Passage Research
1 Samuel 21 — Sermon Preparation
David flees to Nob and receives the showbread and Goliath's sword from the priest, then goes to Gath where he feigns madness to survive. Below is a research summary for 1 Samuel 21, drawn from openly licensed scholarly databases — original-language morphology, classic sermons from the church fathers through the Puritans, and ancient geography data.
- 16
- verses
- 282 / 124
- Hebrew words / lemmas
- 5
- classic sermon excerpts
- 3
- preachers & commentators
1 Samuel 21 in the Hebrew
Distinctive vocabulary of this chapter, based on original-language morphology.
| Hebrew | Transliteration | Strong's | Count | Glosses |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| דָּוִד | Dâvid | H1732 | 11 | David |
| לֶחֶם | lechem | H3899 | 6 | food, bread |
| אֲחִימֶלֶךְ | ʼĂchîymelek | H288 | 4 | Achimelek |
| אֲכִישׁ | ʼĂkîysh | H397 | 4 | Akish |
| כֹּהֵן | kôhên | H3548 | 6 | officiating, priest |
| שָׁגַע | shâgaʻ | H7696 | 3 | rave through insanity |
| יָד | yâd | H3027 | 6 | hand, open |
How preachers through history handled this text
5 public-domain excerpts on 1 Samuel 21, from the church fathers to the Puritans.
“God's persecuted people have often found better usage from Philistines than from Israelites. David had reason to put confidence in Achish, yet he began to be afraid. His conduct was degrading, and discovered wavering in his faith and courage. The more simply we depend on God, and obey him, the more comfortably and surely we shall walk through this troublesome world.”
— Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (Concise), on 1 Samuel 21:10–30 (Public Domain)
Places in the text
Based on ancient-geography data
- Nob— 1 Sam 21:1
- Gath 1— 1 Sam 21:10
- Valley of Elah— 1 Sam 21:9
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