1 Samuel 21:4 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
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 themselves at least from women.
literally one officiating · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
answered
וַיַּ֨עַןvai.Ya.'an
H6030
properly · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
David
דָּוִד֙da.Vid
H1732
David · proper noun, a man's name
said
וַיֹּ֔אמֶרvai.Yo.mer
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
common
חֹ֖לchol
H2455
properly · adjective, masculine singular absolute
bread
לֶ֥חֶםLe.chem
H3899
food (for man or beast) · noun, common masculine singular construct
hand
יָדִ֑יya.Di
H3027
a hand (the open one (indicating power · noun, common both genders singular construct + pronominal suffix
is
יֵ֔שׁYesh
H3426
there is or are (or any other form of the verb to be · cardinal number, both genders singular absolute
hallowed
קֹ֙דֶשׁ֙ko.desh
H6944
a sacred place or thing · noun, common masculine singular absolute
bread
לֶ֤חֶםLe.chem
H3899
food (for man or beast) · noun, common masculine singular construct
men
הַנְּעָרִ֖יםha.ne.'a.Rim
H5288
(concretely) a boy (as active) · definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
kept
נִשְׁמְר֥וּnish.me.Ru
H8104
properly · verb, niphal perfect, 3rd person common plural
least
אַ֥ךְ'akh
H389
a particle of affirmation · adverb
women
מֵאִשָּֽׁהme.'i.Shah
H802
a woman · preposition + noun, common feminine singular absolute
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
Matthew 12:3-4 But he said unto them, Have ye not read what David did, when he was an hungred, and they that were with him;
Exodus 19:15 And he said unto the people, Be ready against the third day: come not at your wives.
Exodus 25:30 And thou shalt set upon the table shewbread before me alway.
Leviticus 24:5-9 And thou shalt take fine flour, and bake twelve cakes thereof: two tenth deals shall be in one cake.
1 Samuel 21:6 So the priest gave him hallowed bread: for there was no bread there but the shewbread, that was taken from before the LORD, to put hot bread…
Zechariah 7:3 And to speak unto the priests which were in the house of the LORD of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, Should I weep in the fifth month, s…
1 Corinthians 7:5 Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together aga…
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…
there is hallowed bread--There would be plenty of bread in his house; but there was no time to wait for it. "The hallowed bread" was the old shew-bread, which had been removed the previous day, and which was reserved for the use of the priests alone (Lev 24:9). Before entertaining the idea that this bread could be lawfully given to David and his men, the high priest seems to have consulted the oracle (Sa1 22:10) as to the course to be followed in this emergency. A dispensation to use the hallowed bread was specially granted by God Himself.
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 21:4
And the priest answered David, and said, there is no common bread under mine hand,.... In the tabernacle, though he might have such in his own house; which was common for any man to eat of, even such as were not priests; but he had none there, and David was in haste to be gone because of Doeg, and could not stay till such was fetched:
but there is hallowed bread; such as was devoted to sacred use. Kimchi's father thinks this was the bread of the thank offering, to which Ben Gersom inclines; otherwise the Jewish writers in general understand it of the shewbread; and it is clear it was that from 1 Samuel 21:6 and from what our Lord says, Matthew 12:4. Now this the priest had under his hand, b…
The Church Fathers
And the priest answering David, said to him, etc. Because "laos" in Greek means "people," "laic breads" signify common breads, that is, those not consecrated by offering, but common and prepared for ordinary use. Therefore, the sacred order of spiritual leaders answering Christ says: I have nothing of secular wisdom in the work of righteousness, but only the word of the Gospel, which I will commit to clean listeners. But neither do I consider that this is to be believed among the Gentiles, unless perhaps those who are converted from the various temptations of errors to the chastity and piety of the one Church virgin. For it is not good to take the children's bread and cast it to the dogs (Matthew V; Mark VII).
By "profane" he now means not the unclean, but those who are not holy, in contradistinction to the holy loaves set out upon the table. For the table continually held six loaves, being exchanged, on behalf of the twelve tribes of Israel, which they called the loaves "before the Lord," so that each of the loaves was offered on behalf of two tribes, and all of them on behalf of the twelve tribes. What good, then, came from this? That the tribes of Israel were joined together in concord. And what greater thing was signified beforehand? That the blessed apostles were sent out two by two by the Savior to preach first among the tribes of Israel, so that of the twelve disciples the number came to six pairs at once. "Lay" bread: not because those who are not holy are profane, but because they are being compared with what is holy.
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
Bread · Ordinary, called common bread — Ordinary, called common bread
Confidence · .Ahimelech, by David — .Ahimelech, by David
Priests · Revenues of: Show-bread after its removal — Revenues of: Show-bread after its removal
Shewbread · Called hallowed bread — Called hallowed bread
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).
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…
Only priests were permitted to partake of holy bread (see Exod 25:22-30; Lev 24:5-9), and only within the sacred precincts. • slept with any women: The consecrated bread was to be eaten only by the ritually pure, so the priest verified that David’s men were free from ritual impurity caused by sexual activity (see Lev 15:16-18). Typically, such bread would not be available for consumption by laity. The priest made an exception in this case probably because he sensed the men’s physical needs and he believed they were on a royal mission.
Rashi on 1 Samuel 21:4
Or whatever there is. If there are not five,3Talmud Yerushalmi Succah 5:8 explains why Dovid asked for five loaves of bread. Dovid asked for bread from Achimelech who was a member of the family of kohanim that had just completed its service; and their share was five loaves of the showbread. give me whatever is in your possession.
