I Samuel 23, Saul Pursues David

David is on the run from King Saul.

1 Samuel 23:1-3, Keilah attacked

When David was told, "Look, the Philistines are fighting against Keilah and are looting the threshing floors," he inquired of the LORD, saying, "Shall I go and attack these Philistines?" 

The LORD answered him, "Go, attack the Philistines and save Keilah."

But David's men said to him, "Here in Judah we are afraid. How much more, then, if we go to Keilah against the Philistine forces!"

YHWH tells David to go and save the town of Keilah. But his men are aware that even in Judah they are afraid of the Philistines. How much more in the town of Keilah, which apparently is outside of Judah.

1 Samuel 23:4-6, Keilah saved

Once again David inquired of the LORD, and the LORD answered him, "Go down to Keilah, for I am going to give the Philistines into your hand." 

So David and his men went to Keilah, fought the Philistines and carried off their livestock. He inflicted heavy losses on the Philistines and saved the people of Keilah. (Now Abiathar son of Ahimelech had brought the ephod down with him when he fled to David at Keilah.)

David is probably inquiring of God via the priest's ephod with with the Umin and Thummin. Commentators believe that this process gives a binary Yes/No response so David possibly asks two questions, "Should I fight the Philistines?" and "Should I go to Keilah?"

David, guided by YHWH, is successful at Keilah. We note, again, that Saul is wasting his army by attacking David; here it is David, not Saul, who attacks the Philistine oppressors.

1 Samuel 23:7-12, Saul pursues David to Keilah

Saul was told that David had gone to Keilah, and he said, "God has handed him over to me, for David has imprisoned himself by entering a town with gates and bars." And Saul called up all his forces for battle, to go down to Keilah to besiege David and his men.

When David learned that Saul was plotting against him, he said to Abiathar the priest, "Bring the ephod." David said, "O LORD, God of Israel, your servant has heard definitely that Saul plans to come to Keilah and destroy the town on account of me. Will the citizens of Keilah surrender me to him? Will Saul come down, as your servant has heard? O LORD, God of Israel, tell your servant." 

And the LORD said, "He will."

Again David asked, "Will the citizens of Keilah surrender me and my men to Saul?" 

And the LORD said, "They will."

David is worried about being trapped and YHWH assures him that indeed he will be. Again we have a sequence of questions with a binary Yes/No answer.

1 Samuel 23:13-14, Abandoning Keilah

So David and his men, about six hundred in number, left Keilah and kept moving from place to place. When Saul was told that David had escaped from Keilah, he did not go there.

David stayed in the desert strongholds and in the hills of the Desert of Ziph. Day after day Saul searched for him, but God did not give David into his hands. 

David moves on from Keilah. Saul continues to hunt for him, even though David is a powerful force against the Philistines.

1 Samuel 23:15-18, Covenant with Jonathan

While David was at Horesh in the Desert of Ziph, he learned that Saul had come out to take his life. And Saul's son Jonathan went to David at Horesh and helped him find strength in God. "Don't be afraid," he said. "My father Saul will not lay a hand on you. You will be king over Israel, and I will be second to you. Even my father Saul knows this." The two of them made a covenant before the LORD. Then Jonathan went home, but David remained at Horesh.

 

Jonathan, supportive of David, is able to find him. Jonathan also recognizes God calling of David to be a future king and volunteers to be second (subordinate) to David in his reign.

Despite the anger of Saul, David and Jonathan make a covenant together. 

1 Samuel 23:19-23, Crafty David

The Ziphites went up to Saul at Gibeah and said, "Is not David hiding among us in the strongholds at Horesh, on the hill of Hakilah, south of Jeshimon? Now, O king, come down whenever it pleases you to do so, and we will be responsible for handing him over to the king."

Saul replied, "The LORD bless you for your concern for me. Go and make further preparation. Find out where David usually goes and who has seen him there. They tell me he is very crafty. Find out about all the hiding places he uses and come back to me with definite information. Then I will go with you; if he is in the area, I will track him down among all the clans of Judah."

Saul asks for help finding David's hiding places. Since David has slipped away before, Saul asks for a precise location for David.

