1 Then Saul urged all his servants and his son Jonathan to kill David. But Jonathan liked David very much. 2 So he warned David, “My father Saul is seeking for a way to kill you. So be careful. Tomorrow morning go and find a place to hide in the field. 3 I will ask my father to go out there with me. While we are out there, I will talk to him about you. Then I will tell you everything that he tells me.” So David did what Jonathan told him to do.

4 The next morning, Jonathan spoke with his father, saying many good things about David. He said, “You should never do anything to harm your servant David! He has never done anything to harm you! Everything that he has done has helped you very much. 5 He was in danger of being killed when he fought against Goliath, the champion of the Philistia army. By enabling David to kill him, Yahweh won a great victory for all the people of Israel. You were very happy when you saw that. Why would you want to do anything now to harm David [RHQ]? There is no reason for you to kill him, because he has not done anything wrong!”

6 Saul listened to what Jonathan said. Then Saul said, “I solemnly promise that just as certain as Yahweh lives, I will not kill David.”

7 Afterward, Jonathan summoned David and told him what he and Saul had said. Then Jonathan brought David to Saul, and David served Saul as he had done before.

8 One day a war started again, and David led his soldiers to fight against the Philistia army. David’s army attacked them very furiously, with the result that the Philistia army ran away.

9 But one day when sitting in his house, an evil spirit sent from Yahweh suddenly came upon Saul. While David was playing his harp for Saul, 10 Saul hurled his spear at David to try to fasten him to the wall. David ◄dodged/jumped to one side►, and the spear did not hit him. The spear stuck in the wall, but that night David escaped.

11 Then Saul sent messengers to David’s house. He told them to watch the house and to kill David while he was leaving the house the following morning. But David’s wife Michal saw them and warned him, “To survive, you must run away tonight, because if you do not do that, you will be killed tomorrow!” 12 So she enabled David to climb out through a window, and he ran away and escaped. 13 Then Michal took an idol and put it in the bed. She covered it with some of David’s clothes, and put some goat’s hair on the head of the idol.

14 When the messengers came to the house the next morning, she told them that David was sick and could not get out of bed.

15 When they reported that to Saul, he told them to go back to David’s house. He said to them, “Bring him to me lying on his bed, in order that I can kill him!” 16 But when those men entered David’s house, they saw that there was only an idol in the bed, with goat’s hair on its head.

17 When they reported that to Saul, Saul summoned Michal and said to her, “Why did you trick me like that? You allowed my enemy to escape!”

Michal replied to Saul, “David told me that if I did not help him escape, he would kill me!” [RHQ]

18 After David had escaped from Saul, he went to Samuel, who was at his home at Ramah. He told Samuel everything that Saul had done to try to kill him. Then David and Samuel went to Naioth, which was a section of Ramah city, and they stayed there. 19 Someone told Saul that David was in Naioth. 20 So Saul sent some messengers to capture David. When those messengers arrived in Ramah, they met some men who were proclaiming ecstatic messages, and Samuel was there, as their leader. When Saul’s messengers met them, the Spirit of God took control of Saul’s men, and they also spoke ecstatically. 21 When Saul heard about that, he sent messengers a third time, but they also started to speak ecstatically. 22 Finally, Saul himself went to Ramah. When he arrived at the well at a place named Secu, he asked people there, “Where are Samuel and David?”

The people replied, “They are at Naioth in Ramah city.” 23 While Saul was walking toward Naioth, the Spirit of God also took control of him. While he walked on, he continued speaking ecstatic messages until he came to Naioth. 24 There he took off his clothes, and he spoke messages from God in front of Samuel. He lay on the ground doing that all day and all night. That is the reason that when people see someone doing something that is very unexpected, they think about what happened to Saul, and they say, “We are surprised, like the people were surprised to see Saul acting like a prophet?” [RHQ]