Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Samuel 21:5
And David answered the priest, and said unto him, Of a truth women [have been] kept from us about these three days, since I came out, and the vessels of the young men are holy, and [the bread is] in a manner common, yea, though it were sanctified this day in the vessel.
5. the vessels ] The wallets or other utensils into which the bread would be put. If these were Levitically unclean they would defile the bread. David assures Ahimelech that there is no ceremonial objection to their taking the bread either in their persons or their baggage.
and the bread, &c.] The further argument which David employs to Persuade Ahimelech is stated in a sentence of almost hopeless obscurity. Perhaps either (1) “And when I came out the vessels of the young men were holy; how much more then, though it is a common journey, will it be holy in the vessel to-day:” i.e. the vessels were undefiled when we started, and though our journey has no religions object, yet as there has been no danger of pollution since, a fortiori they cannot defile bread put in them to-day: or (2) “And if it is a profane procedure, yet It will be sanctified to-day by the instrument:” i.e. if the act is profane, the priest by whose instrumentality it is done, has power to sanction it under the exceptional circumstances of to-day: a gentle flattery to persuade Ahimelech.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The vessels of the young men … – i. e., their clothes Deu 22:5 or wallets (marginal reference), or other articles which might be Levitically unclean and need cleansing (Lev 13:58; Exo 19:10, etc.; Mar 7:4), as well as the person.
And the bread … – The meaning is; Though it is treating it like common bread to give it to me and my young men, there is fresh showbread baked and put on the table in place of what you give us; the day being Friday. as is indicated in the verse following.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
About these three days; as long as the law required, Exo 19:15. And so long David and his men had, it seems, hid themselves for fear of Saul in some of those caves, whereof there were many in those parts; whereby they were kept both from all converse with any other persons besides themselves, and consequently from women; and withal, from food convenient for them.
Since I came out from the place where Jonathan and David met. The vessels, i.e. either,
1. Their garments, or other utensils for their journey. Or,
2. Their bodies, for of them the question was, 1Sa 21:4; and having now said that women had been kept from them, he infers that therefore their bodies were holy, their members were undefiled. Thus the word vessel is used 1Th 4:4, and in other authors, both Greek and Latin.
The bread is in a manner common, Heb. and this (to wit, the bread; which is easily supplied out of the former verse, because that was the thing about which the present discourse was, and against the giving whereof the priest started an objection, 1Sa 21:4, to which David here giveth an answer) is in a manner, or, after a sort, common, i.e. considering the time, and our necessity, this may be asked in a manner like common bread, and so is used by others. For though for a season, whilst it is to stand before the Lord, it be so holy, that the priest himself might not eat it; yet afterwards it is eaten by the priest, and by his whole family, as their common food; and so it may be by us, in our circumstances.
Though it were sanctified this day in the vessel; if it were but newly put into the vessel, it must give place to the great law of necessity and charity, because God will have mercy preferred before sacrifice. Or thus, especially, when, or, the rather because this day there is other (i.e. new bread) sanctified in the vessel, i.e. put into the vessel which was made to receive this bread, Exo 25:29, and thereby sanctified, or consecrated to God; and therefore the former shew-bread is now to be removed, and employed for the common use of the priest and his family.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
5. these three daysasrequired by law (Ex 19:15).David and his attendants seem to have been lurking in some of theadjoining caves, to elude pursuit, and to have been, consequently,reduced to great extremities of hunger.
the bread is in a mannercommonthat is, now that it is no longer standing on the Lord’stable. It is eaten by the priests, and may also, in ourcircumstances, be eaten by us.
