1 Samuel 19

1Saul told his son Jonathan and all his servants to kill David. But Saul’s son Jonathan was very fond of David,

2so Jonathan told David, “My father Saul is trying to kill you. Now please be on your guard in the morning; stay in a secret place and hide.

3I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where you are, and I will speak to my father about you. If I find out anything, I will tell you.”

4Jonathan spoke well of David to his father Saul. He said to him, “The king should not sin against his servant David, because he has not sinned against you, and what he has done has greatly benefited you.

5He took his life in his hands and killed the Philistine, and Yahweh won a great victory for all Israel. You saw it and rejoiced. Why then would you sin against innocent blood by killing David for no reason?”

6Saul listened to Jonathan, and Saul swore, “As surely as Yahweh lives, he will not be put to death.”

7So Jonathan called David and told him all these things. Then Jonathan brought David to Saul, and David served him as before.

8War broke out again, and David went out and fought the Philistines. He struck them with a heavy defeat, and they fled from him.

9Then an evil spirit from Yahweh came upon Saul as he was sitting in his house with his spear in his hand, while David was playing the lyre.

10Saul tried to pin David to the wall with the spear, but David slipped away from him, and Saul drove the spear into the wall. David fled and escaped that night.

11Saul sent messengers to David’s house to watch it and to kill him in the morning. But David’s wife Michal warned him, “If you do not run for your life tonight, tomorrow you will be killed.”

12So Michal let David down through the window, and he fled and escaped.

13Then Michal took the household idol and laid it on the bed. She put a net of goat hair at its head and covered it with a garment.

14When Saul sent messengers to seize David, she said, “He is sick.”

15Then Saul sent the messengers back to see David, saying, “Bring him up to me in his bed so that I can kill him.”

16When the messengers came in, there was the household idol on the bed, with the net of goat hair at its head.

17Saul said to Michal, “Why have you deceived me like this and let my enemy go, so that he has escaped?” Michal answered Saul, “He said to me, ‘Let me go! Why should I kill you?’”

18When David had fled and escaped, he went to Samuel at Ramah and told him everything Saul had done to him. Then he and Samuel went and stayed at Naioth.

19Saul was told, “David is at Naioth in Ramah.”

20So Saul sent messengers to seize David. But when they saw the group of prophets prophesying, with Samuel standing there as their leader, the Spirit of God came upon Saul’s messengers, and they also prophesied.

21When Saul was told, he sent other messengers, and they also prophesied. Saul sent messengers a third time, and they also prophesied.

22Then he himself went to Ramah. When he came to the great cistern at Secu, he asked, “Where are Samuel and David?” Someone said, “They are at Naioth in Ramah.”

23So he went there, to Naioth in Ramah. The Spirit of God came upon him too, and he walked along prophesying until he came to Naioth in Ramah.

24He too stripped off his clothes, and he too prophesied before Samuel. He lay naked all that day and all that night. That is why people say, “Is Saul also among the prophets?”