---
title: "1 Samuel 21 – Catholic Bible (CPDV) & Latin Vulgate · Bless"
url: https://blessbible.app/bible/1-samuel/21/
description: "David receiveth holy bread of Achimelech, the priest: and feigneth himself mad… 1 Samuel 21 in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin Vulgate."
---

# 1 Samuel 21

1 Samuel 21 is chapter 21 of 31 in the First Book of Samuel. Here are all 15 verses in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin of the Clementine Vulgate beside them.

> David receiveth holy bread of Achimelech, the priest: and feigneth himself mad before Achis, king of Geth.
>
> — Bp. Richard Challoner, chapter summary

## 1 Samuel 21 (Catholic Public Domain Version)

1. Then David went into Nob, to the priest Ahimelech. And Ahimelech was astonished that David had arrived. And he said to him, “Why are you alone, and no one is with you?”
2. And David said to the priest Ahimelech: “The king has instructed to me a word, and he said: ‘Let no one know the matter about which you have been sent by me, and what type of instructions I have given to you. For I have also summoned servants to one and another place.’
3. Now therefore, if you have anything at hand, even five loaves of bread, or whatever you may find, give it to me.”
4. And the priest, responding to David, said to him: “I have no common bread at hand, but only holy bread. Are the young men clean, especially from women?”
5. And David responded to the priest, and said to him: “Indeed, as concerns being with women, we have abstained since yesterday and the day before, when we departed, and so the vessels of the young men have been holy. And although, this journey has been defiled, it will also be sanctified today as concerns the vessels.”
6. Therefore, the priest gave to him sanctified bread. For there was no bread there, but only the bread of the Presence, which had been taken away from before the face of the Lord, so that fresh loaves might be set up.
7. Now a certain man among the servants of Saul was there on that day, inside the tabernacle of the Lord. And his name was Doeg, an Edomite, the most powerful among the shepherds of Saul.
8. Then David said to Ahimelech: “Do you have, here at hand, a spear or a sword? For I did not take my own sword, or my own weapons with me. For the word of the king was urgent.”
9. And the priest said: “Behold, here is the sword of Goliath, the Philistine, whom you struck down in the Valley of Terebinth. It is wrapped up in a cloak behind the ephod. If you wish to take this, take it. For there is nothing else here except this.” And David said, “There is nothing else like this, so give it to me.”
10. And so, David rose up, and he fled on that day from the face of Saul. And he went to Achish, the king of Gath.
11. And the servants of Achish, when they had seen David, said to him: “Is this not David, the king of the land? Were they not singing about him, while dancing, saying, ‘Saul has struck down a thousand, and David ten thousand?’”
12. Then David took these words to his heart, and he became exceedingly afraid before the face of Achish, the king of Gath.
13. And he altered his mouth before them, and he slipped down between their hands. And he stumbled against the doors of the gate. And his spit flowed down his beard.
14. And Achish said to his servants: “You saw that the man is insane. Why did you bring him to me?
15. Or do we have need of those who are mad, so that you would bring in this one, to behave madly in my presence? How did this man get into my house?”

## 1 Samuel 21 in Latin (Clementine Vulgate, 1592)

1. Venit autem David in Nobe ad Achimelech sacerdotem: et obstupuit Achimelech, eo quod venisset David. Et dixit ei: Quare tu solus, et nullus est tecum?
2. Et ait David ad Achimelech sacerdotem: Rex præcepit mihi sermonem, et dixit: Nemo sciat rem propter quam missus es a me, et cujusmodi præcepta tibi dederim: nam et pueris condixi in illum et illum locum.
3. Nunc ergo si quid habes ad manum, vel quinque panes, da mihi, aut quidquid inveneris.
4. Et respondens sacerdos ad David, ait illi: Non habeo laicos panes ad manum, sed tantum panem sanctum: si mundi sunt pueri, maxime a mulieribus?
5. Et respondit David sacerdoti, et dixit ei: Equidem, si de mulieribus agitur: continuimus nos ab heri et nudiustertius quando egrediebamur, et fuerunt vasa puerorum sancta. Porro via hæc polluta est, sed et ipsa hodie sanctificabitur in vasis.
6. Dedit ergo ei sacerdos sanctificatum panem: neque enim erat ibi panis, nisi tantum panes propositionis, qui sublati fuerant a facie Domini, ut ponerentur panes calidi.
7. Erat autem ibi vir quidam de servis Saul in die illa, intus in tabernaculo Domini: et nomen ejus Doëg Idumæus, potentissimus pastorum Saul.
8. Dixit autem David ad Achimelech: Si habes hic ad manum hastam aut gladium? quia gladium meum et arma mea non tuli mecum: sermo enim regis urgebat.
9. Et dixit sacerdos: Ecce hic gladius Goliath Philisthæi, quem percussisti in Valle terebinthi: est involutus pallio post ephod: si istum vis tollere, tolle: neque enim hic est alius absque eo. Et ait David: Non est huic alter similis: da mihi eum.
10. Surrexit itaque David, et fugit in die illa a facie Saul: et venit ad Achis regem Geth.
11. Dixeruntque servi Achis ad eum cum vidissent David: Numquid non iste est David rex terræ? nonne huic cantabant per choros, dicentes: Percussit Saul mille, et David decem millia?
12. Posuit autem David sermones istos in corde suo, et extimuit valde a facie Achis regis Geth.
13. Et immutavit os suum coram eis, et collabebatur inter manus eorum: et impingebat in ostia portæ, defluebantque salivæ ejus in barbam.
14. Et ait Achis ad servos suos: Vidistis hominem insanum: quare adduxistis eum ad me?
15. an desunt nobis furiosi, quod introduxistis istum, ut fureret me præsente? hiccine ingredietur domum meam?

## Bishop Challoner's notes

Bp. Richard Challoner, notes on the Douay-Rheims (1750); they comment on its older wording.
- Verse 1: A city in the tribe of Benjamin, to which the tabernacle of the Lord had been translated from Silo.
- Verse 4: If this cleanness was required of them that were to eat that bread, which was a figure of the bread of life which we receive in the blessed sacrament; how clean ought Christians to be when they approach to our tremendous mysteries. And what reason hath the church of God to admit none to be her ministers to consecrate and daily receive this most pure sacrament, but such as devote themselves to a life of perpetual purity.
- Verse 5: “The vessels” … i. e., the bodies, have been holy, that is, have been kept from impurity.-- Ibid.
- Verse 5: Is liable to expose us to dangers of uncleanness.-- Ibid.
- Verse 5: “Be sanctified” … That is, we shall take care, notwithstanding these dangerous circumstances, to keep our vessels holy, that is, to keep our bodies from every thing that may defile us.

Source: Catholic Public Domain Version (Ronald L. Conte Jr., 2009), public domain; Latin: Clementine Vulgate (1592).