Michal Helps David Escape

¹¹ Saul sent messengers to David’s house to watch him so they could kill him in the morning. David’s wife, Michal, told him, “If you don’t escape with your life tonight, tomorrow you’ll be put to death.” ¹² So Michal let David down through the window, and he escaped and fled. ¹³ Then Michal took the household idol^[a] and laid it on the bed with a cover of goat hair placed at its head. Then she covered it with clothes.

¹⁴ When Saul sent the messengers to take David, Michal said, “He’s sick.”

¹⁵ Then Saul sent messengers to check on^[b] David. He told them, “Bring him to me on the bed so I may kill him.”^{[c] 16} The messengers went in, and there was the household idol in the bed with the cover of goat hair at its head!

¹⁷ Then Saul told Michal, “Why did you deceive me like this and let my enemy go so he could escape?”

Michal told Saul, “He told me, ‘Let me go or I’ll kill you!’”^[d]