1 Samuel 19

19 ¹ Saul spoke to his son Jonathan and to all his servants about killing David. But Jonathan, Saul's son, was very fond of David.

² So Jonathan told David, "My father Saul is seeking to kill you. Be on your guard in the morning; stay in a hiding place and keep yourself concealed." ³ "I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where you are, and I will speak to my father about you. Whatever I learn, I will tell you."

⁴ Then Jonathan spoke well of David to his father Saul and said to him, "The king must not sin against his servant David, for he has not sinned against you. On the contrary, what he has done has been very good for you." ⁵ "He risked his life when he struck down the Philistine, and our Father brought about a great deliverance for all Israel. You saw it and rejoiced. Why then would you sin against innocent blood by killing David without cause?"

⁶ Saul listened to Jonathan and swore, "As surely as our Father lives, David will not be put to death."

⁷ So Jonathan called David and told him all this. Then Jonathan brought David to Saul, and David was in his service as before.

⁸ War broke out again, and David went out and fought the Philistines. He struck them with such a heavy blow that they fled from him.

⁹ But a harmful spirit from our Father came over Saul as he was sitting in his house with his spear in his hand, while David was playing the lyre. ¹⁰ Saul tried to pin David to the wall with the spear, but David slipped away from him, and the spear drove into the wall. David fled and escaped that night.

¹¹ Saul sent messengers to David's house to watch it and to kill him in the morning. But Michal, David's wife, warned him, "If you don't escape tonight, you will be dead by morning." ¹² So Michal let David down through a window, and he fled and escaped.

¹³ Then Michal took the household idol and laid it on the bed, put a quilt of goats' hair at its head, and covered it with a garment. ¹⁴ When Saul sent messengers to seize David, Michal said, "He is ill."

¹⁵ Then Saul sent the messengers back to see David and ordered, "Bring him up to me in the bed so I can kill him." ¹⁶ But when the messengers entered, there was the household idol on the bed, with the quilt of goats' hair at its head.

¹⁷ Saul said to Michal, "Why have you deceived me like this and let my enemy go, so that he escaped?" Michal answered Saul, "He said to me, 'Let me go. Why should I kill you?'"

¹⁸ When David had fled and escaped, he went to Samuel at Ramah and told him all that Saul had done to him. Then he and Samuel went and stayed at Naioth. ¹⁹ Saul was told, "David is at Naioth in Ramah."

²⁰ So Saul sent messengers to seize David. But when they saw the group of prophets prophesying, with Samuel standing as their leader, the Spirit of our Father came upon Saul's messengers, and they also prophesied. ²¹ When Saul was told of it, he sent other messengers, and they prophesied too. Saul sent messengers a third time, and they also prophesied.

²² Finally Saul himself set out for Ramah and came to the great cistern at Secu. He asked, "Where are Samuel and David?" "At Naioth in Ramah," someone said.

²³ So he went on toward Naioth in Ramah, but the Spirit of our Father came upon him too, and he walked along prophesying until he reached Naioth in Ramah. ²⁴ He too stripped off his clothes and prophesied before Samuel, and he lay naked all that day and night. This is why people say, "Is Saul also among the prophets?"