1 Samuel 19:1-24
19 And Saul proposed to his son Jonathan and to all his officers that they should kill David.
2 But Saul’s son Jonathan liked David very much; and Jonathan told David “Saul, my father, is looking for a chance to kill you; now in the morning look out for yourself, stay in concealment and hide,
3 and I will go out and stand at my father’s side in the field where you are, and I will talk of you to my father, and see what there is, and tell you.”
4 And Jonathan spoke in David’s favor to his father Saul, and said to him “Take care not to do any wrong in the matter of David, sir, because he has done you no wrong and his deeds have been very good for you;
5 * and he took his life in his hand and killed the Philistine, and Jehovah made a great victory for all Israel. You saw it and were glad; and why should you do the wrong of shedding innocent blood, in putting David to death for nothing?”
6 And Saul listened to Jonathan, and Saul swore “By Jehovah, he shall not be put to death.”
7 And Jonathan called David, and Jonathan told him all these things, and Jonathan brought David to Saul and he was in his presence as he had formerly been.
8 And there was more of the war, and David went out and fought the Philistines and killed a great number of them, and they fled before him.
9 And there was a bad divine spirit on Saul while he was sitting in the house, spear in hand, and David was playing his music;
10 and Saul tried to pin David to the wall with the spear, but David got out of Saul’s way and he struck the spear into the wall; and David fled and made his escape.
11 And that night Saul sent scouts to David’s house to watch it, so as to put him to death in the morning; and David’s wife Mical told him “If you do not get your life into safety tonight you will be put to death tomorrow”;
12 and Mical let David down through the window, and off he went, and fled away and made his escape.
13 * And Mical took the teraphim and put it in the bed, and put the goat’s-hair netting at its head, and covered it with the blanket.
14 * And Saul sent messengers to get David; and she said “He is sick.”
15 And Saul sent the messengers to see David, with the commission “Bring him up to me in the bed to be put to death”;
16 and the messengers went in and found the teraphim in the bed and the goat’s-hair netting at its head.
17 And Saul said to Mical “What did you turn on me like that for, and let my enemy go so that he has made his escape?” and Mical said “It was he; he said to me ‘Let me go; do you want me to kill you?’”
18 * And David fled away and made his escape, and came to Samuel at Ramah and told him everything that Saul had done to him; and he and Samuel went and lived at Nothab-Ramah;
19 and Saul was told “David is to be found at Nothab-Ramah.”
20 And Saul sent messengers to get David; and they saw the assemblage of prophets under the power and Samuel standing over them, and a divine spirit came upon Saul’s messengers and they too fell under the power.
21 And they told Saul, and he sent other messengers, and they too fell under the power; and Saul kept on and sent a third party of messengers, and so did they.
22 * And Saul was angry, and he too went to Ramah, and came to the cistern of the threshing-floor on the scalp and asked “Where are Samuel and David?” and the man he asked said “You will find them at Nothab-Ramah.”
23 * And he went there to Nothab-Ramah, and a divine spirit came upon him too, and he went along, under the power as he went, till he came to Nothab-Ramah;
24 and he too threw off his clothes and was under the power before Samuel, and fell down naked and lay so all that day and all night; this is why they say “Is Saul also among the prophets?”
Footnotes
^ 19:5 Conj. and made a great victory
^ 19:13, 16 (goat’s-hair netting) Unc.
^ 19:14 Var. they said
^ 19:18 etc. (Nothab-Ramah) Form of name uncertain
^ 19:22 Var. omits And Saul was angry
^ 19:23 Var. went from there
