Saul tries to kill David

19 Saul told his son Jonathan and all his servants to kill David. But Jonathan liked David very much. ² So he told David, ‘My father Saul is trying to kill you. Be careful tomorrow morning. Hide in a secret place and stay there. ³ I will go out with my father. I will stand with him in the field where you are hiding. I will talk to him about you. Then I will tell you what he says.’

⁴ Jonathan spoke to his father Saul. He said good things about David. He said to Saul, ‘The king should not do anything bad against David. David is your servant. He has not done anything that is bad against you. Everything that he does really helps you. ⁵ David was not afraid to die when he fought against the Philistine, Goliath. When David killed Goliath, the Lord helped Israel to win a great battle. When you saw it, you were very happy. So why do you now want to kill David? He is not guilty of anything that is wrong. You have no reason to kill him.’

⁶ Saul agreed with Jonathan. He made a promise in the Lord's name that he would not kill David. ⁷ Then Jonathan called to David. He told David everything that the king had said. Jonathan took David back to Saul. So David served King Saul as he had done before.

⁸ The war with the Philistines started again. David went out with his soldiers to fight against them. He attacked them so strongly that the Philistine soldiers ran away.

⁹ Then the Lord caused an evil spirit to control Saul. Saul was sitting in his house. He had a spear in his hand. David was making music with his harp. ¹⁰ Saul threw his spear at David. He wanted to fix David to the wall. But David moved out of the way and the spear hit the wall. That night, David ran away to escape from Saul.

¹¹ Saul sent some of his servants to watch David's house. Saul told them to kill David when he came out in the morning. But David's wife Michal warned him. She said, ‘You must run away tonight. If you do not escape, tomorrow you will die!’ ¹² So Michal helped David to leave the house through a window. He ran away and he escaped.

¹³ Then Michal took an idol and she put it on the bed. She covered the idol with a blanket and she put a pillow of goat's hair at its head.

¹⁴ Saul sent some of his men to take hold of David. Michal told them that David was ill. ¹⁵ Saul then told the men to go back to David's house. He said to them, ‘Bring David to me on his bed. Then I will kill him.’ ¹⁶ The men returned to David's house. They found the idol on the bed and the pillow of goat's hair at its head.

¹⁷ Saul said to Michal, ‘You have deceived me! You have helped my enemy to escape!’ Michal said to him, ‘David told me that I must help him to escape. He said that he would kill me if I did not help him.’

¹⁸ David ran away and he escaped from Saul. He went to visit Samuel at Ramah. David told Samuel everything that Saul had done to him. Then David and Samuel went to live in Naioth.^[a]

¹⁹ Somebody told Saul that David was living at Naioth in Ramah. ²⁰ So Saul sent men to take hold of David. When the men arrived, they saw a group of prophets. Samuel was their leader. They were all prophesying. Then the Spirit of God came on Saul's men. They also started to prophesy. ²¹ When people told Saul about this, he sent more men to Naioth. But they prophesied too. So Saul sent a third group of men. These men also started to prophesy.

²² Then Saul himself went to Ramah. He went as far as the large well at Secu. He asked the people, ‘Where are Samuel and David?’ The people replied, ‘They are at Naioth in Ramah.’

²³ Saul went to Naioth. The Spirit of God came on him also. He started to prophesy as he walked towards Naioth. ²⁴ When he met Samuel, he took off his clothes and he continued to prophesy. He lay on the ground with no clothes all that day and all that night. So people still say, ‘Has Saul really become one of the prophets?’