1 Samuel 19

1 Saul spoke to Jonathan his son and to all his servants about putting David to death. But Jonathan son of Saul was set on David with all his heart, [a] 2 and Jonathan told David, “Saul is looking for a way to kill you. So be on your guard tomorrow morning: hide yourself, and stay out of sight. 3 I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where you are, and I will speak to my father about you; and I will see how it goes, and I will tell you.”

4 So Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul his father, and said to him, “Do not let the king sin against your slave David, for he has not sinned against you, and what he has done is very good. 5 He took his life in his hand and struck down the Philistine, and the Lord brought about a great rescue, and all Israel saw it and were glad. Why then would you sin against innocent blood, and put David to death for nothing?” 6 And Saul listened to the voice of Jonathan, and Saul swore, “As the Lord lives, he will not die.” 7 So Jonathan called David and told him all these words. And Jonathan brought David in to Saul, and he was in his presence as he had been before.

8 War broke out against Saul again, and David proved strong: he fought the Philistines and struck them a very great blow, and they fled from before him. 9 Then an evil spirit from God came on Saul. He was resting in his house with his spear in his hand, and David was playing the strings with his hands; [b] 10 and Saul tried to drive the spear through David. But David slipped away from Saul, and the spear went into the wall; and David got clear and escaped.

11 That night Saul sent messengers to David’s house to watch him, so as to put him to death in the morning. And Michal his wife told David, “If you do not save your life tonight, tomorrow you will be a dead man.” [c] 12 So Michal let David down through the window, and he went out and fled and got away. 13 Then Michal took the household images and laid them on the bed, and she put a goat’s liver at the head of it, and covered them with a cloak. [d]

14 And Saul sent messengers to take David, and they said that he was ill. 15 So he sent them back for David, saying, “Bring him up to me on the bed, so that I can put him to death.” 16 The messengers came — and there were the household images on the bed, and the goat’s liver at the head of it. 17 And Saul said to Michal, “Why have you cheated me like this, and let my enemy go, so that he got clear away?” And Michal said to Saul, “He himself said to me, ‘Let me go; and if you do not, I will kill you.’”

18 So David fled and got away, and came to Samuel at Ramathaim, and told him everything Saul had done to him. And David and Samuel went and stayed at Naioth in Ramah. [e] 19 And Saul was told, “David is at Naioth in Ramah.” 20 So Saul sent messengers to take David. And they saw the assembly of the prophets, with Samuel standing there, appointed over them; and the Spirit of God came on Saul’s messengers, and they began to prophesy. 21 Saul was told, and he sent other messengers, and they prophesied too. And Saul sent a third set of messengers, and they prophesied too.

22 Then Saul was hot with anger, and he went to Ramathaim himself. He came as far as the well of the threshing floor that is in Sephi, and he asked, “Where are Samuel and David?” And they said, “At Naioth in Ramah.” [f] 23 So he went on from there to Naioth in Ramah; and the Spirit of God came on him as well, and he walked on prophesying until he came to Naioth in Ramah. 24 And he stripped off his clothes and prophesied in front of them, and lay there stripped bare all that day and all that night. That is why people say, “Is Saul among the prophets too?” [g]