Beginning

Saul Fears David

18 When he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was bound to the soul of David, so that Jonathan loved him as his own soul. ² And Saul took him that day and would not permit him to return home to his father’s house. ³ Then Jonathan and David made a covenant because he loved him as his own soul. ⁴ So Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was on him and gave it to David, even his garments, his sword, his bow, and his belt.

⁵ David went out wherever Saul sent him, and he was successful. So Saul set him over the men of war, and it was pleasing in the sight of all the people and also in the sight of the servants of Saul.

⁶ When they came home, as David was returning from slaying the Philistine, the women came out from all cities of Israel to meet King Saul, singing and dancing, with tambourines, with joy, and with musical instruments. ⁷ The dancing women sang and said,

⁸ Saul became very angry, and this saying was displeasing to him. Therefore he said, “They have ascribed to David ten thousands, but to me they have ascribed thousands. Now what remains for him to have but the kingdom?” ⁹ So Saul was suspicious of David from that day and forward.

¹⁰ It came to pass the following day, that an evil spirit from God came upon Saul, so that he raved in the midst of the house. And David was playing the lyre, as at other times. Now there was a spear in Saul’s hand. ¹¹ And Saul threw the spear. For he said, “I will pin David to the wall.” But David avoided him two times.

¹² Saul was afraid of David because the Lord was with him but had departed from Saul. ¹³ Therefore Saul removed him from his presence and placed him as his captain over a thousand. And he went out and came in before the people. ¹⁴ David was successful in all his ways and the Lord was with him. ¹⁵ When Saul saw that he was very successful, he was afraid of him. ¹⁶ Now all Israel and Judah loved David, because he went out and came in before them.

David Marries Michal

¹⁷ Saul said to David, “Behold my elder daughter Merab, I will give her to you as your wife. Only be valiant for me, and fight the battles of the Lord.” For Saul said, “Let not my hand be against him, but let the hand of the Philistines be against him.”

¹⁸ But David said to Saul, “Who am I? And what is my life, or my father’s family in Israel, that I should be son-in-law to the king?” ¹⁹ So when it was time that Merab, daughter of Saul, should have been given to David, she was given to Adriel the Meholathite for a wife.

²⁰ Now Michal, daughter of Saul, loved David and they told Saul, and the thing pleased him. ²¹ Saul said, “I will give her to him that she may be a snare to him, and so that the hand of the Philistines may be against him.” Therefore Saul said to David, “For a second time, you may be my son-in-law today.”

²² Saul commanded his servants, saying, “Speak to David in secret saying, ‘Listen, the king delights in you and all his servants love you. Now therefore become the king’s son-in-law.’ ”

²³ So the servants of Saul spoke these words in the ears of David. And David said, “Does it seem to you a light thing to be a king’s son-in-law, seeing that I am a poor man, and lightly esteemed?”

²⁴ And the servants of Saul reported to him saying, “According to these words, David spoke.” ²⁵ Saul said, “Thus will you say to David, ‘The king does not desire any dowry but a hundred foreskins of the Philistines, to be avenged of the king’s enemies.’ ” But Saul thought to make David fall by the hand of the Philistines.

²⁶ When his servants told David these words, it pleased David well to be the king’s son-in-law. Now the days had not expired; ²⁷ therefore David arose and went, he and his men, and killed two hundred men of the Philistines. Then David brought their foreskins and they gave them in full to the king, that he might be the king’s son-in-law. And Saul gave him Michal his daughter for a wife.

²⁸ When Saul saw and knew that the Lord was with David, and that Michal, his daughter, loved him, ²⁹ Saul was yet the more afraid of David, and Saul became the enemy of David continually.

³⁰ Then the commanders of the Philistines went out to make war. And when they went out David was more successful than all the servants of Saul, so that his name was highly honored.

Saul Tries to Kill David

19 And Saul spoke to Jonathan, his son, and to all his servants, that they should kill David. But Jonathan, Saul’s son, delighted very much in David. ² Jonathan told David, saying, “My father Saul seeks to kill you. Therefore, be on guard in the morning; stay in a secret place and hide yourself. ³ And I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where you are. Then I will speak about you to my father, and what I observe I will report to you.”

