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1 Samuel 19

ARC · Chapter 19/31

1E fallou Saul a Jonathan, seu filho, e a todos os seus servos, para que matassem a David. Porém Jonathan, filho de Saul, estava mui affeiçoado a David.

2E Jonathan o annunciou a David, dizendo: Meu pae, Saul, procura matar-te, pelo que agora guarda-te pela manhã, e fica-te em occulto, e esconde-te.

3E sairei eu, e estarei á mão de meu pae no campo em que estiveres, e eu fallarei de ti a meu pae, e verei o que houver, e t'o annunciarei.

4Então Jonathan fallou bem de David a Saul, seu pae, e disse-lhe: Não peque o rei contra seu servo David, porque elle não peccou contra ti, e porque os seus feitos te são mui bons.

5Porque poz a sua alma na mão, e feriu aos philisteos, e fez o Senhor um grande livramento a todo o Israel; tu mesmo o viste, e te alegraste: porque, pois, peccarias contra o sangue innocente, matando a David sem causa?

6E Saul deu ouvidos á voz de Jonathan, e jurou Saul: Vive o Senhor, que não morrerá.

7E Jonathan chamou a David, e contou-lhe todas estas palavras: e Jonathan levou David a Saul, e esteve perante elle como d'antes.

8E tornou a haver guerra: e saiu David, e pelejou contra os philisteos, e feriu-os de grande ferida, e fugiram diante d'elle.

9Porém o espirito mau da parte do Senhor se tornou sobre Saul, estando elle assentado em sua casa, e tendo na mão a sua lança, e tangendo David com a mão o instrumento de musica.

10E procurava Saul encravar a David com a parede, porém elle se desviou de diante de Saul, o qual feriu com a lança na parede: então fugiu David, e escapou n'aquella mesma noite.

11Porém Saul mandou mensageiros á casa de David, que o guardassem, e o matassem pela manhã: do que Michal, sua mulher, avisou a David, dizendo: Se não salvares a tua vida esta noite, ámanhã te matarão.

12Então Michal desceu a David por uma janella: e elle se foi, e fugiu, e escapou.

13E Michal tomou uma estatua e a deitou na cama, e poz-lhe á cabeceira uma pelle de cabra, e a cobriu com uma coberta.

14E, mandando Saul mensageiros que trouxessem a David, ella disse: Está doente.

15Então Saul mandou mensageiros que viessem a David, dizendo: Trazei-m'o na cama, para que o mate.

16Vindo pois os mensageiros, eis aqui a estatua na cama, e a pelle de cabra á sua cabeceira.

17Então disse Saul a Michal: Porque assim me enganaste, e deixaste ir e escapar o meu inimigo? E disse Michal a Saul: Porque elle me disse: Deixa-me ir, porque hei de eu matar-te?

18Assim David fugiu e escapou, e veiu a Samuel, a Rama, e lhe participou tudo quanto Saul lhe fizera: e foram, elle e Samuel, e ficaram em Naioth.

19E o annunciaram a Saul, dizendo: Eis que David está em Naioth, em Rama.

20Então enviou Saul mensageiros para trazerem a David, os quaes viram uma congregação de prophetas prophetizando, onde estava Samuel que presidia sobre elles: e o espirito de Deus veiu sobre os mensageiros de Saul, e tambem elles prophetizaram.

21E, avisado d'isto Saul, enviou outros mensageiros, e tambem estes prophetizaram: então enviou Saul ainda uns terceiros mensageiros, os quaes tambem prophetizaram.

22Então foi tambem elle mesmo a Rama, e chegou ao poço grande que estava em Secu; e, perguntando, disse: Onde estão Samuel e David? E disseram-lhe: Eis que estão em Naioth, em Rama.

23Então foi-se lá para Naioth, em Rama: e o mesmo espirito de Deus veiu sobre elle, e ia prophetizando, até chegar a Naioth, em Rama.

24E elle tambem despiu os seus vestidos, e elle tambem prophetizou diante de Samuel, e esteve nú por terra todo aquelle dia e toda aquella noite; pelo que se diz: Está tambem Saul entre os prophetas?

📖 Chapter study

Summary

Saul openly orders David's death. Jonathan intercedes and achieves a temporary reconciliation, but Saul attacks again. David flees, and Michal helps him escape through a window, deceiving the messengers with an idol placed in the bed.

Explanation

Jonathan's successful intercession with his father, temporarily persuading him to give up killing David through rational arguments about the benefits David had brought to Israel, shows how wise mediation can, at least for a time, restrain destructive impulses even in people overtaken by jealousy. The cunning of Michal, David's wife and Saul's daughter, in setting up a disguised figure in the bed to deceive her own father's messengers, reveals her divided loyalty between her husband and her family of origin, choosing to protect David even at the risk of her father's wrath. The final episode, in which Saul is overtaken by the Spirit of God and prophesies naked before Samuel along with other prophets, ironically and humiliatingly repeats the same experience he had at the start of his reign (chapter 10), but now as a sign of his complete powerlessness before God's plan to protect David.

