1 Samuel 19:3-15

19:3 I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where you are. I will speak about you to my father. When I find out what the problem is, ¹  I will let you know.”

19:4 So Jonathan spoke on David’s behalf ²  to his father Saul. He said to him, “The king should not sin against his servant David, for he has not sinned against you. On the contrary, his actions have been very beneficial ³  for you. 19:5 He risked his life ⁴  when he struck down the Philistine and the Lord gave all Israel a great victory. When you saw it, you were happy. So why would you sin against innocent blood by putting David to death for no reason?”

19:6 Saul accepted Jonathan’s advice ⁵  and took an oath, “As surely as the Lord lives, he will not be put to death.” 19:7 Then Jonathan called David and told him all these things. Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he served him as he had done formerly. ⁶ 

19:8 Now once again there was war. So David went out to fight the Philistines. He defeated them thoroughly ⁷  and they ran away from him. 19:9 Then an evil spirit from the Lord came upon ⁸  Saul. He was sitting in his house with his spear in his hand, while David was playing the lyre. ⁹  19:10 Saul tried to nail David to the wall with the spear, but he escaped from Saul’s presence and the spear drove into the wall. ¹⁰  David escaped quickly ¹¹  that night.

19:11 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 ¹²  tonight, tomorrow you will be dead!” 19:12 So Michal lowered David through the window, and he ran away and escaped.

19:13 Then Michal took a household idol ¹³  and put it on the bed. She put a quilt ¹⁴  made of goat’s hair over its head ¹⁵  and then covered the idol with a garment. 19:14 When Saul sent messengers to arrest David, she said, “He’s sick.”

19:15 Then Saul sent the messengers back to see David, saying, “Bring him up to me on his bed so I can kill him.”

[19:3]  ¹ tn Heb “when I see.”

[19:4]  ² tn Heb “spoke good with respect to David.”

[19:4]  ³ tn Heb “good.”

[19:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “and he put his life into his hand.”

[19:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “and Saul listened to the voice of Jonathan.”

[19:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “and he was before him as before.”

[19:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “and he struck them down with a great blow.”

[19:9]  ⁸ tn Heb “[was] to.”

[19:9]  ⁹ tn The Hebrew text adds here “with his hand.”

[19:10]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and he drove the spear into the wall.”

[19:10]  ¹¹ tn Heb “fled and escaped.”

[19:11]  ¹² tn Heb “your life.”

[19:13]  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.

[19:13]  ¹⁴ 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 goat’s 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.”

[19:13]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “at the place of its head.”