1Sa 21:5 | KD | STEP | David quieted him concerning this scruple, and said, “ Nay, but women have been kept from us since yesterday and the day before .” The use of אם כּי may be explained from the fact, that in David’s reply he paid more attention to the sense than to the form of the priest’s scruple, and expressed himself as concisely as possible. The words, “if the young men have only kept themselves from women,” simply meant, if only they are not unclean; and David replied, That is certainly not the case, but women have been kept from us; so that אם כּי has the meaning but in this passage also, as it frequently has after a previous negative, which is implied in the thought here as in 2Sa 13:33. “ When I came out, the young men’s things were holy (Levitically clean); and if it is an unholy way, it becomes even holy through the instrument .” David does not say that the young men were clean when he came out (for the rendering given to הנּערים כּלי in the Septuagint, πάντα τὰ παιδάρια, is without any critical value, and is only a mistaken attempt to explain the word כּלי, which was unintelligible to the translator), but simply affirms that קדשׁ הנּערים כּלי, i.e., according to Luther’s rendering ( der Knaben Zeug war heilig ), the young men’s things (clothes, etc.) were holy. כּלים does not mean merely vessels, arms, or tools, but also the dress ( ), or rather the clothes as well as such things as were most necessary to meet the wants of life. By the coitus , or strictly speaking, by the emissio seminis in connection with the coitus , not only were the persons themselves defiled, but also every article of clothing or leather upon which any of the semen fell ( ); so that it was necessary for the purpose of purification that the things which a man had on should all be washed. David explains, with evident allusion to this provision, that the young men’s things were holy, i.e., perfectly clean, for the purpose of assuring the priest that there was not the smallest Levitical uncleanness attaching to them. The clause which follows is to be taken as conditional, and as supposing a possible case: “ and if it is an unholy way .” דּרך, the way that David was going with his young men, i.e., his purpose of enterprise, by which, however, we are not to understand his request of holy bread from Ahimelech, but the performance of the king’s commission of which he had spoken. כּי ואף, lit . besides (there is) also that, = moreover there is also the fact, that it becomes holy through the instrument; i.e., as O. v. Gerlach has correctly explained it, “on the supposition of the important royal mission, upon which David pretended to be sent, through me as an ambassador of the anointed of the Lord,” in which, at any rate, David’s meaning really was, “the way was sanctified before God, when he, as His chosen servant, the preserver of the true kingdom of God in Israel, went to him in his extremity.” That פּלי in the sense of instrument is also applied to men , is evident from and Jer 50:25.

‏ 1 Samuel 21:5

David quieted him concerning this scruple, and said, “Nay, but women have been kept from us since yesterday and the day before.” The use of אם כּי may be explained from the fact, that in David’s reply he paid more attention to the sense than to the form of the priest’s scruple, and expressed himself as concisely as possible. The words, “if the young men have only kept themselves from women,” simply meant, if only they are not unclean; and David replied, That is certainly not the case, but women have been kept from us; so that אם כּי has the meaning but in this passage also, as it frequently has after a previous negative, which is implied in the thought here as in 2Sa 13:33. “When I came out, the young men’s things were holy (Levitically clean); and if it is an unholy way, it becomes even holy through the instrument.” David does not say that the young men were clean when he came out (for the rendering given to הנּערים כּלי in the Septuagint, πάντα τὰ παιδάρια, is without any critical value, and is only a mistaken attempt to explain the word כּלי, which was unintelligible to the translator), but simply affirms that קדשׁ הנּערים כּלי, i.e., according to Luther’s rendering (der Knaben Zeug war heilig), the young men’s things (clothes, etc.) were holy. כּלים does not mean merely vessels, arms, or tools, but also the dress (Deu 22:5), or rather the clothes as well as such things as were most necessary to meet the wants of life. By the coitus, or strictly speaking, by the emissio seminis in connection with the coitus, not only were the persons themselves defiled, but also every article of clothing or leather upon which any of the semen fell (Lev 15:18); so that it was necessary for the purpose of purification that the things which a man had on should all be washed. David explains, with evident allusion to this provision, that the young men’s things were holy, i.e., perfectly clean, for the purpose of assuring the priest that there was not the smallest Levitical uncleanness attaching to them. The clause which follows is to be taken as conditional, and as supposing a possible case: “and if it is an unholy way.” דּרך, the way that David was going with his young men, i.e., his purpose of enterprise, by which, however, we are not to understand his request of holy bread from Ahimelech, but the performance of the king’s commission of which he had spoken. כּי ואף, lit. besides (there is) also that, = moreover there is also the fact, that it becomes holy through the instrument; i.e., as O. v. Gerlach has correctly explained it, “on the supposition of the important royal mission, upon which David pretended to be sent, through me as an ambassador of the anointed of the Lord,” in which, at any rate, David’s meaning really was, “the way was sanctified before God, when he, as His chosen servant, the preserver of the true kingdom of God in Israel, went to him in his extremity.” That פּלי in the sense of instrument is also applied to men, is evident from Isa 13:5 and Jer 50:25.