1 Samuel / Saul's Attempts on David's Life and Jonathan's Intervention

Saul's Attempts on David's Life and Jonathan's Intervention

1 Samuel 19:1-24

Chapter 19

¹ Saul spoke to Jonathan his son and to all his servants that they should put David to death. But Jonathan, Saul's son, delighted in David very much. ² Jonathan told David, "Saul my father is seeking to put you to death. Now please be on guard in the morning, sit in hiding, and hide yourself." ³ I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where you are, and I will speak about you to my father. Then I will see what happens, and I will tell you. ⁴ He spoke well of David to Saul his father and said to him, "Do not sin, the king, against your servant David, because he has not sinned against you, and his deeds are very good for you." ⁵ He put his life in his hand and struck the Philistine, and the LORD brought about a great victory for all Israel. You saw it and rejoiced. Why then will you sin against innocent blood by putting David to death without cause? ⁶ Saul listened to Jonathan's voice, and Saul swore, "As the LORD lives, he will not die." ⁷ And Jonathan called to David, and Jonathan told him all these words. And Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he was before him as yesterday and three days ago. ⁸ The warfare continued, and David went out and fought against the Philistines and struck them a great blow. And they fled from his presence. ⁹ Then an evil spirit from the LORD came upon Saul as he sat in his house with his spear in his hand. And David was playing the lyre. ¹⁰ And Saul sought to strike David with the spear into the wall, and he slipped away from Saul's face, and he struck the spear into the wall. And David fled and escaped that night. ¹¹ And Saul sent messengers to David's house to watch him and to put him to death in the morning. And Michal his wife told David, saying, "If you do not deliver your nephesh tonight, tomorrow you will be put to death." ¹² Michal let David down through the window, and he went, fled, and escaped. ¹³ And Michal took the teraphim and put them in the bed, and the goatskin of the goats there at its head, and covered it with the garment. ¹⁴ And Saul sent messengers to take David, and she said, "He is sick." ¹⁵ And Saul sent the messengers to see David, saying, "Bring him up to me in the bed so I can put him to death." ¹⁶ And the messengers came, and behold, the teraphim was at the bed, with the great goats' hair at its head. ¹⁷ And Saul said to Michal, "Why have you deceived me like this and let my enemy go, so that he escaped?" Michal said to Saul, "He said to me, 'Send me away. Why should I kill you?'" ¹⁸ David fled and escaped and came to Samuel at Ramah and told him all that Saul had done to him. And he went, he and Samuel, and they dwelt in the Noths. ¹⁹ And he informed Saul, saying, "Behold, David is in Naioth in Ramah." ²⁰ And Saul sent messengers to take David, and he saw the band of prophets prophesying, and Shemuel standing installed over them. And there was upon Saul's messengers the wind of God, and they prophesied—they too. ²¹ They told Saul, and he sent other messengers, and they prophesied also. Then Saul added and sent thirty messengers, and they prophesied also. ²² He also went to Ramah, and he came as far as the great pit which is in Shechem, and he asked and said, "Where are Shemuel and David?" And he said, "Behold, the houses in Ramah." ²³ He went there to the Naioth in Ramah, and the Spirit of God came upon him also, and he went on and prophesied until they came to the house of Naioth in Ramah. ²⁴ He also stripped off his garments and prophesied before Samuel. He fell naked all that day and all that night. Therefore they say, "Is Saul also among the prophets?"