UST 1SA Chapter 19

◄ 1SA 19 ► ║ ═ ©

19 Then Saul urged all his officers and his son Jonathan to kill David. But Jonathan liked David very much. 2 So he warned David, “My father Saul is looking for a way to kill you. So please be very careful. Tomorrow morning, find a place to hide in the field and do not come out unless I tell you it is safe. 3 I will ask my father to go out with me into the field where you are hiding. While we are there, I will talk to him about you. I will find out what he intends to do to you. Then I will tell you everything I learn.” So David did what Jonathan told him to do. 4 The next morning, Jonathan spoke with his father Saul in the field. He said many good things about David. He told his father, “Please do not do anything to harm David, who serves you faithfully. That would be a sin. David has never done anything to harm you. Everything he has done has helped you very much. 5 He risked his life when he fought against Goliath, the great soldier of the Philistine army. By enabling David to kill him, Yahweh won a great victory for all the people of Israel. You were very happy when you saw that. There is no reason for you to kill David. You should not do that. It would be sinning by killing an innocent man.” 6 What Jonathan said persuaded Saul. Saul swore by Yahweh that he would not kill David. 7 Then Saul left, and Jonathan called to David to come out of his hiding place. Jonathan told him that Saul had sworn he would not kill him. Then Jonathan brought David back to Saul, and David served Saul personally as he had done before. 8 But then the Philistines attacked the Israelites again. David led his soldiers to fight against the Philistine army. David’s soldiers killed many of the Philistine soldiers, and as a result, the rst of the Philistine army ran away. 9 This made Saul very jealous again. As a result, one day when Saul was sitting in his house, the troubling spirit that Yahweh had sent began to distress him again. Saul was holding his royal spear, and David was playing the harp for him. 10 Saul hurled his spear hard enough at David that it would have gone through him into the wall behind him and pinned him there. But David jumped aside so that the spear did not hit him. It stuck in the wall instead. David escaped by running out into the darkness. 11 Then Saul sent some soldiers to David’s house. He told them to see whether David was in the house and to kill him when he left the house the following morning. But David’s wife Michal knew about this and warned him. She told him, “In order to save your life, you must run away tonight. If you do not do that, some soldiers will kill you tomorrow!” 12 Then she lowered David out a window since the soldiers were watching the door, and he escaped by running away from the house. 13 Then Michal took a large statue that was in the house and put it in the bed. She covered it with David’s cloak as if he were sleeping under his cloak as a blanket, and she put some goat’s hair around the head of the statue to make it look like a human head. 14 The soldiers did not see David leaving the house in the morning, so they reported that to Saul. Saul then sent soldiers to enter the house and bring David back to him. But when they came to the door, Michal told them that David was so sick that he could not get out of bed. 15 When the soldiers reported that, Saul told them to enter David’s house and see whether he was really sick. He told them, “If you have to, pick up the whole bed he is lying on and use that to carry him back here to me. That way I can kill him!” 16 But when those soldiers entered David’s house, they found that there was only a statue in his bed, with goat’s hair around its head. 17 When they reported that to Saul, he summoned Michal to come to him. Saul said to her, “Why did you trick me like that? You allowed my enemy to escape!” Michal replied to Saul, “David told me that if I did not let him escape, he would kill me! So I had to let him escape.” 18 After David had escaped from Saul, he went to Samuel, who was at his home in Ramah. He told Samuel everything that Saul had done to try to kill him. Then David and Samuel went to Naioth, which was nearby, and they stayed there. 19 Someone told Saul that David was in Naioth near the city of Ramah. 20 So Saul sent some soldiers to capture David. When those soldiers arrived in Ramah, they met some prophets who were speaking and singing as God inspired them. Samuel was there as their leader. The Spirit of God influenced the soldiers whom Saul had sent, and they began to speak and sing themselves instead of trying to capture David. 21 When Saul heard about that, he sent another group of soldiers to capture David. But when those soldiers met those prophets, the Spirit of God influenced them too, and they also sang and spoke instead of trying to capture David. When Saul heard about that, he sent one more group of soldiers to capture David. But the same thing happened to them. 22 Finally Saul himself went to Ramah. He went to the big well at the place that people call Seku, and he asked the people who had gathered there to draw water, “Where are Samuel and David?” The people replied, “You will find them at Naioth, near Ramah.” 23 So Saul started walking toward Ramah to go to Naioth. While he was still on his way there, the Spirit of God influenced him as well, and he spoke and sang all the way to Naioth near Ramah. 24 There he also took off his outer clothes, and he spoke and sang in front of Samuel. He lay on the ground uncovered all day and all night. That is the reason why, when people see someone doing something unexpected, they say, “Is Saul also a prophet?”

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