1 Samuel 23:24-29

So they set out and went to Ziph ahead of Saul. Now David and his men were in the Desert of Maon, in the Arabah south of Jeshimon. Saul and his men began the search, and when David was told about it, he went down to the rock and stayed in the Desert of Maon. When Saul heard this, he went into the Desert of Maon in pursuit of David.

Saul was going along one side of the mountain, and David and his men were on the other side, hurrying to get away from Saul. As Saul and his forces were closing in on David and his men to capture them, a messenger came to Saul, saying, "Come quickly! The Philistines are raiding the land." Then Saul broke off his pursuit of David and went to meet the Philistines. That is why they call this place Sela Hammahlekoth.

 

And David went up from there and lived in the strongholds of En Gedi.

David continues to elude Saul. In this last incident, probably in a pincer movement to trap David, at the last moment Saul is called away by a Philistine raid.

Saul has an army of several thousand men and as before, instead of confronting the Philistines, is wasting them on a search for David.

(NIV footnotes: In verse 28,  Sela Hammahlekoth means "rock of parting.")

First published August 17, 2023; updated August 17, 2026

Hesed, Love and Loyalty

The Hebrew language is rich with many words and concepts that do not carry over directly into English and so must be translated with a variety of English words or phrases.  One word that does not immediately translate into English is the word hesed.  It translates into Greek roughly as agape.  In various places it is translated as "love", "care", "loyalty."  Robert Hubbard argues that hesed is the theme of the book of Ruth.

חֶסֶד

In the Psalms, this word is often translated "lovingkindness".

Hesed

According to this Wikipedia article on hesed, the word occurs 248 times in the Hebrew Bible, often translated as mercy, kindness, lovingkindness or goodness.  Because of the word's association with ardor or desire, twice it is translated as a negative quality, in Proverbs 14: 34, where the NIV uses "condemns", and Leviticus 20: 17, where the NIV says "disgrace".  (The Hebrew interlinear text of these verses here and here.) But the word does not just mean kindness; it has a covenantal aspect, a concept that includes commitment, longterm obligation. A Strong's Concordance summary of the various Hebrew aspects of the word is here.

The Wikipedia article goes on to say

A person who embodies chesed is known as a chasid (hasid, חסיד), one who is faithful to the covenant and who goes "above and beyond that which is normally required" and a number of groups throughout Jewish history which focus on going "above and beyond" have called themselves chasidim. These groups include the Hasideans of the Second Temple period, the Maimonidean Hasidim of medieval Egypt and Palestine, the Chassidei Ashkenaz in medieval Europe, and the Hasidic movement which emerged in eighteenth century Eastern Europe.

In an earlier post, I recommended Sarah Fisher's blog on Hebrew words. In this blog is a post, Khesed: Royal Love in Action, where she writes

Khesed has a complicated translation history. It has confounded a lot of scholars and English translators and because of that, it has a wide range of translations.... It  is a unique-to-Hebrew word. 

I recommend the blogpost by Fisher.

The BibleStudyTools website has an article on hesed. 

Singer-songwriter Michael Card has written a book on Hesed, Inexpressible and a blog post explaining his love affair with this word. 

Professor Jennifer Matheny has recently written a book Hesed, The Seed of the Biblical Story.

With the covenantal aspect to this word, one would hope that we would have marriages full of hesed, involving affection and loyalty, with both ardor and commitment!      

First published August 13, 2023, updated August 16, 2026

I Samuel 22, A Massacre of Priests

David is fleeing Saul.  His first stop was in Gath where he faked insanity. Now he moves on.

1 Samuel 22:1-2, Collection of discontents

David left Gath and escaped to the cave of Adullam. When his brothers and his father's household heard about it, they went down to him there. All those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered around him, and he became their leader. About four hundred men were with him.

As David flees Saul, others who are discontented for some reason (debt is an example) begin to come to him, forming a ragtag army. This army includes people of his father's household.

1 Samuel 22:3-5, Refuge for David's father and mother

From there David went to Mizpah in Moab and said to the king of Moab, "Would you let my father and mother come and stay with you until I learn what God will do for me?" So he left them with the king of Moab, and they stayed with him as long as David was in the stronghold.

