Dual Panel1Saul now urged his servants and his son Jonathan to assassinate David. But Jonathan, because of his close friendship with David,
2told him what his father was planning. "Tomorrow morning," he warned him, "you must find a hiding place out in the fields.
3I’ll ask my father to go out there with me, and I’ll talk to him about you. Then I’ll tell you everything I can find out."
4The next morning Jonathan spoke with his father about David, saying many good things about him. "Please don’t sin against David," Jonathan pleaded. "He’s never done anything to harm you. He has always helped you in any way he could.
5Have you forgotten about the time he risked his life to kill the Philistine giant and how the LORD brought a great victory to Israel as a result? You were certainly happy about it then. Why should you murder an innocent man like David? There is no reason for it at all!"
6So Saul listened to Jonathan and vowed, "As surely as the LORD lives, David will not be killed."
7Afterward Jonathan called David and told him what had happened. Then he took David to see Saul, and everything was as it had been before.
8War broke out shortly after that, and David led his troops against the Philistines. He attacked them with such fury that they all ran away.
9But one day as Saul was sitting at home, the tormenting spirit from the LORD suddenly came upon him again. As David played his harp for the king,
10Saul hurled his spear at David in an attempt to kill him. But David dodged out of the way and escaped into the night, leaving the spear stuck in the wall.
11Then Saul sent troops to watch David’s house. They were told to kill David when he came out the next morning. But Michal, David’s wife, warned him, "If you don’t get away tonight, you will be dead by morning."
12So she helped him climb out through a window, and he escaped.
13Then she took an idol and put it in his bed, covered it with blankets, and put a cushion of goat’s hair at its head.
14When the troops came to arrest David, she told them he was sick and couldn’t get out of bed.
15"Then bring him to me in his bed," Saul ordered, "so I can kill him as he lies there!" And he sent them back to David’s house.
16But when they came to carry David out, they discovered that it was only an idol in the bed with a cushion of goat’s hair at its head.
17"Why have you tricked me and let my enemy escape?" Saul demanded of Michal. "I had to," Michal replied. "He threatened to kill me if I didn’t help him."
18So David got away and went to Ramah to see Samuel, and he told him all that Saul had done to him. Then Samuel took David with him to live at Naioth.
19When the report reached Saul that David was at Naioth in Ramah,
20he sent troops to capture him. But when they arrived and saw Samuel and the other prophets prophesying, the Spirit of God came upon Saul’s men, and they also began to prophesy.
21When Saul heard what had happened, he sent other troops, but they, too, prophesied! The same thing happened a third time!
22Finally, Saul himself went to Ramah and arrived at the great well in Secu. "Where are Samuel and David?" he demanded. "They are at Naioth in Ramah," someone told him.
23But on the way to Naioth the Spirit of God came upon Saul, and he, too, began to prophesy!
24He tore off his clothes and lay on the ground all day and all night, prophesying in the presence of Samuel. The people who were watching exclaimed, "What? Is Saul a prophet, too?"