rose and fled that day from Saul and went to Achish the king of Gath. 11 And the servants of Achish said to him, “Is not this David the king of the land? Did they not sing to one another of him in dances,‘Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands’?”
David now feeling desperate, temporarily panics as he “caves in” from the anxiety of having his life suddenly turned around and threatened by the now seemingly insane King Saul. Thinking of places to hide from Saul, David comes up with the unthinkable, to go and hid among one of Israel’s enemies, the Philistines. So, perhaps hoping that he would not be recognized as the one many years earlier killed their champion Goliath, he goes to Achish the king of Gath. But when he arrives and is standing in front of the king, he hears the king’s advisor’s say, isn’t this David the king of the land, and isn’t he the one that they celebrate in dance and song. It’s unclear if they either had the wrong information as to who was the king or that they knew that he was anointed to be the next king, but they were right in identifying him, and knew that the people of Israel did dance and sing songs about him.
21:12 And David took these words to heart and was much afraid of Achish the king of Gath. 13 So he changed his behavior before them and pretended to be insane in their hands and made marks on the doors of the gate and let his spittle run down his beard.
At that point reality hit David and he became afraid of Achish, so he began to act like a madman, acting like he was insane, as he clawed the doors and drooled down his beard.
21:14 Then Achish said to his servants, “Behold, you see the man is mad. Why then have you brought him to me? 15 Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this fellow to behave as a madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?”
Achish decides that David was indeed mad and asks why his people brought David to him. He further asks, “Must you bring me a madman? We already have enough of them around here! Why should I let someone like this be my guest?” (1 Samuel 21:14b-15, NLT)
Considerations
David is human, and yes, he has his faults!
We read here that David panicked and ran to Gath, likely without consulting God first. David is known in the Bible as “a man after God’s own heart” (see 1 Samuel 13:14; Acts 13:22), and is highly revered. But he was a human being, and as such, he had the same fears and worries that other humans have. As we learn more about David, a lot of these ‘human traits’ will surface. So why is he the only man in the Bible to be identified by God as “a man after His own heart?” For one point, he always repented! For example we read Psalm 56:1-13, which is described as a Miktam (unknown meaning, believed to be a musical term) of David that possibly relates to this event in Gath, as he ultimately turns everything over to God. And for a second point, he made an effort to know God, and anyone reading his psalms would likely agree that he really did understand Him!