But the prophet Gad said to David, "Do not stay in the stronghold. Go into the land of Judah." So David left and went to the forest of Hereth.

David is concerned about his parents and the effect his campaigns may have on them. He asks the king of Moab to allow David's aging parents to retreat there, beyond the reach of Saul. (David's great-grandmother, Ruth, was from Moab; see Ruth 1:22.)

A prophet, Gad, warns David to keep moving. (Gad appears, for the first time, with no introduction.)

1 Samuel 22:6-8, Saul's complaint

Now Saul heard that David and his men had been discovered. And Saul, spear in hand, was seated under the tamarisk tree on the hill at Gibeah, with all his officials standing around him. Saul said to them, "Listen, men of Benjamin! Will the son of Jesse give all of you fields and vineyards? Will he make all of you commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds? Is that why you have all conspired against me? No one tells me when my son makes a covenant with the son of Jesse. None of you is concerned about me or tells me that my son has incited my servant to lie in wait for me, as he does today."

Saul is angry that David has been slipping away and warns his officers of the threat David's reign brings to them.

Note the tribal conflict and the echoes of Samuel's complaint about kings: Saul offers his tribal members, Benjamites, command of hundreds and thousands and nice fields and vineyards. He claims that if David is king, all of that wealth and power will go to people of David's tribe (Judah.)

Robert Alter says that identifying someone by their father's name (such as "son of Jesse") without using their own name, is an insult. 

1 Samuel 22:9-10, Ahimelech exposed

But Doeg the Edomite, who was standing with Saul's officials, said, "I saw the son of Jesse come to Ahimelech son of Ahitub at Nob. Ahimelech inquired of the LORD for him; he also gave him provisions and the sword of Goliath the Philistine."

One standing nearby overhears Saul's complaint and turns in Ahimelech for aiding David. (We are reminded that Doeg is an Edomite, not an Israelite.)  

I Samuel 22:11-15, Ahimelech confronted

Then the king sent for the priest Ahimelech son of Ahitub and his father's whole family, who were the priests at Nob, and they all came to the king. 

Saul said, "Listen now, son of Ahitub." 

"Yes, my lord," he answered.

 

Saul said to him, "Why have you conspired against me, you and the son of Jesse, giving him bread and a sword and inquiring of God for him, so that he has rebelled against me and lies in wait for me, as he does today?"

Ahimelech answered the king, "Who of all your servants is as loyal as David, the king's son-in-law, captain of your bodyguard and highly respected in your household? Was that day the first time I inquired of God for him? Of course not! Let not the king accuse your servant or any of his father's family, for your servant knows nothing at all about this whole affair."

An angry Saul goes to Ahimelech and accuses him. Ahimelech reminds Saul of David's loyalty to both Saul and Israel.  Ahimelech is unaware of Saul's conflict with David and his praise of David seems to only anger Saul.

Saul insults the priest (says Alter) by not using his name, but calling him "son of Ahitub." This is a hint that things are about to go very bad.

1 Samuel 22:16-19, Massacre

But the king said, "You will surely die, Ahimelech, you and your father's whole family."

Then the king ordered the guards at his side: "Turn and kill the priests of the LORD, because they too have sided with David. They knew he was fleeing, yet they did not tell me." But the king's officials were not willing to raise a hand to strike the priests of the LORD.

The king then ordered Doeg, "You turn and strike down the priests." So Doeg the Edomite turned and struck them down. That day he killed eighty-five men who wore the linen ephod. He also put to the sword Nob, the town of the priests, with its men and women, its children and infants, and its cattle, donkeys and sheep.

The logic of Ahimilech's response is ignored by Saul and the priests are massacred by Doeg. (The king's officers refuse to take part!)

Saul's paranoia has become a mental illness. He repeatedly wastes the resources of his throne by waging war against his own people.

1 Samuel 22:20-23, Abiathar

But Abiathar, a son of Ahimelech son of Ahitub, escaped and fled to join David. He told David that Saul had killed the priests of the LORD.