⁴ Jonathan spoke positively of David to Saul his father and said to him, “Do not let the king sin against his servant, against David, because he has not sinned against you, and because his deeds have been very good toward you. ⁵ For he took his life in his hand and struck down the Philistine, and the Lord made a great salvation for all Israel. You saw it and rejoiced. Now why then would you sin against innocent blood, to kill David without cause?”

⁶ So Saul listened to the voice of Jonathan and Saul vowed, “As the Lord lives, he will not be killed.”

⁷ Jonathan called David, and Jonathan reported to him all these words. Then Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he was in his presence as previously.

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

⁹ Now an evil spirit from the Lord was upon Saul as he was sitting in his house with his spear in his hand. And David was playing the lyre. ¹⁰ Then Saul sought to pin David to the wall with the spear, but he escaped from Saul’s presence. He struck the spear into the wall. But David fled and escaped that night.

¹¹ Saul also sent messengers to the house of David, to watch him and to slay him in the morning. But Michal, wife of David, told him, saying, “If you do not save your life tonight, tomorrow you will be dead.” ¹² So Michal let David down through a window, and he went and fled to safety. ¹³ Michal took an idol and laid it in the bed, and put a braided goat hair pillow for its head and covered it with clothes.

¹⁴ When Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, “He is sick.”

¹⁵ Saul sent the messengers again to see David, saying, “Bring him up to me in the bed, that I may kill him.” ¹⁶ When the messengers came in, there was the idol in the bed with a goat hair pillow for its head.

¹⁷ Saul said to Michal, “Why have you betrayed me and sent away my enemy, so that he escaped?”

And Michal said to Saul, “He said to me, ‘Let me go. Why should I kill you?’ ”

¹⁸ Now David fled, and he escaped and came to Samuel at Ramah. And he reported to him all that Saul had done to him. And he and Samuel went and stayed in Naioth. ¹⁹ It was told Saul, saying, “David is at Naioth in Ramah.” ²⁰ Then Saul sent messengers to take David, but when they saw the company of the prophets prophesying and Samuel taking his stand over them, the Spirit of God came upon the messengers of Saul and they also prophesied. ²¹ When it was reported to Saul, he sent other messengers. And they also prophesied. So Saul sent messengers again a third time, and they too prophesied. ²² Then he also went to Ramah and came to the great well that is in Seku. And he asked and said, “Where are Samuel and David?”

And one said, “They are at Naioth in Ramah.

²³ He went there to Naioth in Ramah, and the Spirit of God came upon him also. And he went on and he prophesied until he came to Naioth in Ramah. ²⁴ He stripped off his clothes and he also prophesied before Samuel. And he lay down naked all that day and all that night. Therefore they say, “Is Saul also among the prophets?”

David and Jonathan

20 David fled from Naioth in Ramah, and came and said before Jonathan, “What have I done? What is my offense? And what is my sin before your father, that he seeks my life?”

² And he said to him, “Far from it! You shall not die. Look, my father does nothing either great or small that he does not reveal to me. Why would my father hide this thing from me? It is not so.”

³ David vowed again and said, “Your father certainly knows that I have found favor in your sight. And he says, ‘Do not let Jonathan know this, lest he be distressed.’ However, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, there is but a step between me and death.”

⁴ Jonathan said to David, “Whatever you say, I will do it for you.”

⁵ David said to Jonathan, “Tomorrow is the New Moon, and I should not fail to sit with the king to eat. But let me go that I may hide myself in the field until the evening of the third day. ⁶ If your father misses me at all, then say, ‘David asked for leave from me that he might run to Bethlehem his city, for there is a yearly sacrifice there for all the family.’ ⁷ If he says, ‘Good,’ it will be well for your servant. But if he gets angry, know that evil is determined by him. ⁸ Therefore deal kindly with your servant, for you have brought your servant into a covenant of the Lord with you. But if there is any guilt in me, kill me yourself. For why should you bring me to your father?”

⁹ Then Jonathan said, “Far be it from you. For if I indeed knew that my father had determined evil against you, would I not tell it you?”

¹⁰ David said to Jonathan, “Who will tell me? Or what if your father answers you roughly?”

¹¹ So Jonathan said to David, “Come, let us go out into the field.” And the two of them went out to the field.

