1 Samuel 21:4 (WEB)
The priest answered David, and said, “I have no common bread, but there is holy bread; if only the young men have kept themselves from women.”
As quoted in the map (KJV)
1 Samuel 21:4 (KJV)
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.
Key words
- לֶחֶם קֹדֶשׁlechem qodesh · Hebrew
- 'hallowed bread' — the bread of the Presence, which only the priests may eat.
- אִם־נִשְׁמְרוּ הַנְּעָרִים אַךְ מֵאִשָּׁהim-nishmeru hanne'arim akh me'ishshah · Hebrew
- 'if the young men have kept themselves at least from women' — abstinence is the condition for touching what is holy.
Why it matters
The priest will give David's men the holy bread only if they have abstained from women. Pitre uses the text, with Exodus 19:15, to show that in Israel closeness to the holy required sexual abstinence (p 103). If Joseph understood that Mary was the new Ark, the vessel of God's presence, abstinence from her would have followed from the Law's own logic.