Literally, “today my beginning to enquire of God for him?” Nearer to the original than either the KJV or the RSV is the rendering of the RV and ASV: “Have I to-day begun to inquire of God for him?” The implication is that if he had begun now, after knowing David’s status, to seek divine guidance for David, that would be giving aid to a recognized enemy of Saul, but that what he had done before he learned of the controversy between Saul and David should have no bearing on the question of his loyalty. With quiet dignity Ahimelech answered Saul’s charge that he had used the Urim and the Thummin in a way contrary to Saul’s ideas by stating that he had inquired for the one closest to Saul, one who had ever been loyal and devoted, and he had rendered his service to the messenger for the king. His last word was a denial that he had known anything of the situation.