² David answered Ahimelek the priest, “The king sent me on a mission and said to me, ‘No one is to know anything about the mission I am sending you on.’ As for my men, I have told them to meet me at a certain place. ³ Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever you can find.”

⁴ But the priest answered David, “I don’t have any ordinary bread^(A) on hand; however, there is some consecrated^(B) bread here—provided the men have kept^(C) themselves from women.”

⁵ David replied, “Indeed women have been kept from us, as usual^(D) whenever^[a] I set out. The men’s bodies are holy^(E) even on missions that are not holy. How much more so today!” ⁶ So the priest gave him the consecrated bread,^(F) since there was no bread there except the bread of the Presence that had been removed from before the Lord and replaced by hot bread on the day it was taken away.

⁷ Now one of Saul’s servants was there that day, detained before the Lord; he was Doeg^(G) the Edomite,^(H) Saul’s chief shepherd.

⁵ “Take the finest flour and bake twelve loaves of bread,^(A) using two-tenths of an ephah^[a](B) for each loaf. ⁶ Arrange them in two stacks, six in each stack, on the table of pure gold^(C) before the Lord. ⁷ By each stack put some pure incense^(D) as a memorial^[b] portion^(E) to represent the bread and to be a food offering presented to the Lord. ⁸ This bread is to be set out before the Lord regularly,^(F) Sabbath after Sabbath,^(G) on behalf of the Israelites, as a lasting covenant. ⁹ It belongs to Aaron and his sons,^(H) who are to eat it in the sanctuary area,^(I) because it is a most holy^(J) part of their perpetual share of the food offerings presented to the Lord.”