¹² Then Jonathan said to David, “The Lord God of Israel is witness. When I have sounded out my father about this time tomorrow, or by the third day, and if he is favorable toward David, then will I not send and reveal it to you? ¹³ May the Lord do so to Jonathan and much more. If it pleases my father to do you evil, then I will reveal it you and send you away that you may go in peace. And may the Lord be with you as He has been with my father. ¹⁴ And if I live, not only will you show me the kindness of the Lord, that I shall not die, ¹⁵ but you will not cut off your faithfulness from my house forever, even when the Lord has cut off each one of the enemies of David from the face of the earth.”

¹⁶ So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David saying, “May the Lord require it at the hand of the enemies of David.” ¹⁷ Jonathan made David swear again, because he loved him. For he loved him as he loved his own soul.

¹⁸ Then Jonathan said to David, “Tomorrow is the New Moon, and you will be missed, because your seat will be empty. ¹⁹ When you have stayed three days, you will surely go down and come to the place where you hid yourself on the day this happened, and wait there beside the stone Ezel. ²⁰ And I will shoot three arrows to its side, as though I shot at a target. ²¹ Then I will send a boy, saying, ‘Go, find the arrows.’ If I expressly say to the boy, ‘See, the arrows are on this side of you, take them,’ then come, for it will be safe for you. And as the Lord lives, it is nothing of concern. ²² But if I say to the young man, ‘See, the arrows are beyond you,’ go, for the Lord has sent you away. ²³ As for the matter upon which you and I have spoken, the Lord is between you and me forever.”

²⁴ So David hid himself in the field. And when the New Moon appeared, the king sat down over food to eat. ²⁵ Now the king sat on his seat, as at other times, even on a seat by the wall. Then Jonathan arose and Abner sat by Saul’s side, but David’s place was empty. ²⁶ Nevertheless Saul did not say anything that day. For he thought, “Something has happened. He is not clean; surely he is not clean.” ²⁷ It happened on the following day, which was the second day of the month, that David’s place remained empty. So Saul said to Jonathan his son, “Why has the son of Jesse not come to eat food either yesterday or today?”

²⁸ And Jonathan answered Saul, “David earnestly asked leave from me to go to Bethlehem. ²⁹ And he said, ‘Please let me go, for our family has a sacrifice in the city and my brother has commanded me to come. Now, if I have found favor in your sight, please let me leave and see my brothers.’ This is why he has not come to the king’s table.”

³⁰ Then Saul was angry with Jonathan and he said to him, “You son of a perverse rebellious woman, do I not know that you are choosing the son of Jesse to your own shame, and to the shame of your mother’s nakedness? ³¹ For as long as the son of Jesse lives on the earth, neither you nor your kingdom will be established. Now, send and bring him to me, for he is a dead man.”

³² Jonathan answered Saul his father and said to him, “Why should he be killed? What has he done?” ³³ So Saul cast a spear at him to strike him. Therefore Jonathan knew that his father was determined to kill David.

³⁴ And Jonathan arose from the table in fierce anger and did not eat food on the second day of the month. For he was grieved for David, because his father had dishonored him.

³⁵ In the morning Jonathan went out to the field at the time appointed with David, and a little boy was with him. ³⁶ And he said to his boy, “Run, find the arrows which I shoot.” He ran, and he shot the arrow over him. ³⁷ When the boy came to the place of the arrow which Jonathan had shot, Jonathan called after the boy and said, “Is not the arrow beyond you?” ³⁸ Then Jonathan cried after the boy, “Hurry quickly! Do not stay!” And Jonathan’s boy gathered up the arrow and came to his master. ³⁹ But the boy did not know anything. Only Jonathan and David knew the matter. ⁴⁰ Jonathan gave his weapons to his boy and said to him, “Go, carry them to the city.”

⁴¹ When the boy had gone, David arose from the south side of the stone, and fell on his face to the ground, and bowed himself three times. They kissed one another and wept together, but David wept more.

⁴² Jonathan said to David, “Go in peace, since the two of us swore in the name of the Lord, saying, ‘The Lord will be between me and you, and between my descendants and your descendants forever.’ ” So he arose and departed, but Jonathan went into the city.