¹³ “All right,” David replied, “but I will not negotiate with you unless you bring back my wife Michal, Saul’s daughter, when you come.”

³ But Judah said, “The man was serious when he warned us, ‘You won’t see my face again unless your brother is with you.’

²⁹ But as the Ark of the Lord’s Covenant entered the City of David, Michal, the daughter of Saul, looked down from her window. When she saw King David skipping about and laughing with joy, she was filled with contempt for him.

²⁰ When Abner and twenty of his men came to Hebron, David entertained them with a great feast. ²¹ Then Abner said to David, “Let me go and call an assembly of all Israel to support my lord the king. They will make a covenant with you to make you their king, and you will rule over everything your heart desires.” So David sent Abner safely on his way.

Joab Murders Abner

²² But just after David had sent Abner away in safety, Joab and some of David’s troops returned from a raid, bringing much plunder with them. ²³ When Joab arrived, he was told that Abner had just been there visiting the king and had been sent away in safety.

Michal Saves David’s Life

¹¹ Then Saul sent troops to watch David’s house. They were told to kill David when he came out the next morning. But Michal, David’s wife, warned him, “If you don’t escape tonight, you will be dead by morning.” ¹² So she helped him climb out through a window, and he fled and escaped. ¹³ Then she took an idol^[a] and put it in his bed, covered it with blankets, and put a cushion of goat’s hair at its head.

¹⁴ When the troops came to arrest David, she told them he was sick and couldn’t get out of bed.

¹⁵ But Saul sent the troops back to get David. He ordered, “Bring him to me in his bed so I can kill him!” ¹⁶ But when they came to carry David out, they discovered that it was only an idol in the bed with a cushion of goat’s hair at its head.

¹⁷ “Why have you betrayed me like this and let my enemy escape?” Saul demanded of Michal.

“I had to,” Michal replied. “He threatened to kill me if I didn’t help him.”

²⁰ In the meantime, Saul’s daughter Michal had fallen in love with David, and Saul was delighted when he heard about it. ²¹ “Here’s another chance to see him killed by the Philistines!” Saul said to himself. But to David he said, “Today you have a second chance to become my son-in-law!”

²² Then Saul told his men to say to David, “The king really likes you, and so do we. Why don’t you accept the king’s offer and become his son-in-law?”

²³ When Saul’s men said these things to David, he replied, “How can a poor man from a humble family afford the bride price for the daughter of a king?”

²⁴ When Saul’s men reported this back to the king, ²⁵ he told them, “Tell David that all I want for the bride price is 100 Philistine foreskins! Vengeance on my enemies is all I really want.” But what Saul had in mind was that David would be killed in the fight.

²⁶ David was delighted to accept the offer. Before the time limit expired, ²⁷ he and his men went out and killed 200 Philistines. Then David fulfilled the king’s requirement by presenting all their foreskins to him. So Saul gave his daughter Michal to David to be his wife.

²⁸ When Saul realized that the Lord was with David and how much his daughter Michal loved him,

²⁶ we replied, ‘We can’t go unless you let our youngest brother go with us. We’ll never get to see the man’s face unless our youngest brother is with us.’

²³ But you told us, ‘Unless your youngest brother comes with you, you will never see my face again.’