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11 Then Saul sent messengers to David’s house to watch for him, so that he might kill him in the morning. But Michal, David’s wife, told him, “If you do not save your life tonight, tomorrow you will be killed.” 12 So Michal let David down through the window, and he fled and escaped. 13 And Michal took the [a]household idol and laid it on the bed, put a pillow of goats’ hair at its head, and covered it with clothes. 14 And when Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, “He is sick.” 15 Then Saul sent the messengers [again] to see David, saying, “Bring him up to me on his bed [if necessary], so that I may kill him.” 16 When the messengers came in, there was the [b]household idol on the bed with a quilt of goats’ hair at its head. 17 Saul 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?’”

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Footnotes

  1. 1 Samuel 19:13 Exactly what this was is not known, but the Hebrew word (teraphim) is the usual one to refer to household idols. It could have been an image bequeathed by Saul to Michal, perhaps indicative of Saul’s lapse from God, or just a spoil of war with no meaning for the Israelites. In any case, it appears to have been an image or idol about the size of a man, since Michal is able to use it as a ruse to trick Saul’s messengers (v 14).
  2. 1 Samuel 19:16 See note v 13.

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