1 Samuel 19

David Protected from Saul

1Now Saul told Jonathan his son and all his servants 1to put David to death. But 2Jonathan, Saul’s son, greatly delighted in David. 2So Jonathan told David saying, “Saul my father is seeking to put you to death. Now therefore, please be on guard in the morning, and stay in a secret place and hide yourself. 3I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where you are, and I will speak with my father about you; 3if I 4find out anything, then I will tell you.” 4Then Jonathan 5spoke well of David to Saul his father and said to him, “6Do not let the king sin against his servant David, since he has not sinned against you, and since his deeds have been very 7beneficial to you. 5For 8he took his life in his hand and struck the Philistine, and 9the Lord brought about a great deliverance for all Israel; you saw it and rejoiced. 10Why then will you sin against innocent blood by putting David to death without a cause?” 6Saul listened to the voice of Jonathan, and Saul vowed, “As the Lord lives, he shall not be put to death.” 7Then Jonathan called David, and Jonathan told him all these words. And Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he was in his presence as 11formerly.

8When there was war again, David went out and fought with the Philistines and 12defeated them with great slaughter, so that they fled before him. 9Now there was 13an evil spirit from the Lord on Saul as he was sitting in his house 14with his spear in his hand, 15and David was playing the harp with his hand. 1016Saul tried to 17pin David to the wall with the spear, but he slipped away out of Saul’s presence, so that he 18stuck the spear into the wall. And David fled and escaped that night.

11Then 19Saul sent messengers to David’s house to watch him, in order to put him to death in the morning. But Michal, David’s wife, told him, saying, “If you do not save your life tonight, tomorrow you will be put to death.” 1220So Michal let David down through a window, and he went out and fled and escaped. 13Michal took 21the 22household idol and laid it on the bed, and put a quilt of goats’ hair at its head, and covered it with clothes. 14When Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, “23He is sick.” 15Then Saul sent messengers to see David, saying, “Bring him up to me on 24his bed, that I may put him to death.” 16When the messengers entered, behold, the 25household idol was on the bed with the quilt of goats’ hair at its head. 17So Saul said to Michal, “Why have you deceived me like this and let my enemy go, so that he has escaped?” And Michal said to Saul, “He said to me, ‘Let me go! 26Why should I put you to death?’”

18Now David fled and escaped and came 27to Samuel at Ramah, and told him all that Saul had done to him. And he and Samuel went and stayed in 28Naioth. 19It was told Saul, saying, “Behold, David is at Naioth in Ramah.” 20Then 29Saul sent messengers to take David, but when they saw 30the company of the prophets prophesying, with Samuel standing and presiding over them, the Spirit of God came upon the messengers of Saul; and 31they also prophesied. 21When it was told Saul, he sent other messengers, and they also prophesied. So Saul sent messengers again the third time, and they also prophesied. 22Then he himself went to Ramah and came as far as the large well that is in Secu; and he asked and said, “Where are Samuel and David?” And someone said, “Behold, they are at Naioth in Ramah.” 23He 32proceeded there to Naioth in Ramah; and 33the Spirit of God came upon him also, so that he went along prophesying continually until he came to Naioth in Ramah. 24He also stripped off his clothes, and he too prophesied before Samuel and 34lay down 3536naked all that day and all that night. Therefore they say, “37Is Saul also among the prophets?”