Saul Seeks David's Life
1 Kingdoms 19, verse 1. Now Saul told Jonathan his son and all his servants to kill David. But Jonathan, son of Saul, preferred David exceedingly. 1 Kingdoms 19, verse 2. So Jonathan spoke to David, saying, “Saul seeks to kill you. Be on your guard until tomorrow morning, and stay hidden in a secret place. 1 Kingdoms 19, verse 3. I will go out and stand with my father in the field. I will speak to him about you and about anything he may be thinking, and then I will tell you.” 1 Kingdoms 19, verse 4. Thus Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul his father and said to him, “Let not the king sin against his servant David, because he has not sinned against you, and his deeds are very good. 1 Kingdoms 19, verse 5. For he took his life in his hands and smote the Philistine, and the Lord brought about a great deliverance. All Israel saw it and rejoiced. Why then do you sin against innocent blood, to put David to death without cause?” 1 Kingdoms 19, verse 6. So Saul heeded the voice of Jonathan, and Saul swore, “As the Lord lives, he shall not die.” 1 Kingdoms 19, verse 7. Then Jonathan called David, and Jonathan told him all these words. So Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he was in his presence as before. 1 Kingdoms 19, verse 8. And the war continued to be waged against Saul; and David fought valiantly and prevailed over the Philistines. He struck them with an exceedingly great beating, and they fled from before him. 1 Kingdoms 19, verse 9. An evil spirit came from God upon Saul as he was resting in his house with a spear in his hand, and David was playing the harp. 1 Kingdoms 19, verse 10. And Saul sought to strike David with his spear, but David slipped away from him as he drove the spear into the wall. David fled and escaped. 1 Kingdoms 19, verse 11. And that night Saul sent messengers to the house of David to keep careful watch over him and to kill him in the morning. And Michal, the wife of David, told him, saying, “If you do not save your life tonight, tomorrow you will be killed.” 1 Kingdoms 19, verse 12. So Michal let David down through a window, and he fled and escaped. 1 Kingdoms 19, verse 13. And Michal took an image and placed it in the bed, put a cover of goats’ hair at the head, and covered it with clothes. 1 Kingdoms 19, verse 14. And Saul sent messengers to take David, and they reported, “He is sick.” 1 Kingdoms 19, verse 15. Then Saul sent them back to David, saying, “Bring him up to me in his bed, so I can kill him.” 1 Kingdoms 19, verse 16. And the messengers came, and behold, there was the image in the bed, with a cover of goats’ hair at the head. 1 Kingdoms 19, verse 17. Then Saul said to Michal, “Why did you deceive me like this and send my enemy away, so he could escape?” And Michal answered Saul, “He said to me, ‘Send me away! Otherwise I will slay you.’” 1 Kingdoms 19, verse 18. So David fled and escaped and went to Samuel at Ramah, and told him all Saul had done to him. And David and Samuel went and stayed in Naioth in Ramah. 1 Kingdoms 19, verse 19. And it was told to Saul, saying, “Take note, David is at Naioth in Ramah!” 1 Kingdoms 19, verse 20. Then Saul sent messengers to take David. And when they saw the assembly of prophets and Samuel standing as leader over them, the Spirit of God came upon the messengers of Saul, and they also prophesied. 1 Kingdoms 19, verse 21. And when this was told to Saul, he sent other messengers, and they prophesied as well. Then for a third time Saul sent messengers, and they too prophesied. 1 Kingdoms 19, verse 22. Now Saul was inflamed with anger, and he too went to Ramah. He came as far as the storage well of the threshing floor in Sechu and asked, saying, “Where are Samuel and David?” And someone said, “Look, they are in Naioth in Ramah.” 1 Kingdoms 19, verse 23. So he went onward to Naioth in Ramah. And then the Spirit of God came upon him too, and he went on and prophesied until he came to Naioth in Ramah. 1 Kingdoms 19, verse 24. There he removed his clothes and prophesied before them, and he fell unclothed on the ground all that day and all that night. Therefore they say, “Is Saul among the prophets?”