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?
John Chrysostom · AD 407 In similar fashion, whenever we have God on our side, even if we are utterly alone, we will live more securely than those who dwell in the cities. After all, the grace of God is the greatest security and the most impregnable fortification.
Bede · AD 735 And Achimelech was astonished, etc. The ancient chosen ones were astonished, and the modern ones are astonished too, whenever they receive the coming of the Lord's visitation with a simple mind. They are not only stunned by the majesty of His vision, but also disturbed by the rarity of those who desire to follow the grace of such great piety.
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.
John Cassian · AD 435 No wonder that these dispensations were uprightly made use of in the Old Testament and that holy men sometimes lied in praiseworthy or at least in pardonable fashion, since we see that far greater things were permitted them because it was a time of beginnings.
Bede · AD 735 And David said to Achimelech the priest: "The king has commanded me a certain matter," etc. The Lord said to the apostles, the heirs of the everlasting kingdom and priesthood: "The people of persecutors and unbelievers commanded me, as much as possible, not to call them to faith by teaching.
3 Nunc ergo si quid habes ad manum, vel quinque panes, da mihi, aut quidquid inveneris.
Tertullian · AD 220 When the disciples had been hungry on the sabbath and had plucked some ears [of grain] and rubbed them in their hands, they violated the holy day by so preparing their food. Yet Christ excuses them and even became their accomplice in breaking the sabbath.
Ambrose of Milan · AD 397 Even if they accuse, yet Christ excuses, and he makes the souls that he wishes, that follow him, similar to David, who ate the loaves of proposition outside of the law—for even then he foresaw in his mind the prophetic mysteries of a new grace.
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?
Origen of Alexandria · AD 253 By "profane" he now means not the unclean, but those who are not holy, in contradistinction to the holy loaves set out upon the table.
Bede · AD 735 And the priest answering David, said to him, etc. Because "laos" in Greek means "people," "laic breads" signify common breads, that is, those not consecrated by offering, but common and prepared for ordinary use.
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.
Origen of Alexandria · AD 253 "Today it shall be sanctified because of the vessels" — he said this rather obscurely, but it means this: "My young men have been sanctified and have kept themselves from a woman both yesterday and the day before" — for this is what his saying that the young men were purified amounts to.
Bede · AD 735 And David answered the priest, and said to him: Indeed, if it concerns women, etc. He answered those sending forth the apostles to teach the nations: What God has purified, do not call common (Acts X).
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.
Ephrem the Syrian · AD 373 Our Lord put forward the clear example of David, who was not accused either over this, as he was over something else. It was not permissible, he said, for David to eat [the holy bread] since he was not a priest. However, he was a priest, because he was a temple of the Spirit.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 In many other testimonies of the divine Scriptures, Christ appears both as king and as priest. With good reason, therefore, he is declared to be David's son more frequently than he is said to be Abraham's son.
Bede · AD 735 The priest therefore gave him the sanctified bread. Because he heard that they were clean who were to receive it, he consented to give them the sanctified bread; which he would in no way dare to do if he had not recognized them as clean in all respects.
7 Erat autem ibi vir quidam de servis Saul in die illa, intus in tabernaculo Domini: et nomen ejus Doëg Idumæus, potentissimus pastorum Saul.
Origen of Alexandria · AD 253 Saul bears the type of the evil spirit, when Israel, then taking rule to itself, said, "We have no king." For indeed the people of old, having despised the Lord who reigned over them, asked that Saul be given to them as ruler.
Bede · AD 735 Now there was there a man of the servants of Saul... and his name was Doeg, etc. There were among the preaching apostles false brothers, the foremost being Judas; indeed within the Church, constituted by the mystery of faith, but moved from the firmness of their stability, bloodthirsty to betray the peace of fraternity (for Doeg is called the Edomite, a bloodthirsty man), the m…
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.
Bede · AD 735 But David said to Ahimelech, "If you have a spear or a sword here at hand, etc." The Savior urges the apostles to train their listeners not only to learn but also to teach the word of life, by which He Himself can conquer the world, because He delayed sending preachers of the Gospel throughout the world, who would always fight for the Church against the aerial powers, instead o…
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.
Bede · AD 735 And the priest said: Behold the sword of Goliath the Philistine, etc. The apostles said to Christ, teachers seeking against the kingdom of the world: Behold men accustomed to battle for the devil with perverse doctrines for a long time, whom you have overcome in the humility of the cross, are entangled in the trappings of the first transgression, far removed from the garments o…
10 Surrexit itaque David, et fugit in die illa a facie Saul: et venit ad Achis regem Geth.
Clement of Rome · AD 99 Every kind of honour and happiness was bestowed upon you, and then was fulfilled that which is written, "My beloved ate and drank, and was enlarged and became fat, and kicked." [Deuteronomy 32:15] Hence flowed emulation and envy, strife and sedition, persecution and disorder, war and captivity.
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?
Bede · AD 735 Is this not David, the king of the land? etc. The scribes and Pharisees of the Jewish kingdom, serving wickedness badly, said: "See that we gain nothing; behold, the whole world has gone after him" (John XII), to whom they sang in choirs, saying: "Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
12 Posuit autem David sermones istos in corde suo, et extimuit valde a facie Achis regis Geth.
Bede · AD 735 David, however, placed these words in his heart, etc. The Lord saw in his wisdom the unbelieving and deceitful hearts of some of the Jews; and, as the Scripture customarily speaks of God in human manner, he feared so much from the face of the people who were his brothers by human communion of fragility, but were persecutors by the impiety of their conspiracy against the Lord, t…
13 Et immutavit os suum coram eis, et collabebatur inter manus eorum: et impingebat in ostia portæ, defluebantque salivæ ejus in barbam.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 All these modes of expression will be thought lies, if a figurative expression or action is to be considered a lie. But, if it is not a lie when signs signifying one thing are put for another to serve the understanding of a truth, certainly that should not be judged a lie either which Jacob did or said to his father in order to be blessed, or what Joseph said in sporting with h…
Cassiodorus · AD 585 When Saul was pursuing David, David fled to king Achish, and since through the motive of jealousy he was suspected there, he carefully changed his countenance, covering his face with spittle so that he would be thought to be diabolically possessed and thus released unharmed as an object of pity.
Bede · AD 735 And he collapsed in their hands, etc. The hands of the Gethites, the works of the Jews; the doors of the gate reveal the beginnings of heavenly grace; saliva signifies infirmity; the beard signifies virtue.
14 Et ait Achis ad servos suos: Vidistis hominem insanum: quare adduxistis eum ad me?
Bede · AD 735 And Achish said, "Have you seen the man who is insane," etc.? David, indeed, suspected by the Gittites due to his reputation for virtues, industriously imitated the actions of one who was mad, so that he might be thought to be possessed and, pitied by those who saw him, released unharmed.
15 an desunt nobis furiosi, quod introduxistis istum, ut fureret me præsente? hiccine ingredietur domum meam?