And he arose and went, and Yonatan came to the city.

And David came to Nob, to Aḥimelekh the priest, and Aḥimelekh trembled to meet David, and he said to him, 'Why are you alone, and no man is with you?'

And David said to Aḥimelekh the priest, 'The king commanded me a matter, and he said to me, Let no man know anything about the matter which I am sending you and which I commanded you, and the young men I know to a certain place.'

And now, what is under your hand? Five loaves of bread give into my hand, or what is found.'

And the priest answered David and said, 'There is no common bread under my hand, but there is holy bread, if the young men have kept themselves from women.'

And David answered the priest and said to him, 'Truly, women have been kept from us, like yesterday and the day before, when I went out, and the vessels of the young men were holy, and it is a common way, and even more so today will it be consecrated in the vessel.'

And the priest gave him holy bread, because there was no bread there, but the bread of the Presence which was removed from before יהוה, to put hot bread in its place on the day it was taken away.

And there was a man of Sha'ul's servants there that day, detained before יהוה, and his name was Do'eg the Edomite, the chief of the shepherds who belonged to Sha'ul.

And David said to Aḥimelekh, 'And is there not here under your hand a spear or a sword? Because I also did not take my sword and my weapons in my hand, because the king's matter was urgent.'

And the priest said, 'The sword of Golyat the Pelishti, whom you struck in the valley of Elah, behold, it is wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you will take that one for yourself, take it, for there is no other besides it here.' And David said, 'There is none like it; give it to me.'

And David arose and fled that day from before Sha'ul, and he came to Akish, king of Gat.

And the servants of Akish said to him, 'Is this not David, king of the land? Is this not he to whom they answer in dances, saying, Sha'ul struck down his thousands, and David his tens of thousands?'

And David laid these words to his heart, and he greatly feared before Akish, king of Gat.

And he changed his demeanor in their eyes, and he feigned madness in their hands, and he scribbled on the doors of the gate, and he let his spittle run down to his beard.

And Akish said to his servants, 'Behold, you see a man gone mad. Why do you bring him to me?'

'Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this one to act mad before me? Should this one come into my house?'