Then David said to Abiathar: "That day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, I knew he would be sure to tell Saul. I am responsible for the death of your father's whole family. Stay with me; don't be afraid; the man who is seeking your life is seeking mine also. You will be safe with me."

A son of Ahimelech escapes to tell David. Now David is aware that his stop at the priests place has led to the massacre.

First published August 16, 2023; updated August 15, 2026

I Samuel 21, David and the Shewbread

David is now fleeing from Saul.

1 Samuel 21:1-5, "Please, bread"

David went to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. Ahimelech trembled when he met him, and asked, "Why are you alone? Why is no one with you?"

David answered Ahimelech the priest, "The king charged me with a certain matter and said to me, `No one is to know anything about your mission and your instructions.' As for my men, I have told them to meet me at a certain place. Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever you can find."

But the priest answered David, "I don't have any ordinary bread on hand; however, there is some consecrated bread here--provided the men have kept themselves from women."

David replied, "Indeed women have been kept from us, as usual whenever I set out. The men's things are holy even on missions that are not holy. How much more so today!"

David asks the priest for bread. He claims to be on a mission from the king. The priest is frightened but responds that only the consecrated bread is available. (As we will see later, the priest has reason to be frightened.) The conversation includes a requirement that the men have abstained from sex.

This location is Nob, a small town close to Jerusalem.

1 Samuel 21:6-9, Now a sword

So the priest gave him the consecrated bread, since there was no bread there except the bread of the Presence that had been removed from before the LORD and replaced by hot bread on the day it was taken away.

Now one of Saul's servants was there that day, detained before the LORD; he was Doeg the Edomite, Saul's head shepherd. 

David asked Ahimelech, "Don't you have a spear or a sword here? I haven't brought my sword or any other weapon, because the king's business was urgent."

The priest replied, "The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the Valley of Elah, is here; it is wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you want it, take it; there is no sword here but that one." 

David said, "There is none like it; give it to me."

David also asks for a sword and is told that the sword he took from Goliath is there. Although the sword of Goliath is big and heavy, David takes it.

We have a tangential comment that one of Saul's servants, an Edomite (not an Israelite), is also there. In classic Old Testament storytelling, the mention of Doeg foreshadows a future event.

1 Samuel 21:10-15, Refuge in Gath

That day David fled from Saul and went to Achish king of Gath. But the servants of Achish said to him, "Isn't this David, the king of the land? Isn't he the one they sing about in their dances: "`Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands'?"

David took these words to heart and was very much afraid of Achish king of Gath. So he pretended to be insane in their presence; and while he was in their hands he acted like a madman, making marks on the doors of the gate and letting saliva run down his beard.

Achish said to his servants, "Look at the man! He is insane! Why bring him to me? Am I so short of madmen that you have to bring this fellow here to carry on like this in front of me? Must this man come into my house?"

David, afraid that the king of Gath might be threatened by him, pretends to be insane. The king asks, "Do I really need another madman in my employ?" This retreat to Gath represents a significant gamble by David but he pulls off the insanity act enough that the king of Gath is repulsed, not threatened.

Playing the part of a madman in Gath is a low point of David's career. The act itself is humiliating and several psalms will be composed by David during this flight from Saul.

Crafty David plays the madman. Meanwhile, the king of Israel is showing increasing signs of real insanity.

Gath was a significant city in the ancient Near East. Archaeologists in Israel are currently excavating its ruins. An article on that excavation is here.

First published August 15, 2023; updated August 14, 2026

I Samuel 20, Arrows in a Field

Erratic Saul has tried several times to kill David.

1 Samuel 20:1-4, "A step from death"

Then David fled from Naioth at Ramah and went to Jonathan and asked, "What have I done? What is my crime? How have I wronged your father, that he is trying to take my life?"

"Never!" Jonathan replied. "You are not going to die! Look, my father doesn't do anything, great or small, without confiding in me. Why would he hide this from me? It's not so!"

But David took an oath and said, "Your father knows very well that I have found favor in your eyes, and he has said to himself, `Jonathan must not know this or he will be grieved.' Yet as surely as the LORD lives and as you live, there is only a step between me and death."

Jonathan said to David, "Whatever you want me to do, I'll do for you."