yea, though it weresanctified this day in the vesselthat is, though the hallowedbread had been but newly placed on the vessel, the ritual ordinancewould have to yield to the great law of necessity and mercy (see onMt 12:3; also see Mar 2:25;Luk 6:3).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And David answered the priest, and said unto him,…. In reply to the case of the young men his servants, and of himself too, who also was intended by the priest, though out of reverence to him not mentioned:
of a truth women [have been] kept from us these three days since I came out; reckoning either from the time he fled from Saul at Naioth, or from the time he left Jonathan, during which time both he and his men could have no converse with women, and receive no pollution by them; and this was the time which according to the law was required for the sanctifying of persons in this way, Ex 19:15;
and the vessels of the young men are holy; their garments, as Kimchi, not being defiled with any ceremonial uncleanness, as by the touch of any unclean person: or what instruments soever they were provided with for their journey; or rather their bodies; see 2Co 4:7; and with respect to the priest’s saying that the bread he had was hallowed or sacred, and so not for common use, David replies,
and [the bread] is in a manner common; inasmuch as it was taken off of the shewbread table, and was now common to the priest and his family, though not to others, yet in case of necessity through hunger might be allowed to strangers:
yea, though it were sanctified this day in the vessel; even though it had been set but that day on the shewbread table, and so became holy to the Lord; and yet even in such a case and circumstances as David and his men were in, it might be taken from thence and eaten of; for, as Abendana observes, nothing stands in the way of preservation of life, but idolatry, adultery, and murder; everything else may be done for the sake of that but them: or as in the margin of our Bibles, “especially when there is this day other sanctified bread”; that is, since other bread is this day put upon the shewbread table, in the room of that which has been taken away, whereby it is become holy to the, Lord; then that which is removed may be eaten, and be allowed to us in our circumstances. It seems by this that this was the sabbath day; for on that day the removal of the shewbread loaves was made, Le 24:8; and R. Isaiah says, that it was at the going out of the sabbath that David came there; and which still makes it a more appropriate case, as produced by our Lord to justify his disciples in plucking ears of corn on the sabbath day, Mt 12:1.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(5) The vessels.Their clothes and light, portable baggageanswering to the modern knapsack. The Vulg. renders the Hebrew word by vasa. David means to say, Since we have just left home, you may readily suppose that no impurity has been contracted; it would be different if we were returning home from a journey, when on the wayespecially in waruncleanness might be contracted by the blood of enemies or otherwise.Seb. Schmid, quoted in Lange.
The LXX., by a very slight change in the Hebrew letters, instead of the vessels of the young men, render, all the young men.
And the bread is in a manner common.The original is here very difficult, almost utterly obscure. The English Version of the clause is simply meaningless. Of the many translations which have been suggested, two at least offer a fairly good sense. (a) And if it is an unholy way (viz., the way David and his band were goinghis purpose or enterprise), moreover there is also the fact that it becomes holy through the instrument (viz., through me, as an ambassador of the anointed of the Lord), on the supposition of the important royal mission upon which David pretended to be sent. So Keil and O. von Gerlach. (b) Lange, however, and Thenius, maintain that the words in question must contain a remark by which the priest is to be induced to give the bread, and would translate, Though it is an unholy (ceremonially illegal) procedure (to take the shewbread), yet it is sanctified (to-day) through the instrument (David or Ahimelech). The instrument is here David, the appointed messenger of the Lords anointed, or, even better, Ahimelech, the sacred person of the high priest.
No doubt, the words of Lev. 24:9, which speak of the destination of the stale shewbreadAnd they (Aaron and his sons) shall eat it in the holy placesuggested the practice of the Church of England embodied in the Rubric following the Order of the Administration of the Holy CommunionAnd if any (of the bread and wine) remain of that which was consecrated, it shall not be carried out of the church, but the priest, and such other of the communicants as he shall then call unto him, shall immediately after the blessing reverently eat and drink the same. Among the legendary Jewish lore that has gathered round the history of this transaction is one strange tradition that the holy bread thus given became useless in the hands of the kings fugitive. (See Stanley, Lectures on the Jewish Church, Lect. 22, quoting from Jerome.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
5. Since I came out Upon this secret business of the king. The conjunction and, which immediately follows these words, shows that they belong to the preceding sentence. David falsely tells Ahimelech that about three days had already passed since he started upon the king’s business.
The vessels of the young men are holy By their vessels their bodies are intended their persons. This word is thus used in 1Th 4:4, and 2Co 4:7; and in this same verse it is again used in this same sense, for the question was one of bodily purity. Some understand the word to refer to the implements or clothes of the young men; but Thenius well asks: What mattered it about the purity of their implements if their persons were not pure? David’s object certainly was to conciliate the priest so as to obtain through him the hallowed bread; and so he endeavoured to persuade him that himself and the servants mentioned (1Sa 21:2) were ceremonially clean, and that therefore there could be no reason to refuse them the show-bread on the ground of their personal defilement.
