1 Samuel 21:5

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 1 Thessalonians 4:4, and 2 Corinthians 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 (1 Samuel 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 יקדשׁ 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, יקדשׁו , 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!