David is frustrated by Saul's erratic behavior and attempts to kill him. Jonathan is skeptical that his father will kill David but agrees to help.

1 Samuel 20:5-11, A test at the New Moon festival

So David said, "Look, tomorrow is the New Moon festival, and I am supposed to dine with the king; but let me go and hide in the field until the evening of the day after tomorrow. If your father misses me at all, tell him, `David earnestly asked my permission to hurry to Bethlehem, his hometown, because an annual sacrifice is being made there for his whole clan.'

If he says, `Very well,' then your servant is safe. But if he loses his temper, you can be sure that he is determined to harm me. 

As for you, show kindness to your servant, for you have brought him into a covenant with you before the LORD. If I am guilty, then kill me yourself! Why hand me over to your father?"

"Never!" Jonathan said. "If I had the least inkling that my father was determined to harm you, wouldn't I tell you?"

David asked, "Who will tell me if your father answers you harshly?"

"Come," Jonathan said, "let's go out into the field." So they went there together.

Jonathan assures David of his commitment to protecting David.  Jonathan hatches a plan, a code, in order to communicate Saul's current mood to David.

1 Samuel 20:12-17, A covenant

Then Jonathan said to David: "By the LORD, the God of Israel, I will surely sound out my father by this time the day after tomorrow! If he is favorably disposed toward you, will I not send you word and let you know? But if my father is inclined to harm you, may the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if I do not let you know and send you away safely. 

May the LORD be with you as he has been with my father. But show me unfailing kindness like that of the LORD as long as I live, so that I may not be killed, and do not ever cut off your kindness from my family--not even when the LORD has cut off every one of David's enemies from the face of the earth."

So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, "May the LORD call David's enemies to account." And Jonathan had David reaffirm his oath out of love for him, because he loved him as he loved himself.

The two friends express their commitment to each other. Jonathan, aware of David's increasing rise in fortune, asks David to protect his family.

1 Samuel 20:18-23, "Come here/go away"

Then Jonathan said to David: "Tomorrow is the New Moon festival. You will be missed, because your seat will be empty. The day after tomorrow, toward evening, go to the place where you hid when this trouble began, and wait by the stone Ezel. I will shoot three arrows to the side of it, as though I were shooting at a target.

Then I will send a boy and say, `Go, find the arrows.' If I say to him, `Look, the arrows are on this side of you; bring them here,' then come, because, as surely as the LORD lives, you are safe; there is no danger.

But if I say to the boy, `Look, the arrows are beyond you,' then you must go, because the LORD has sent you away. And about the matter you and I discussed--remember, the LORD is witness between you and me forever."

Jonathan's plan is a simple one and easy to remember. "If I say to the boy, 'come back my way', then you are to come back. But if I say, 'Go away further' then you are to go away."

1 Samuel 20:24-29, David is missed

So David hid in the field, and when the New Moon festival came, the king sat down to eat. He sat in his customary place by the wall, opposite Jonathan, and Abner sat next to Saul, but David's place was empty.

Saul said nothing that day, for he thought, "Something must have happened to David to make him ceremonially unclean--surely he is unclean." But the next day, the second day of the month, David's place was empty again. Then Saul said to his son Jonathan, "Why hasn't the son of Jesse come to the meal, either yesterday or today?"

Jonathan answered, "David earnestly asked me for permission to go to Bethlehem. He said, `Let me go, because our family is observing a sacrifice in the town and my brother has ordered me to be there. If I have found favor in your eyes, let me get away to see my brothers.' That is why he has not come to the king's table."

When the king has his evening meal, the attendants join him. Some type of uncleanliness is suggested for the first absence but Saul finally asks after the second absence.

1 Samuel 20:30-34, Anger

Saul's anger flared up at Jonathan and he said to him, "You son of a perverse and rebellious woman! Don't I know that you have sided with the son of Jesse to your own shame and to the shame of the mother who bore you? As long as the son of Jesse lives on this earth, neither you nor your kingdom will be established. Now send and bring him to me, for he must die!"

"Why should he be put to death? What has he done?" Jonathan asked his father.

But Saul hurled his spear at him to kill him. Then Jonathan knew that his father intended to kill David.

