1 Samuel 21 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

David went to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. Ahimelech came out trembling to meet David and asked him, "Why are you alone? Why is no one with you?"

David told Ahimelech the priest, "The king sent me on a mission and told me, 'No one is to know anything about the mission I'm sending you on or what I've ordered you to do.' I've arranged to meet my men at a certain place."

"Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever you can find."

The priest answered David, "I don't have any ordinary bread on hand — the only bread here is the bread that's been set apart for God. But the men can have it if they've kept themselves from women."

David answered the priest, "Absolutely — women have been kept away from us. Whenever I go out on a mission, my men's bodies are kept ritually ready, even on ordinary missions — how much more so today!"

So the priest gave him the bread that had been set apart — since there was no other bread there except the bread of the Presence, which had been removed from before Yahweh and replaced with fresh bread on the day it was taken away.

Now one of Saul's officials happened to be there that day, detained before Yahweh. His name was Doeg the Edomite, the chief of Saul's shepherds.

David asked Ahimelech, "Don't you have a spear or sword here? I didn't bring my sword or any of my weapons because the king's mission was urgent."

The priest said, "The sword of Goliath the Philistine — the one you killed in the Valley of Elah — it's here, wrapped in a cloth behind the priestly vest. If you want to take it, take it, because there's no other sword here besides that one." David said, "There's nothing like it. Give it to me."

That day David got up and fled from Saul. He went to Achish, the king of Gath.

The officials of Achish said to him, "Isn't this David, the king of the land? Isn't he the one they sang about in their dances: 'Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his tens of thousands'?"

David took these words to heart and became very afraid of Achish, the king of Gath.

So he changed his behavior in front of them and pretended to be insane while he was in their custody. He scratched marks on the doors of the gate and let saliva run down his beard.

Achish said to his officials, "Look at this — the man is acting like a madman! Why are you bringing him to me?"

"Am I so short of madmen that you've brought this one to carry on in front of me? Should this man come into my house?"