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1 Kings 21:4

And the priest answered David, saying: I have no common bread at hand, but only holy bread, if the young men be clean, especially from women?

Challoner: If the young men be cleanIf this cleanness was required of them that were to eat that bread, which was a figure of the bread of life which we receive in the blessed sacrament; how clean ought Christians to be when they approach to our tremendous mysteries. And what reason hath the church of God to admit none to be her ministers to consecrate and daily receive this most pure sacrament, but such as devote themselves to a life of perpetual purity.

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The verse in its languages

Vulgate (Clementine): Et respondens sacerdos ad David, ait illi : Non habeo laicos panes ad manum, sed tantum panem sanctum : si mundi sunt pueri, maxime a mulieribus ?
Septuagint (Swete): καὶ ἀπεκρίθη ὁ ἱερεὺς τῷ Δαυεὶδ καὶ εἶπεν Οὐκ εἰσὶν ἄρτοι βέβηλοι ὑπὸ τὴν χεῖρά μου, ὅτι ἀλλ᾽ ἢ ἄρτοι ἅγιοί εἰσιν· εἰ πεφυλαγμένα τὰ παιδάριά ἐστιν ἀπὸ γυναικός, καὶ φάγεται.
Hebrew (WLC) shown from 1 Kings 21:5: וַיַּ֨עַן הַכֹּהֵ֤ן אֶת דָּוִד֙ וַיֹּ֔אמֶר אֵֽין לֶ֥חֶם חֹ֖ל אֶל תַּ֣חַת יָדִ֑י כִּֽי אִם לֶ֤חֶם קֹ֨דֶשׁ֙ יֵ֔שׁ אִם נִשְׁמְר֥וּ הַנְּעָרִ֖ים אַ֥ךְ מֵאִשָּֽׁה

Haydock's commentary

If the young men be clean, &c. If this cleanness was required of them that were to eat that bread, which was but a figure of the bread of life which we receive in the blessed sacrament [the Eucharist]; how clean ought Christians be when they approach to our tremendous mysteries? And what reason hath the Church of God to admit none to be her ministers, to consecrate and daily receive this most pure sacrament, but such as devote themselves to a life of perpetual purity. (Challoner)

Women. God required this on many occasions, Exodus xix. 15. Urgent necessity determined Achimelech to grant the loaves, as our Saviour intimates, though it is probable that he first consulted the Lord, chap. xxii. 16. (Calmet)

David perhaps went to Nobe on purpose to ask advice. (Menochius)

We have here an example of a dispensation, and of the distinction between lay, or common, and holy bread. (Worthington)

From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.

The Fathers on this verse

Tertullian The Five Books Against Marcion, Christ's Authority Over the Sabbath. As Its Lord He Recalled It from Pharisaic Neglect to the Original Purpose of Its Institution by the Creator the Case of the Disciples Who Plucked the Ears of Corn on the Sabbath. The Withered Hand Healed on the Sabbath

Concerning the Sabbath also I have this to premise, that this question could not have arisen, if Christ did not publicly proclaim the Lord of the Sabbath. Nor could there be any discussion about His annulling the Sabbath, if He had a right to annul it. Moreover, He would have the right, if He belonged to the rival god; nor would it cause surprise to any one that He did what it was right for Him to do. Men’s astonishment therefore arose from their opinion that it was improper for Him to proclaim the Creator to be God and yet to impugn His Sabbath. …

St Cyprian Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews, Testimony XXXII

In Genesis: “Multiplying I will multiply thy sorrows and thy groanings, and in sorrow shalt thou bring forth children; and thy turning shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.” Of this same thing in the Gospel according to Matthew: “All men do not receive the word, but they to whom it is given: for there are some eunuchs who were born so from their mother’s womb, and there are eunuchs who have been constrained by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake. He who can receive it, let him receive it.” Also according to Luke: “The children of this world beget, and are begotten. But they who have been considered worthy of that world, and the resurrection from the dead, do not marry, nor are married: for neither shall they begin to die: for they are equal to the angels of God, since they are the children of the resurrection. …

St Jerome The Letters of St. Jerome, To Pammachius

I have said in the same treatise that David and they that were with him could not have lawfully eaten the shew-bread had they not made answer that for three days they had not been defiled with women, not, of course, with harlots, intercourse with whom was forbidden by the law, but with their own wives, to whom they were lawfully united. Moreover, when the people were about to receive the law on Mount Sinai they were commanded to keep away from their wives for three days. I know that at Rome it is customary for the faithful always to receive the body of Christ, a custom which I neither censure nor indorse. …

St Jerome Against Jovinianus, Book I

20. But I wonder why he setJudah and Tamar before us for an example, unless perchance even harlots give him pleasure; orOnan who was slain because he grudged his brother seed. Does he imagine that we approve of any sexual intercourse except for the procreation of children? As regards Moses, it is clear that he would have been in peril at the inn, ifSephora which is by interpretation a bird, had not circumcised her son, and cut off the foreskin of marriage with the knife which prefigured the Gospel. This is that Moses who when he saw a great vision and heard an angel, or the Lord speaking in the bush, could not by any means approach to him without first loosing the latchet of his shoe, that is, putting off the bonds of marriage. …