Jonathan got up from the table in fierce anger; on that second day of the month he did not eat, because he was grieved at his father's shameful treatment of David.

 

Saul is angry. He makes accusations against Jonathan's mother in his anger and throws a spear at Jonathan. Jonathan's questions are appropriate but do nothing to calm his father down.

In Saul's attack on Jonathan, he makes derogatory statements about Jonathan's mother. The phrase translated "shame of the mother who bore you" in the NIV is literally "shame of your mother's nakedness." (See this interlinear text.) Insulting a man by making an abusive statement about his mother is a human practice that is at least three thousand years old!

1 Samuel 20:35-40, "Beyond you!"

In the morning Jonathan went out to the field for his meeting with David. He had a small boy with him,

and he said to the boy, "Run and find the arrows I shoot." As the boy ran, he shot an arrow beyond him. When the boy came to the place where Jonathan's arrow had fallen, Jonathan called out after him, "Isn't the arrow beyond you?" Then he shouted, "Hurry! Go quickly! Don't stop!" The boy picked up the arrow and returned to his master. (The boy knew nothing of all this; only Jonathan and David knew.) 

Then Jonathan gave his weapons to the boy and said, "Go, carry them back to town."

Jonathan has signaled that David is to leave. But Jonathan has an opportunity to send the boy away and does so. This leaves Jonathan free to meet briefly with David.

1 Samuel 20:41-42, Friends embrace

After the boy had gone, David got up from the south side [of the stone] and bowed down before Jonathan three times, with his face to the ground. Then they kissed each other and wept together--but David wept the most.

Jonathan said to David, "Go in peace, for we have sworn friendship with each other in the name of the LORD, saying, `The LORD is witness between you and me, and between your descendants and my descendants forever.'" Then David left, and Jonathan went back to the town.

Two friends embrace and part. Both have pushed Israel, under Saul, to greatness, but Saul's reign (and possibly his mind) are decaying.

David and Jonathan will meet one more time.

First published August 14, 2023; updated August 13, 2026

I Samuel 19, The King's Jealousy

David has grown in popularity, as he successfully battles the Philistines.

1 Samuel 19:1-3, Saul recruits Jonathan and attendants

Saul told his son Jonathan and all the attendants to kill David. But Jonathan was very fond of David and warned him, "My father Saul is looking for a chance to kill you. Be on your guard tomorrow morning; go into hiding and stay there. I will go out and stand with my father in the field where you are. I'll speak to him about you and will tell you what I find out."

Saul attempts to recruit Jonathan and other attendants, but Jonathan is committed to David.

1 Samuel 19:4-6, Jonathan reasons with his father

Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul his father and said to him, "Let not the king do wrong to his servant David; he has not wronged you, and what he has done has benefited you greatly. He took his life in his hands when he killed the Philistine. The LORD won a great victory for all Israel, and you saw it and were glad. Why then would you do wrong to an innocent man like David by killing him for no reason?"

Saul listened to Jonathan and took this oath: "As surely as the LORD lives, David will not be put to death."

Jonathan convinces his father that he has no reason to be upset with David. This wins the day -- this time.

1 Samuel 19:7-10, Evil returns

So Jonathan called David and told him the whole conversation. He brought him to Saul, and David was with Saul as before.

Once more war broke out, and David went out and fought the Philistines. He struck them with such force that they fled before him. But an evil spirit from the LORD came upon Saul as he was sitting in his house with his spear in his hand. While David was playing the harp, Saul tried to pin him to the wall with his spear, but David eluded him as Saul drove the spear into the wall. That night David made good his escape.

Another victory brings another bout of jealousy. David is forced to flee.

1 Samuel 19:11-17, Michal defends David

Saul sent men to David's house to watch it and to kill him in the morning. But Michal, David's wife, warned him, "If you don't run for your life tonight, tomorrow you'll be killed." So Michal let David down through a window, and he fled and escaped.

Then Michal took an idol and laid it on the bed, covering it with a garment and putting some goats' hair at the head. When Saul sent the men to capture David, Michal said, "He is ill."

