Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Judges 9:29 And would to God this people were under my hand! then would I remove Abimelech. And he said to Abimelech, Increase thine army, and come out.
1 Samuel 21:4 And the priest answered David, and said, There is no common bread under mine hand, but there is hallowed bread; if the young men have kept t…
Isaiah 3:6 When a man shall take hold of his brother of the house of his father, saying, Thou hast clothing, be thou our ruler, and let this ruin be un…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 1 Samuel 21:1-9
Here, I. David, in distress, flies in the tabernacle of God, now pitched at Nob, supposed to be a city in the tribe of Benjamin. Since Shiloh was forsaken, the tabernacle was often removed, though the ark still remained at Kirjath-jearim. Hither David came in his flight from Saul's fury (Sa1 21:1), and applied to Ahimelech the priest. Samuel the prophet could not protect him, Jonathan the prince could not. He therefore has recourse next to Ahimelech the priest. He foresees he must now be an exile, and therefore comes to the tabernacle, 1. To take an affecting leave of it, for he knows not when he shall see it again, and nothing will be more afflictive to him in his banishment than his distan…
The king hath commanded me a business, and hath said unto me, Let no man know--This was a direct falsehood, extorted through fear. David probably supposed, like many other persons, that a lie is quite excusable which is told for the sole purpose of saving the speaker's life. But what is essentially sinful, can never, from circumstances, change its immoral character; and David had to repent of this vice of lying (Psa 119:29).
Adam Clarke on 1 Samuel 21:2
The king hath commanded me a business - All said here is an untruth, and could not be dictated by the Spirit of the Lord; but there is no reason to believe that David was under the influence of Divine inspiration at this time. It is well known that from all antiquity it was held no crime to tell a lie, in order to save life. Thus Diphilus: -
Ὑπολαμβανω το ψευδος επι σωτηριᾳ
Λεγομενον, ουδεν περιποιεισθαι δυσχερες.
"I hold it right to tell a lie, in order to procure my personal safety; nothing should be avoided in order to save life."
A heathen may say or sing thus; but no Christian can act thus, and save his soul, though he by doing so may save his life.
John Gill on 1 Samuel 21:3
Now therefore what is under thine hand?.... Meaning, what food had he in his house?
give me five loaves of bread in mine hand; to take with him, for him and his servants in such a place:
or what there is present; or to be found (g) in the tabernacle; if not five loaves, two, or three, or four, or what food soever he had by him.
(g) "quicquid inveneris", V. L, "inventum", Montanus; "quicquid inventum fuerit", Tigurine version.
The Church Fathers
Even if they accuse, yet Christ excuses, and he makes the souls that he wishes, that follow him, similar to David, who ate the loaves of proposition outside of the law—for even then he foresaw in his mind the prophetic mysteries of a new grace.
When the disciples had been hungry on the sabbath and had plucked some ears [of grain] and rubbed them in their hands, they violated the holy day by so preparing their food. Yet Christ excuses them and even became their accomplice in breaking the sabbath. … For from the Creator's Scripture and from the purpose of Christ there is derived a vivid precedent from David's example when he went into the temple on the sabbath and provided food by boldly breaking up the show bread. Even he remembered that this privilege (the dispensation from fasting) was allowed on the sabbath from the very beginning, from when the sabbath itself was instituted. For although the Creator had forbidden that the manna should be gathered for two days, he permitted it on only one occasion—the day before the sabbath—so that the previous day's provision of food might free them from fasting on the following sabbath. Therefore the Lord had good reason for pursuing the same principle in the "annulling" of the sabbath (since that is the word which people will use). He had good reason, too, for expressing the Creator's will, when he bestowed the privilege of not fasting on the sabbath. In short, might he have—right then and there—put an end not only to the sabbath but to the Creator himself if he had commanded his disciples to fast on the sabbath, as this would have been contrary to the intention of the Scripture and of the Creator's will. But is he alien from the Creator because he did not directly defend his disciples but excuses them? Or because he interposes human need, as if deprecating censure? Or because he maintains the honor of the sabbath as a day which is to be free from gloom rather than from work? Or because he puts David and his companions on a level with his own disciples in their fault and their validation? Or because he is pleased to endorse the Creator's indulgence? Or because he is himself good according to his example—is he therefore alien from the Creator?
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Ahimelech — Brother of the king, the son of Ahitub and father of Abiathar (1 Sam. 22:20-23). He descended from Eli in the line of Ithamar. In 1 Chr. 18:16 he is called Abimelech, and is probably the same as…
Bread — Among the Jews was generally made of wheat (Ex. 29:2; Judg. 6:19), though also sometimes of other grains (Gen. 14:18; Judg. 7:13). Parched grain was sometimes used for food without any other…
Judges, Book of — Is so called because it contains the history of the deliverance and government of Israel by the men who bore the title of the “judges.” The book of Ruth originally formed part of this book, but about…
Quotations — From the Old Testament in the New, which are very numerous, are not made according to any uniform method. When the New Testament was written, the Old was not divided, as it now is, into chapters and…
Shewbread — Ex. 25:30 (R.V. marg., “presence bread”); 1 Chr. 9:32 (marg., “bread of ordering”); Num. 4:7: called “hallowed bread” (R.V., “holy bread”) in 1 Sam. 21:1-6. This bread consisted of twelve loaves made…
Betrayal · Of David, by Doeg — Of David, by Doeg
Confidence · .Ahimelech, by David — .Ahimelech, by David
Tabernacle · Was set up: In Nob — Was set up: In Nob
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Keil & Delitzsch on 1 Samuel 21:1-9
Sa1 21:1-2
David at Nob. - The town of Nob or Nobeh (unless indeed the form נבה stands for נבה here and in Sa1 22:9, and the ה attached is merely ה local, as the name is always written נב in other places: vid., Sa1 22:11, Sa1 22:19; Sa1 21:1; Isa 10:32; Neh 11:32) was at that time a priests' city (Sa1 22:19), in which, according to the following account, the tabernacle was then standing, and the legal worship carried on. According to Isa 10:30, Isa 10:32, it was between Anathoth (Anata) and Jerusalem, and in all probability it has been preserved in the village of el-Isawiyeh, i.e., probably the village of Esau or Edom, which is midway between Anata and Jerusalem, an hour from the latter, and…
The king has sent me: David lied to conceal his outlaw status and to dispel Ahimelech’s worries.
Rashi on 1 Samuel 21:3
And as for the youths, I have sent them ahead. An expression of troubling; the young men who came out with me, I have troubled them to go before me to a secret, hidden place.
I have troubled. Similar to, 'And with them he broke [וַידַׁע] the men of Succos.'1 Shoftim 8:16.
Certain secret. [אַלְמֹנִי is derived from] 'אַלְמוֹן' [=widower], bereft of a name; for I do not want to mention it, because it is a secret matter.
Hidden. Similar to כִּי יִפָּלֵא [=will be concealed],2Devarim 17:8. will be hidden.
