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1 Samuel 19

KJV · Chapter 19/31

1And Saul spake to Jonathan his son, and to all his servants, that they should kill David.

2But Jonathan Saul’s son delighted much in David: and Jonathan told David, saying, Saul my father seeketh to kill thee: now therefore, I pray thee, take heed to thyself until the morning, and abide in a secret place, and hide thyself:

3And I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where thou art, and I will commune with my father of thee; and what I see, that I will tell thee.

4And Jonathan spake good of David unto Saul his father, and said unto him, Let not the king sin against his servant, against David; because he hath not sinned against thee, and because his works have been to thee-ward very good:

5For he did put his life in his hand, and slew the Philistine, and the Lord wrought a great salvation for all Israel: thou sawest it, and didst rejoice: wherefore then wilt thou sin against innocent blood, to slay David without a cause?

6And Saul hearkened unto the voice of Jonathan: and Saul sware, As the Lord liveth, he shall not be slain.

7And Jonathan called David, and Jonathan shewed him all those things. And Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he was in his presence, as in times past.

8And there was war again: and David went out, and fought with the Philistines, and slew them with a great slaughter; and they fled from him.

9And the evil spirit from the Lord was upon Saul, as he sat in his house with his javelin in his hand: and David played with his hand.

10And Saul sought to smite David even to the wall with the javelin; but he slipped away out of Saul’s presence, and he smote the javelin into the wall: and David fled, and escaped that night.

11Saul also sent messengers unto David’s house, to watch him, and to slay him in the morning: and Michal David’s wife told him, saying, If thou save not thy life to night, to morrow thou shalt be slain.

12So Michal let David down through a window: and he went, and fled, and escaped.

13And Michal took an image, and laid it in the bed, and put a pillow of goats’ hair for his bolster, and covered it with a cloth.

14And when Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, He is sick.

15And Saul sent the messengers again to see David, saying, Bring him up to me in the bed, that I may slay him.

16And when the messengers were come in, behold, there was an image in the bed, with a pillow of goats’ hair for his bolster.

17And Saul said unto Michal, Why hast thou deceived me so, and sent away mine enemy, that he is escaped? And Michal answered Saul, He said unto me, Let me go; why should I kill thee?

18So David fled, and escaped, and came to Samuel to Ramah, and told him all that Saul had done to him. And he and Samuel went and dwelt in Naioth.

19And it was told Saul, saying, Behold, David is at Naioth in Ramah.

20And Saul sent messengers to take David: and when they saw the company of the prophets prophesying, and Samuel standing as appointed over them, the Spirit of God was upon the messengers of Saul, and they also prophesied.

21And when it was told Saul, he sent other messengers, and they prophesied likewise. And Saul sent messengers again the third time, and they prophesied also.

22Then went he also to Ramah, and came to a great well that is in Sechu: and he asked and said, Where are Samuel and David? And one said, Behold, they be at Naioth in Ramah.

23And he went thither to Naioth in Ramah: and the Spirit of God was upon him also, and he went on, and prophesied, until he came to Naioth in Ramah.

24And he stripped off his clothes also, and prophesied before Samuel in like manner, and lay down naked all that day and all that night. Wherefore they say, Is Saul also among the prophets?

📖 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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