Then Saul sent the men back to see David and told them, "Bring him up to me in his bed so that I may kill him." But when the men entered, there was the idol in the bed, and at the head was some goats' hair.

Saul said to Michal, "Why did you deceive me like this and send my enemy away so that he escaped?" 

Michal told him, "He said to me, `Let me get away. Why should I kill you?'"

David's wife, Michal, warns David and gets him to flee. She then prepares a ruse to keep Saul's agents busy. She first claims that David is ill and the men go back to Saul. Saul, however, insists that if David is ill, they should just bring him in his bed! Saul will kill him them. But when the men look in David's bed, David is not there, only an idol and goat's hair, essentially a dummy.

Saul expects Michal to support him, but that is unreasonable. When Saul expresses his anger, Michal claims she was forced by David to let him go.

One notes that David's home with Michal has an idol in it. The idolatry of the ancient Near East is pervasive. Centuries before, Jacob's wife, Rachel, stole her father's household gods (Genesis 31: 19). Like that household, David and his wife have an idol in their home. (The Hebrew word translated "idol" here is "teraphim" (idol, image, תְּרָפִים). It is the same word used in Genesis 31 for the items stolen by Rachel.)

1 Samuel 19:18, Flight to Ramah

When David had fled and made his escape, he went to Samuel at Ramah and told him all that Saul had done to him. Then he and Samuel went to Naioth and stayed there.

David seeks refuge at Samuel's home in Ramah.

1 Samuel 19:19-24, Saul prophesies

Word came to Saul: "David is in Naioth at Ramah"; so he sent men to capture him. But when they saw a group of prophets prophesying, with Samuel standing there as their leader, the Spirit of God came upon Saul's men and they also prophesied.

Saul was told about it, and he sent more men, and they prophesied too. Saul sent men a third time, and they also prophesied. Finally, he himself left for Ramah and went to the great cistern at Secu. And he asked, "Where are Samuel and David?" 

"Over in Naioth at Ramah," they said.

So Saul went to Naioth at Ramah. But the Spirit of God came even upon him, and he walked along prophesying until he came to Naioth. He stripped off his robes and also prophesied in Samuel's presence. He lay that way all that day and night. 

This is why people say, "Is Saul also among the prophets?"

Saul hears of David's retreat to Ramah and three times sends people to capture David. Each time that attempt meets a supernatural phenomenon where Saul's men themselves become prophets! Finally Saul goes himself and, as had happened at the beginning of his reign, he himself is overcome, prophesying, stripping off his clothes and lying naked on the ground.

All of these strange events allow our narrator to remind us of an old saying, "Is Saul also among the prophets?" In both places, in I Samuel 10:11-12 and here, the saying is probably mocking Saul.

First published August 12, 2023; updated August 12, 2026

I Samuel 18, A Bloody Bride Price

David has killed the Philistine giant, Goliath, and has been added to Saul's collection of armor-bearers.

1 Samuel 18:1-4, David and Jonathan

After David had finished talking with Saul, Jonathan became one in spirit with David, and he loved him as himself. From that day Saul kept David with him and did not let him return to his father's house.

And Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself. Jonathan took off the robe he was wearing and gave it to David, along with his tunic, and even his sword, his bow and his belt.

 

David and Jonathan become good friends. The king's son give David some of his clothes and weapons as a sign of their friendship. 

In the typical long-term view of the Old Testament histories, little is said about this friendship beyond these short statements. But both men are well-liked and aggressive, in contrast to the often tentative Saul. They are quick to win victories over the Philistines while Saul watches.

1 Samuel 18:5-9, David grows in fame

Whatever Saul sent him to do, David did it so successfully that Saul gave him a high rank in the army. This pleased all the people, and Saul's officers as well. When the men were returning home after David had killed the Philistine, the women came out from all the towns of Israel to meet King Saul with singing and dancing, with joyful songs and with tambourines and lutes. As they danced, they sang: "Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands."

Saul was very angry; this refrain galled him. "They have credited David with tens of thousands," he thought, "but me with only thousands. What more can he get but the kingdom?" And from that time on Saul kept a jealous eye on David.

David grows in popularity and this becomes a threat to a jealous king.

