1 Samuel 19:15-24

15 Then Saul sent the messengers to see David, saying, “Bring him up to me in the bed, that I may kill him. ”

16 And when the messengers came in, behold, ¹the image was in the bed, with the pillow of goats’ hair at its head.

17 Saul said to Michal, “Why have you deceived me thus and let my enemy go, so that he has escaped? ” And Michal answered Saul, “He said to me, ‘Let me go. ²Why should I kill you? ’”

18 Now David fled and escaped, and he came to Samuel at ³Ramah and told him all that Saul had done to him. And he and Samuel went and lived at Naioth.

19 And it was told Saul, “Behold, David is at Naioth in Ramah. ”

20 Then Saul sent messengers to take David, and when they saw the company of the prophets prophesying, and Samuel standing as head over them, ⁴the Spirit of God came upon the messengers of Saul, ⁵and they also prophesied.

21 When it was told Saul, he sent other messengers, ⁶and they also prophesied. And Saul sent messengers again the third time, ⁷and they also prophesied.

22 Then he himself went to Ramah and came to the great well that is in Secu. And he asked, “Where are Samuel and David? ” And one said, “Behold, they are at Naioth in ⁸Ramah. ”

23 And he went there to Naioth in Ramah. ⁹And the Spirit of God came upon him also, and as he went he prophesied until he came to Naioth in Ramah.

24 ¹⁰And he too stripped off his clothes, and he too prophesied before Samuel and lay naked all that day and all that night. Thus it is said, ¹¹“Is Saul also among the prophets? ”

1 Samuel 19:15-24 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.

Cross References

• 1. 19:16 [See ver. 13 above]
• 2. 19:17 [2 Sam. 2:22]
• 3. 19:18 ch. 1:19
• 4. 19:20 [ch. 10:5, 6, 10]
• 5. 19:20 [Num. 11:25; Joel 2:28]
• 6. 19:21 [See ver. 20 above]
• 7. 19:21 [See ver. 20 above]
• 8. 19:22 [See ver. 18 above]
• 9. 19:23 [ch. 18:10]
• 10. 19:24 Isa. 20:2; Mic. 1:8; [2 Sam. 6:20]
• 11. 19:24 ch. 10:11, 12