Bread and a Sword at Nob

¹David traveled to Nob to see Ahimelech the priest. Ahimelech was afraid when he met David and asked, 'Why are you alone, and why is no one with you?' ²David told Ahimelech the priest, "The king gave me a secret mission. He said, 'No one is to know anything about what I'm sending you to do or what I've ordered.' I've told my men to meet me at a certain place." ³Now, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread — or whatever food you can spare. ⁴The priest answered David, "I don't have any ordinary bread, only the holy bread. I can give it to you if your men have kept themselves from sleeping with women." ⁵David answered the priest, "Truly, women have been kept from us for about 3 days since I left. The vessels of the young men are holy, and the bread is, in a way, common, even though it was sanctified today in the vessel." ⁶So the priest gave him the holy bread, since it was the only bread available. It was the special bread placed before the LORD, which was replaced with hot bread on the day it was removed. ⁷Now it happened that one of Saul's servants was there that day, detained before the LORD. His name was Doeg, an Edomite, and he was the chief of Saul's herdsmen. ⁸David asked Ahimelech, "Do you have a spear or sword here? I didn't bring my sword or any weapons — the king's mission was so urgent I had to leave in a hurry." ⁹The priest said, "The sword of Goliath the Philistine — the one you killed in the valley of Elah — is here, wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. You can take it if you want, but it's the only weapon here." David said, "There's nothing better than that. Give it to me."