And Saul sought to smite David even to the wall with his
javelin
To strike it through him, and fasten him to the wall with it, as he had attempted before, ( 1 Samuel 18:11 ) ;
but he slipped away out of Saul's presence:
he perceived his design, and being of great agility of body, moved out of his place before him very nimbly:
and he smote the javelin into the wall;
he threw it with suck force that it entered into the wall, and stuck there; so great was his resolution to destroy David, and such the rage and passion that he was in, and such his strength of body, and which, in person; in his circumstances, is strangely exerted at times:
and David fled, and escaped that night;
it being towards night, or in the evening, very probably, when this affair happened; upon which he departed from Saul's court, and went to his own house, and so escaped the danger he was exposed to for the present.