I Samuel 19, The King's Jealousy

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

I 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.

I 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.

I 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.

I 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". It is the same word used in Genesis 31 for the items stolen by Rachel.)

I 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 Saul's home in Ramah.

I 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.