1 Samuel 19:4-14

4 So Jonathan spoke well of David to his father Saul. "You should not commit a sin against your servant David," he said. "He hasn't sinned against you. Instead, he has done some very fine things for you:

5 He risked his life and killed the Philistine Goliath, and the LORD gave all Israel a great victory. When you saw it, you rejoiced. Why then should you sin by shedding David's innocent blood for no reason?"

6 Saul listened to Jonathan, and he promised, "I solemnly swear, as the LORD lives, he will not be killed."

7 Jonathan told David all of this. Then Jonathan took David to Saul. So David was returned to his former status in Saul's court.

8 When war broke out again, David went to fight the Philistines. He defeated them so decisively that they fled from him.

9 Then an evil spirit from the LORD came over Saul while he was sitting in his house with his spear in his hand. David was strumming a tune.

10 Saul tried to nail David to the wall with his spear. But David dodged it, and Saul's spear struck the wall. David fled, escaping [from Saul] that night.

11 Saul sent messengers to watch David's house and kill him in the morning. But Michal, David's wife, advised him, "If you don't save yourself tonight, you'll be dead tomorrow!"

12 So Michal lowered David through a window, and he ran away to escape.

13 Then Michal took some idols, laid them in the bed, put a goat-hair blanket at its head, and covered the idols with a garment.

14 When Saul sent messengers to get David, Michal said, "He's sick."

1 Samuel 19:4-14 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO FIRST SAMUEL 19

This chapter relates the dangers David was exposed unto through Saul's enmity at him, and his deliverance from them, as by the notice Jonathan gave him of his father's designs against him, and by his kind interposition on his behalf, 1Sa 19:1-7; by David's slipping out of Saul's presence, when he was about to cast a javelin at him, 1Sa 19:8-10; by Michal's letting him down through a window, when Saul sent messengers to kill him, and by deceiving them with an image laid in his bed in the room of him, 1Sa 19:11-17, and again by Samuel's protection of him at Naioth, whither David fled, and where Saul sent messengers after him, and at length came himself; and instead of laying hands on David, both he and the messengers were set a prophesying, 1Sa 19:18-24.