1 Samuel 19:11-21

11 But Sha'ul sent messengers to David's house to watch for him and kill him in the morning. Mikhal David's wife told him, "If you don't save your life tonight, tomorrow you'll be dead."

12 So Mikhal let David down through the window; and he left, fled and escaped.

13 Mikhal took the household idol, laid it on the bed, put a goat's-hair quilt at its head and covered it with a cloth.

14 When Sha'ul sent messengers to capture David, she said, "He's ill."

15 Sha'ul sent the messengers to see David with the order, "Bring him up to me, bed and all, so that I can kill him."

16 But when the messengers entered, there before them was the household idol in the bed, with the goat's-hair quilt at its head.

17 Sha'ul asked Mikhal, "Why did you deceive me this way and let my enemy go and escape?" Mikhal answered Sha'ul, "He threatened me, 'Let me go, or I'll kill you.'"

18 David fled and escaped, then came to Sh'mu'el in Ramah and told him everything Sha'ul had done to him. So he and Sh'mu'el went and stayed in the prophets'dormitory.

19 The news reached Sha'ul that David had been seen at the prophets'dormitory in Ramah.

20 Sha'ul sent messengers to capture David. But when they saw the group of prophets prophesying, with Sh'mu'el standing and leading them, the Spirit of God fell on Sha'ul's messengers; and they too began prophesying.

21 When Sha'ul was told, he sent other messengers; but they too began prophesying. Sha'ul sent messengers a third time, and they also prophesied.

1 Samuel 19:11-21 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.