1 Samuel 19:11-17
New English Translation
11 Saul sent messengers to David’s house to guard it and to kill him in the morning. Then David’s wife Michal told him, “If you do not save yourself[a] tonight, tomorrow you will be dead!” 12 So Michal lowered David through the window, and he ran away and escaped.
13 Then Michal took a household idol[b] and put it on the bed. She put a quilt[c] made of goats’ hair over its head[d] and then covered the idol with a garment. 14 When Saul sent messengers to arrest David, she said, “He’s sick.”
15 Then Saul sent the messengers back to see David, saying, “Bring him up to me on his bed so I can kill him.” 16 When the messengers came, they found only the idol on the bed and the quilt made of goats’ hair at its head.
17 Saul said to Michal, “Why have you deceived me this way by sending my enemy away? Now he has escaped!” Michal replied to Saul, “He said to me, ‘Help me get away or else I will kill you!’”[e]
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 1 Samuel 19:11 tn Heb “your life.”
- 1 Samuel 19:13 tn Heb “teraphim” (also a second time in this verse and once in v. 16). These were statues that represented various deities. According to 2 Kgs 23:24 they were prohibited during the time of Josiah’s reform movement in the seventh century. The idol Michal placed under the covers was of sufficient size to give the mistaken impression that David lay in the bed, thus facilitating his escape.
- 1 Samuel 19:13 tn The exact meaning of the Hebrew word כָּבִיר (kavir) is uncertain; it is found in the Hebrew Bible only here and in v. 16. It probably refers to a quilt made of goats’ hair, perhaps used as a fly net while one slept. See HALOT 458 s.v. *כָּבִיר. Cf. KJV, TEV “pillow”; NLT “cushion”; NAB, NRSV “net.”
- 1 Samuel 19:13 tn Heb “at the place of its head.”
- 1 Samuel 19:17 tn Heb “Send me away! Why should I kill you?” The question has the force of a threat in this context. See P. K. McCarter, I Samuel (AB), 325-26.
1 Samuel 19:11-17
Common English Bible
11 Saul sent messengers to David’s house to keep watch on it and kill him in the morning. David’s wife Michal warned him, “If you don’t escape with your life tonight, you are a dead man tomorrow.” 12 So Michal lowered David through a window. He took off and ran, and he got away. 13 Then Michal took the household’s divine image and laid it in the bed, putting some goat’s hair on its head and covering it with clothes.
14 Saul sent messengers to arrest David, but she said, “He’s sick.”
15 Saul sent the messengers back to check on David for themselves. “Bring him to me on his bed,” he ordered, “so he can be executed.” 16 When the messengers arrived, they found the idol in the bed with the goat’s hair on its head. 17 Saul said to Michal, “Why could you betray me like this, letting my enemy go so that now he has escaped?”
Michal said to Saul, “David told me, ‘Help me get away or I’ll kill you!’”
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