As we have seen before (Miriam in Exodus 15:20-21, Deborah in Judges 5, the unsuspecting young women of Shiloh in Judges 21;20-2) one role of women in the ancient Near East was to lead triumphant singing and dancing.

1 Samuel 18:10-11, Angry Saul

The next day an evil spirit from God came forcefully upon Saul. He was prophesying in his house, while David was playing the harp, as he usually did. Saul had a spear in his hand and he hurled it, saying to himself, "I'll pin David to the wall." 

But David eluded him twice.

An evil (or "injurious") spirit afflicts Saul.  While Saul is "prophesying" (??), David plays the lyre and Saul tries to kill him.

1 Samuel 18:12-16, Fame continues to grow

Saul was afraid of David, because the LORD was with David but had left Saul. So he sent David away from him and gave him command over a thousand men, and David led the troops in their campaigns.

In everything he did he had great success, because the LORD was with him. When Saul saw how successful he was, he was afraid of him. But all Israel and Judah loved David, because he led them in their campaigns.

Despite Saul's jealousy, David's fame and popularity grow. YHWH has chosen David to succeed and Saul is frightened by this.

1 Samuel 18:17-19, Merab

Saul said to David, "Here is my older daughter Merab. I will give her to you in marriage; only serve me bravely and fight the battles of the LORD." For Saul said to himself, "I will not raise a hand against him. Let the Philistines do that!"

But David said to Saul, "Who am I, and what is my family or my father's clan in Israel, that I should become the king's son-in-law?" So when the time came for Merab, Saul's daughter, to be given to David, she was given in marriage to Adriel of Meholah.

David declines the offer of the king's daughter.

1 Samuel 18:20-23, Michal

Now Saul's daughter Michal was in love with David, and when they told Saul about it, he was pleased. "I will give her to him," he thought, "so that she may be a snare to him and so that the hand of the Philistines may be against him." 

So Saul said to David, "Now you have a second opportunity to become my son-in-law." Then Saul ordered his attendants: "Speak to David privately and say, `Look, the king is pleased with you, and his attendants all like you; now become his son-in-law.'"

They repeated these words to David. But David said, "Do you think it is a small matter to become the king's son-in-law? I'm only a poor man and little known."

 

David continues to be resistant to these offers by Saul. Michal has a crush on the popular David but David is still resistant. Earlier, with Samuel, Saul had claimed to be of little worth. Now it is David that says the same thing. Along with David's humility, there is an economic issue. A bride price for the king's daughter is surely quite high -- and David, the eighth son in his family, has no resources for this.

Robert Alter says that this passage is the only one in the Old Testament where we are told of a woman's romantic attraction to a particular man.

1 Samuel 18:24-27, A challenge offered

When Saul's servants told him what David had said, Saul replied, "Say to David, `The king wants no other price for the bride than a hundred Philistine foreskins, to take revenge on his enemies.'" Saul's plan was to have David fall by the hands of the Philistines.

When the attendants told David these things, he was pleased to become the king's son-in-law. So before the allotted time elapsed, David and his men went out and killed two hundred Philistines. He brought their foreskins and presented the full number to the king so that he might become the king's son-in-law. Then Saul gave him his daughter Michal in marriage.

The king's attendants to David have been told to pass on little encouragements for David to accept this challenge. The bride price does not require wealth but military might.

If David wants to be challenged by Saul, Saul will make the bride price challenging. Yet David meets and doubles the price. He wins a victory over the Philistines (with a typically bloody ending) and at the same time Michal gets her wish and becomes David's wife.

1 Samuel 18:28-30, Success and fame continue

When Saul realized that the LORD was with David and that his daughter Michal loved David, Saul became still more afraid of him, and he remained his enemy the rest of his days. 

The Philistine commanders continued to go out to battle, and as often as they did, David met with more success than the rest of Saul's officers, and his name became well known.

Nothing seems to stop David.

Some Hebrew Vocabulary

The Hebrew word mishpachah

מִשְׁפָחָה

is a feminine noun mean "family, clan, tribe". It is translated "clan" by the NIV in verse 18, above.

First published August 11, 2023; updated August 11, 2026