1 Samuel 19:16

16 When the messengers came, {to their surprise} the idol [was] on the bed [with] the quilt of goat's hair at the head.

1 Samuel 19:16 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 19:16

And when the messengers were come in
To David's house, and into the room where he was supposed to lie:

behold, [there was] an image in the bed to their great surprise;
they expected to see David, but instead of him the teraphim, as in ( 1 Samuel 19:13 ) ; if they had been in the room before, and thought they had seen David in the bed, they might be the more surprised to find that it was only an image they saw:

with a pillow of goats' [hair] for his bolster;
(See Gill on 1 Samuel 19:13).

1 Samuel 19:16 In-Context

14 And Saul sent messengers to arrest David, but she said, "He [is] ill."

15 So Saul sent the messengers to see David, saying, "Bring him up to me in the bed, so that I can kill him."

16 When the messengers came, {to their surprise} the idol [was] on the bed [with] the quilt of goat's hair at the head.

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

18 So David fled and escaped, and he came to Samuel at Ramah and told him all that Saul had done to him. Then he and Samuel went and stayed in Naioth.

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "and look"