Fun facts

  • The repetition of the saying 'is Saul also among the prophets?' in this chapter (v.24), now under humiliating and desperate circumstances, forms a painful contrast with the first time the phrase was used in 1 Samuel 10, at the promising beginning of Saul's reign.
  • The use of teraphim (household idols, here used by Michal as a disguised figure) suggests that mixed religious practices still persisted even within Israel's own royal family.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. 1 Samuel 19:1Saul’s order is now open and official, no longer an impulsive burst of rage — he formally involves his own son and his servants in the mission to kill David.
  2. 1 Samuel 19:2Jonathan chooses loyalty to friendship over loyalty to his own father, warning David of the danger instead of carrying out the royal order he received.
  3. 1 Samuel 19:3Jonathan plans to act as a direct go-between, staying physically close to Saul during the decisive conversation so he can inform David of the outcome right away.
  4. 1 Samuel 19:4Jonathan defends David with concrete arguments, appealing to his own father’s conscience about the injustice of killing someone who had only ever benefited the kingdom.
  5. 1 Samuel 19:5Jonathan reminds Saul of his own joyful reaction to the victory over Goliath — confronting him with the contradiction between that genuine joy and his current wish to kill that same man.
  6. 1 Samuel 19:6Saul’s solemn oath, invoking God’s name, looks like a sincere reconciliation — but the rest of the chapter reveals this peace would not last long.
  7. 1 Samuel 19:7For a brief moment, things seem to return to normal — David resumes his place at court, as if the earlier attempt on his life had never happened.
  8. 1 Samuel 19:8Another military victory for David reappears exactly at the point where the cycle of success and jealousy had left off before the threats began — the pattern is about to repeat.
  9. 1 Samuel 19:9The scene reproduces almost exactly the episode from chapter 18 — even after the oath of peace, the pattern of danger around Saul’s spear happens all over again.
  10. 1 Samuel 19:10This time David does not return to court after the attack — he flees for good, understanding that Saul’s oath no longer carried any practical weight.
  11. 1 Samuel 19:11Saul changes tactics, from an impulsive attack to a planned, guarded ambush — but it is Saul’s own daughter, David’s wife, who foils the plan.
  12. 1 Samuel 19:12Fleeing through a window, avoiding the guarded door, suggests the house was already surrounded by Saul’s messengers — Michal risks her own safety to help her husband escape.
  13. 1 Samuel 19:13Michal uses an image (a teraphim, a household idol) covered with goat’s hair to simulate David’s head under the covers — the detail shows, in passing, that there were household idols even in the future king of Israel’s house, something common even among families who worshiped the LORD.
  14. 1 Samuel 19:14Michal buys time by lying about an illness, a reasonable pretext that delayed the need to show David in person.
  15. 1 Samuel 19:15Saul’s insistence on seeing David “in the bed” even while sick shows how determined he was to guarantee his death, unwilling to settle for secondhand reports.
  16. 1 Samuel 19:16Michal’s deception, already set up in verse 13, is only finally discovered when the messengers get close enough to pull back the covers.
  17. 1 Samuel 19:17Michal lies again to protect herself, inventing a threat David supposedly made against her own life — an excuse that avoids revealing she helped her husband of her own free will.
  18. 1 Samuel 19:18Seeking refuge with Samuel, the same man who had secretly anointed him years before, makes symbolic sense: David returns to the original source of his legitimacy as future king.
  19. 1 Samuel 19:19David’s exact location reaches Saul’s ears quickly, showing he kept an active network of informants even with the fugitive trying to hide.
  20. 1 Samuel 19:20The very soldiers sent to capture David end up falling into prophetic ecstasy on getting near the group led by Samuel — the capture plan is interrupted by an intervention no one expected.
  21. 1 Samuel 19:21The same result repeating with three separate waves of messengers makes clear it was no coincidence or individual weakness — something supernatural was blocking any hostile approach to David there.
  22. 1 Samuel 19:22After watching three attempts with go-betweens fail, Saul decides to go himself — determination that shows how little he trusted anyone else to finish the task.
  23. 1 Samuel 19:23Not even the king himself escapes the same effect that had already stopped his messengers — the power protecting David here is greater than Saul’s own authority and personal determination.
  24. 1 Samuel 19:24Saul appears “naked” among the prophets — in Hebrew this normally means without his outer robe or cloak, not necessarily without any clothing at all. Even so, a king stripped of his royal garments, lying on the ground all night, was a degrading sight for anyone who saw it.

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