And the bread is in a manner common, yea, though it were sanctified this day in the vessel If this were the meaning of the Hebrew it would represent David as contradicting both the high priest and the law itself. The marginal reading relieves the case but little. What the Jehovah had sanctified David would not most certainly, in the presence of the priest, call common or unclean. The Hebrew text here says nothing about bread, but, literally rendered, reads thus: And this way is common, and how much more is it to-day sanctified in the vessel? By this way we understand, with Keil and Ewald, the business on which David pretends the king has sent him. It was common, that is, ordinary, or secular, as distinguished from religious business, and therefore did not require such ceremonial purity as did a holy service. By the vessel the bodies or persons of the young men are meant, the phrase being equivalent to in body. In this sense the word vessel has already been used in this same verse. To day has reference to the three days previously mentioned, during which the young men had been kept from women, and the thought is, How much more are they pure in body to-day than three days ago! All that stands in the way of the conclusiveness of this interpretation is the verb in the singular number it is sanctified. But in view of the obscurity that attaches to every other exposition, we feel constrained to emend the text by adding the plural ending to this verb, , they are sanctified. Then the whole verse may be thus paraphrased: Truly women have been kept from us yesterday and the day before, when I came out, and so the bodies of the young men are in this respect pure; and though our business is not of a religious character, yet how much more are they pure in body today!
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1Sa 21:5. And the vessels of the young men i.e. their bodies; see 1Th 4:4. Houbigant renders this verse, David answered the priest, We have indeed been absent from our wives these three days, since I came out; and the vessels of the young men are holy. But if any uncleanness had happened by the way, on this very day their vessels are clean; rightly observing, that the word kelei, rendered vessels, cannot with any propriety be understood of the bodies of the young men in one place, and of the vessel containing the shew-bread in another.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
1Sa 21:5 And David answered the priest, and said unto him, Of a truth women [have been] kept from us about these three days, since I came out, and the vessels of the young men are holy, and [the bread is] in a manner common, yea, though it were sanctified this day in the vessel.
Ver. 5. And the vessels of the young men. ] That is, Their bodies, as 2Co 4:7 1Th 4:3-4 , or as some understand it, their knapsacks, wallets, baskets, &c., as 1Sa 9:7 . Vatablus understandeth it of their garments.
Yea, though it were sanctified this day in the vessel.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
vessels = wallets. Compare 1Sa 17:40. Word not used in O.T. in the N.T. sense of 2Ti 2:21. 1Th 4:4, &. c. holy. See note on Exo 3:5. Compare “hallowed”, 1Sa 21:4.
yea, though it were sanctified this day in the vessel = and the more so, when to-day [there are other loaves] to be hallowed in respect of their vessels,
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
the vessels: Act 9:15, 1Th 4:3, 1Th 4:4, 2Ti 2:20, 2Ti 2:21, 1Pe 3:17
in a manner: Lev 24:9
though it were sanctified this day in the vessel: or, especially when this day there is other sanctified in the vessel. Lev 8:26
Reciprocal: Exo 19:15 – come not Lev 15:18 – unclean Lev 24:5 – General Ecc 3:5 – a time to embrace Jer 31:5 – eat 1Co 7:5 – except
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1Sa 21:5. About these three days As long as the law required, Exo 19:15. And so long, it seems, David and his men had hid themselves for fear of Saul, whereby they were kept both from their wives and from food convenient for them. The vessels of the young men are holy That Isaiah , 1 st, Either their garments, or other utensils for their journey; or, 2d, Their bodies. The bread (Hebrew, , vehu, and this) is in a manner common That is, the bread which had been taken away from before the Lord, to make room for new bread to be placed there. For though, for a season, while it stood before the Lord, it was so holy that the priest himself might not eat it; yet afterward it was eaten by the priest and his whole family, and David pleads that it might be eaten by him and his young men in their necessitous circumstances. Yea, though it were sanctified this day in the vessel This translation renders the passage obscure. The Hebrew may be translated, as by Le Clerc and in some other versions, Furthermore, or, forasmuch as it (namely, bread) is sanctified this day in the vessel; that is, there was new bread sanctified to be set before the Lord; and therefore this, which had been taken away from before him, was, in some degree, become common. For the law ordained, (Lev 24:8-9,) that the show, or hallowed bread, should be removed every sabbath day from the table before the Lord, and fresh set on.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
21:5 And David answered the priest, and said unto him, Of a truth women [have been] kept from us about these three days, since I came out, and the {d} vessels of the young men are holy, and [the bread is] in a manner common, yea, though it {e} were sanctified this day in the vessel.
(d) That is, their bodies.
(e) Shall be more careful to keep his vessel holy, when he has eaten of this holy food.