Answered David: literally “answered David and said.” For reasons of English style, Good News Translation omits the name David as well as one of the two verbs in the Hebrew text.
As in the previous verse the words at hand mean simply “available” or “conveniently accessible.”
Holy bread refers to the loaves of bread that were offered to God every Sabbath (see also verse 6, “the bread of the Presence”). This bread was to be eaten only by the priests (see Lev 24.5-9). Common bread refers to all other bread. In some cases holy bread may have to be translated “the bread offered to God.”
If only … from women: sexual abstinence was required of those who took part in public worship (see Exo 19.15), and also of men engaged in holy war (see Deut 23.9-14; 2 Sam 11.8-13), who were required to be ritually pure (Josh 3.5; see also Isa 13.3). The expression kept themselves from women may have to be expressed as “have not slept with a woman.” But what is implied is that this refers to recent days and is not a matter of permanent abstinence from sexual relations. Good News Translation and La Bible du Semeur make this clear by adding the adverb “recently.” And Contemporary English Version is even more specific: “last night.”
In the Masoretic Text this clause is part of a conditional sentence, the complete form of which would read “if only the young men have kept themselves from women, they may eat the holy bread.” A manuscript from Qumran has this longer text, but Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament gives a {B} rating to the MT. The manuscript from Qumran is followed by New American Bible “if the men have abstained from women, you may eat some of that.” It is not clear whether Good News Translation is following the manuscript from Qumran or is simply adding the words “you can have it” as the sense requires. Even though Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament gives a {B} rating to the MT, for purposes of translation many languages will add the words that are left implicit in the MT.
Each of the Synoptic Gospels records that Jesus referred to this incident (Matt 12.3-4; Mark 2.25-26; Luke 6.3).
Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on the First and Second Books of Samuel, Volume 1. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2001. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .