1 Saul said to Jonathan his son and to all his servants that they should kill David. But Jonathan, Saul's son, took great pleasure in David. 2 So Jonathan told David, “Saul my father seeks to kill you. Therefore be on your guard in the morning and hide yourself in a secret place. 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. If I learn anything, I will tell you.” 4 Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul his father and said to him, “Do not let the king sin against his servant David. For he has not sinned against you, and his deeds have brought you good. 5 For he took his life in his hand and killed the Philistine. Yahweh brought about a great victory for all Israel. You saw it and rejoiced. Why would you sin against innocent blood by killing David for no reason?” 6 Saul listened to Jonathan. Saul swore, “As Yahweh lives, he will not be put to death.” 7 Then Jonathan called David, and Jonathan told him all these things. Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he was in his presence as before. 8 There was war again, and David went out and fought with the Philistines and defeated them with a great slaughter. They fled before him. 9 A harmful spirit from Yahweh came on Saul as he sat in his house with his spear in his hand, and as David was playing his instrument. 10 Saul tried to pin David to the wall with the spear, but he slipped away from Saul's presence, so that Saul drove the spear into the wall. David fled and escaped that night. 11 Saul sent messengers to David's house to watch him that he might kill him in the morning. Michal, David's wife, told him, “If you do not save your life tonight, tomorrow you will be killed.” 12 So Michal let David down through the window. He went and fled, and escaped. 13 Michal took a household idol and laid it in the bed. Then she put a pillow of goats' hair at its head, and covered it with the clothes. 14 When Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, “He is sick.” 15 Then Saul sent the messengers to see David; he said, “Bring him up to me in the bed, so that I may kill him.” 16 When the messengers came in, behold, the household idol was in the bed along with the pillow of goats' hair at its head. 17 Saul said to Michal, “Why have you deceived me and let my enemy go, so that he has escaped?” Michal answered Saul, “He said to me, 'Let me go. Why should I kill you?'” 18 Now David fled and escaped, and went to Samuel in Ramah and told him all that Saul had done to him. Then he and Samuel went and stayed in Naioth. 19 It was told to Saul, saying, “See, David is at Naioth in Ramah.” 20 Then Saul sent messengers to capture David. When they saw the company of the prophets prophesying, and Samuel standing as head over them, the Spirit of God came on the messengers of Saul, and they also prophesied. 21 When Saul was told this, he sent other messengers, and they also prophesied. So Saul sent messengers again the third time, and they also prophesied. 22 Then he also went to Ramah and came to the deep well that is in Seku. He asked, “Where are Samuel and David?” Someone said, “See, they are at Naioth in Ramah.” 23 Saul went to Naioth in Ramah. Then the Spirit of God came upon him, and as he went he prophesied until he came to Naioth in Ramah. 24 He stripped off his clothes and also prophesied before Samuel. He lay naked all that day and all that night. This is why they ask, “Is Saul also among the prophets?”
1 Samuel · Unlocked Literal Bible
1 Samuel 19 Unlocked Literal Bible
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
People & places in this chapter
From this site's family tree and Bible maps, only where those guides cite this chapter.
People
David
The shepherd who became Israel's greatest king and a man after God's own heart.
Cited in the guide: 1 Sam. 16 - 1 Kings 2; 2 Sam. 7; 1 Chron. 2:15; Matt. 1:6
Cross references (22)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 1 Samuel 18:1; 1 Samuel 18:9
- 2 Proverbs 17:17; Acts 9:24; Acts 23:16; 1 Samuel 20:2; 1 Samuel 18:1–3
- 3 1 Samuel 20:13; 1 Samuel 20:9
- 4 Jeremiah 18:20; Proverbs 31:8–9; Genesis 42:22; 1 Samuel 20:32; Proverbs 17:13
- 5 1 Chronicles 11:14; 1 Samuel 11:13; 1 Samuel 20:32; Judges 9:17; Matthew 27:4
- 6 Proverbs 26:24–25; Jeremiah 5:2; 1 Samuel 28:10; 1 Samuel 19:10–11; Psalm 15:4
- 7 1 Samuel 18:2; 1 Samuel 16:21; 1 Samuel 18:13; 1 Samuel 18:10; 1 Chronicles 11:2
- 8 Psalm 18:32–50; Psalm 27:3
- 9 1 Samuel 16:14; 1 Samuel 16:16; 1 Samuel 18:10–11
- 10 1 Samuel 20:33; 1 Samuel 18:11; Proverbs 21:30; Matthew 10:23; Psalm 34:19
- 11 Psalm 59:1–17; Judges 16:2
- 12 Joshua 2:15; Acts 9:24–25; 2 Corinthians 11:32–33; Psalm 34:19
- 13 Genesis 31:19; Judges 18:17; Judges 18:14; Judges 17:5; Hosea 3:4
- 14 Joshua 2:5; 2 Samuel 17:20; 2 Samuel 16:17–19
- 15 Proverbs 27:3–4; 1 Samuel 19:6; Job 31:31; Psalm 37:12; Romans 3:15
- 17 2 Samuel 2:22; Exodus 1:17–19; 1 Samuel 22:17; 1 Samuel 28:12; 1 Samuel 19:14
- 18 1 Samuel 7:17; James 5:16; 1 Samuel 28:3; Psalm 116:11; 1 Samuel 15:34
- 19 1 Samuel 26:1; 1 Samuel 23:19; Proverbs 29:12; 1 Samuel 22:9–10
- 20 Joel 2:28; John 7:32; 1 Samuel 10:5–6; 1 Corinthians 14:24–25; 1 Corinthians 14:3
- 21 Jeremiah 13:23; Proverbs 27:22; 2 Kings 1:9–13; Joel 2:28
- 23 Proverbs 16:9; 1 Samuel 10:10; Numbers 24:2; 1 Samuel 19:20; Numbers 23:5
- 24 1 Samuel 10:10–12; Micah 1:8; 2 Samuel 6:20; Isaiah 20:2; 2 Samuel 6:14
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
There is indeed a story in the Scripture of the Reigns, of the occasion when Saul sent to guard the house in order that he might kill David....But in like manner as Saul effected not his purpose of slaying David: so this could not the government of the Jews effect, that the testimony of guards sleeping should avail more …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 8 (1888)