1Saul spoke to Jonathan his son and to all his servants about putting David to death. But Jonathan, Saul’s son, delighted greatly in David.
2So Jonathan told David, saying, “Saul my father is seeking to put you to death. Now then, be on your guard in the morning; stay in a hiding place and conceal yourself.
3As for me, I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where you are, and I will speak about you to my father. Whatever I see, I will tell you.”
4Then Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul his father and said to him, “Let not the king sin against his servant, against David, for he has not sinned against you; indeed, his deeds have been very good for you.
5He took his life in his hand and struck down the Philistine, and Yahweh brought about a great deliverance for all Israel. You saw it and rejoiced. Why then would you sin against innocent blood by putting David to death without cause?”
6Saul listened to Jonathan’s voice, and Saul swore, “As Yahweh lives, he shall not be put to death.”
7So Jonathan called David and told him all these words. Then Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he was in his presence as before.
8War broke out again, and David went out and fought with the Philistines and struck them with a great blow, and they fled before him.
9Then an evil spirit from Yahweh came upon Saul as he was sitting in his house with his spear in his hand, while David was playing music by hand.
10Saul sought to pin David to the wall with the spear, but he slipped away from Saul’s presence, so that he struck the spear into the wall. David fled and escaped that night.
11Then Saul sent messengers to David’s house to watch him and 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.”
12So Michal let David down through the window, and he went, fled, and escaped.
13Michal took the household idol and laid it on the bed, and put a quilt of goat’s hair at its head, and covered it with a garment.
14When Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, “He is sick.”
15Then Saul sent the messengers to see David, saying, “Bring him up to me on the bed, that I may put him to death.”
16When the messengers came, there was the household idol on the bed, with the quilt of goat’s hair at its head.
17Saul 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! Why should I kill you?’”
18So David fled and escaped, and he came to Samuel at Ramah and told him all that Saul had done to him. Then he and Samuel went and stayed at Naioth.
19It was told to Saul, saying, “Behold, David is at Naioth in Ramah.”
20So Saul sent messengers to take David. When they saw the company of prophets prophesying, with Samuel standing as leader over them, the Spirit of God came upon Saul’s messengers, and they too prophesied.
21When they told Saul, he sent other messengers, and they too prophesied. Saul sent messengers a third time, and they too prophesied.
22Then he himself went to Ramah and came to the great cistern that is in Secu. He asked, “Where are Samuel and David?” And someone said, “Behold, they are at Naioth in Ramah.”
23So he went there, to Naioth in Ramah, and the Spirit of God came upon him too, and he walked along prophesying until he came to Naioth in Ramah.
24He too stripped off his clothes, and he too prophesied before Samuel, and he lay naked all that day and all that night. Therefore they say, “Is Saul also among the prophets?”
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