1 Samuel 19

David Protected from Saul

1 Now Saul told Jonathan his son and all his servants ¹to put David to death. But ²Jonathan, Saul's son, greatly delighted in David.

2 So Jonathan told David saying, "Saul my father is seeking to put you to death. Now therefore, please be on guard in the morning, and stay in a secret place and hide yourself.

3 "I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where * you are, and I will speak with my father about you; ³if I find out anything, then I will tell you."

4 Then Jonathan ⁴spoke well of David to Saul his father and said to him, "⁵Do not let the king sin against his servant David, since he has not sinned against you, and since his deeds have been very beneficial to you.

5 "For ⁶he took his life in his hand and struck the Philistine, and ⁷the LORD brought about a great deliverance for all Israel; you saw it and rejoiced. ⁸Why then will you sin against innocent blood by putting David to death without a cause?"

6 Saul listened to the voice of Jonathan, and Saul vowed, "As the LORD lives, he shall not be put to death."

7 Then Jonathan called David, and Jonathan told him all these words. And Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he was in his presence as ⁹formerly.

8 When there was war again, David went out and fought with the Philistines and defeated them with great slaughter, so that they fled before * him.

9 Now there was ¹⁰an evil spirit from the LORD on Saul as he was sitting in his house ¹¹with his spear in his hand, ¹²and David was playing the harp with his hand.

10 ¹³Saul tried to pin David to the wall with the spear, but he slipped away out of Saul's presence, so that he stuck the spear into the wall. And David fled and escaped that night.

11 Then ¹⁴Saul sent messengers to David's house to watch him, in order to put him to death in the morning. But Michal, David's wife, told him, saying, "If you do not save your life tonight, tomorrow you will be put to death."

12 ¹⁵So Michal let David down through a window, and he went out and fled and escaped.

13 Michal took ¹⁶the household idol and laid it on the bed, and put a quilt of goats' hair at its head, and covered it with clothes.

14 When Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, "¹⁷He is sick."

15 Then Saul sent messengers to see David, saying, "Bring him up to me on his bed, that I may put him to death."

16 When the messengers entered, behold, the household idol was on the bed with the quilt of goats' hair at its head.

17 So Saul said to Michal, "Why have you deceived me like this and let my enemy go, so that he has escaped?" And Michal said to Saul, "He said to me, 'Let me go! ¹⁸Why should I put you to death?' "

18 Now David fled and escaped and came ¹⁹to Samuel at Ramah, and told him all that Saul had done to him. And he and Samuel went and stayed in ²⁰Naioth.

19 It was told Saul, saying, "Behold, David is at Naioth in Ramah."

20 Then ²¹Saul sent messengers to take David, but when they saw ²²the company of the prophets prophesying, with Samuel standing and presiding over them, the Spirit of God came upon the messengers of Saul; and ²³they also prophesied.

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

22 Then he himself went to Ramah and came as far as the large well that is in Secu; and he asked and said, "Where are Samuel and David?" And someone said, "Behold, they are at Naioth in Ramah."

23 He proceeded there to Naioth in Ramah; and ²⁴the Spirit of God came upon him also, so that he went along prophesying continually until he came to Naioth in Ramah.

24 He also stripped off his clothes, and he too prophesied before Samuel and lay down ²⁵naked all that day and all that night. Therefore * they say, "²⁶Is Saul also among the prophets?"

1 Samuel 19 Commentary

Chapter 19

Jonathan reconciles his father to David, Saul again tries to slay him. (1-10) David flees to Samuel. (11-24)

Verses 1-10 How forcible are right words! Saul was, for a time, convinced of the unreasonableness of his enmity to David; but he continued his malice against David. So incurable is the hatred of the seed of the serpent against that of the woman; so deceitful and desperately wicked is the heart of man without the grace of God, ( Jeremiah 17:9 ) .

Verses 11-24 Michal's stratagem to gain time till David got to a distance was allowable, but her falsehood had not even the plea of necessity to excuse it, and manifests that she was not influenced by the same spirit of piety which had dictated Jonathan's language to Saul. In flying to Samuel, David made God his refuge. Samuel, as a prophet, was best able to advise him what to do in this day of distress. He met with little rest or satisfaction in Saul's court, therefore went to seek it in Samuel's church. What little pleasure is to be had in this world, those have who live a life of communion with God; to that David returned in the time of trouble. So impatient was Saul after David's blood, so restless against him, that although baffled by one providence after another, he could not see that David was under the special protection of God. And when God will take this way to protect David, even Saul prophesies. Many have great gifts, yet no grace; they may prophesy in Christ's name, yet are disowned by him. Let us daily seek for renewing grace, which shall be in us as a well of water springing up into everlasting life. Let us cleave to truth and holiness with full purpose of heart. In every danger and trouble, let us seek protection, comfort, and direction in God's ordinances.

Cross References

• 1. 1 Samuel 18:8, 9
• 2. 1 Samuel 18:1-3
• 3. 1 Samuel 20:9, 13
• 4. 1 Samuel 20:32; Proverbs 31:8, 9
• 5. Genesis 42:22; Proverbs 17:13; Jeremiah 18:20
• 6. Judges 9:17; 1 Samuel 17:49, 50; 1 Samuel 28:21; Psalms 119:109
• 7. 1 Samuel 11:13; 1 Chronicles 11:14
• 8. Deuteronomy 19:10-13; 1 Samuel 20:32; Psalms 94:21; Matthew 27:4
• 9. 1 Samuel 16:21; 1 Samuel 18:2, 10, 13
• 10. 1 Samuel 16:14; 1 Samuel 18:10, 11
• 11. 1 Samuel 18:10
• 12. 1 Samuel 16:16
• 13. 1 Samuel 18:11; 1 Samuel 20:33; Proverbs 1:16
• 14. Judges 16:2; Ps 59: title
• 15. Joshua 2:15; Acts 9:25; 2 Corinthians 11:33
• 16. Genesis 31:19; Judges 18:14, 17
• 17. Joshua 2:5
• 18. 2 Samuel 2:22
• 19. 1 Samuel 7:17
• 20. 1 Samuel 19:22, 23
• 21. 1 Samuel 19:11, 14; John 7:32
• 22. 1 Sam 10:5, 6, 10
• 23. Numbers 11:25; Joel 2:28
• 24. 1 Samuel 10:10
• 25. 2 Samuel 6:20; Isaiah 20:2; Micah 1:8
• 26. 1 Samuel 10:10-12

Footnotes

• [a]. Lit "see"
• [b]. Lit "good"
• [c]. Lit "smote"
• [d]. Lit "strike David and the wall"
• [e]. Lit "struck"
• [f]. Heb "teraphim"
• [g]. Lit "the"
• [h]. Heb "teraphim"
• [i]. Lit "went"
• [j]. Lit "fell"
• [k]. I.e. without outward garments

Chapter Summary

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.