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.
Fathers and councils · 4
Jerome
“I am out of order in violating historical sequence, but I may point out that the same thing was said byAhimelech the priest to David when he fled to Nob: “If only the young men have kept themselves from women.”” — editor's note: 1 Sam. xxi. 4.
Read the whole comment“…and they that were with him could not have lawfully eaten the shew-bread had they not made answer that for three days they had not been defiled with women—not, of course, with harlots, intercourse with whom was forbidden by the law, but with their own wives, to whom they were lawfully united.” — editor's note: 1 Sam. xxi. 4, 5.
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Tertullian
“For from the Creator’s Scripture, and from the purpose of Christ, there is derived a colourable precedent—as from the example of David, when he went into the temple on the Sabbath, and provided food by boldly breaking up the shew-bread.” — editor's note: Luke vi. 1–4; 1 Sam. xxi. 2–6.
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Cyprian of Carthage
“If the young men have been kept back from women, they shall eat.”” — editor's note: 1 Sam. xxi. 4.
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