1 Samuel
1 Samuel 19
1Saul spoke to Jonathan his son, and to all his servants, that they should kill David. But Jonathan, Saul’s son, greatly delighted in David. 2Jonathan told David, saying, “Saul my father seeks to kill you. Now therefore, please take care of yourself in the morning, and live in a secret place, and hide yourself. 3I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where you are, and I will talk with my father about you; and if I see anything, I will tell you.”
4Jonathan spoke good of David to Saul his father, and said to him, “Don’t let the king sin against his servant, against David; because he has not sinned against you, and because his works have been very good toward you; 5for he put his life in his hand, and struck the Philistine, and Yahweh worked a great victory for all Israel. You saw it, and rejoiced. Why then will you sin against innocent blood, to kill David without a cause?”
6Saul listened to the voice of Jonathan: and Saul swore, “As Yahweh lives, he shall not be put to death.”
7Jonathan called David, and Jonathan showed him all those things. Then Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he was in his presence, as before. 8There was war again. David went out, and fought with the Philistines, and killed them with a great slaughter; and they fled before him.
9An evil spirit from Yahweh was on Saul, as he sat in his house with his spear in his hand; and David was playing with his hand. 10Saul sought to pin David to the wall with the spear; but he slipped away out of Saul’s presence, and he stuck the spear into the wall. David fled, and escaped that night. 11Saul sent messengers to David’s house, to watch him, and to kill him in the morning. Michal, David’s wife, told him, saying, “If you don’t save your life tonight, tomorrow you will be killed.” 12So Michal let David down through the window. He went away, fled, and escaped. 13Michal took the teraphim, and laid it in the bed, and put a pillow of goats’ hair at its head, and covered it with clothes. 14When Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, “He is sick.”
15Saul sent the messengers to see David, saying, “Bring him up to me in the bed, that I may kill him.” 16When the messengers came in, behold, the teraphim was in the bed, with the pillow of goats’ 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?”
Michal answered Saul, “He said to me, ‘Let me go! Why should I kill you?’ ”
18Now David fled and escaped, and came to Samuel at Ramah, and told him all that Saul had done to him. He and Samuel went and lived in Naioth. 19Saul was told, saying, “Behold, David is at Naioth in Ramah.”
20Saul sent messengers to seize David: and when they saw the company of the prophets prophesying, and Samuel standing as head over them, God’s Spirit came on Saul’s messengers, and they also prophesied. 21When Saul was told, he sent other messengers, and they also prophesied. Saul sent messengers again the third time, and they also prophesied. 22Then he also went to Ramah, and came to the great well that is in Secu: and he asked, “Where are Samuel and David?”
One said, “Behold, they are at Naioth in Ramah.”
23He went there to Naioth in Ramah. Then God’s Spirit came on him also, and he went on, and prophesied, until he came to Naioth in Ramah. 24He also stripped off his clothes, and he also prophesied before Samuel, and lay down naked all that day and all that night. Therefore they say, “Is Saul also among the prophets?”
Commentary
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What others are saying
5 commentators · 58 notes on this chapter
Matthew Henry4
Writes as a pastor rather than a critic. Expect devotional and practical application over historical or linguistic analysis, read through a Reformed covenantal frame — and expect the Old Testament to be read forward toward Christ throughout.
Why this voice is here: The most widely read English commentary for three centuries. Included as a baseline: where Henry and a modern voice diverge, the divergence itself is usually the interesting part.
Saul and Jonathan appear here in their different characters, with reference to David. I. Never was enemy so unreasonably cruel as Saul. He spoke to his son and all his servants that they should kill David, Sa1 19:1. His projects to take him off had failed…
Here I. David continues his good services to his king and country. Though Saul had requited him evil for good, and even his usefulness was the very thing for which Saul envied him, yet he did not therefore retire in sullenness and decline public service…
Here is, I. Saul's further design of mischief to David. When David had escaped the javelin, supposing he went straight to his own house, as indeed he did, Saul sent some of his guards after him to lay wait at the door of his house, and to assassinate him in…
John Gill24
The most exhaustive and the most doctrinally committed here. Expect high — even supralapsarian — Calvinism applied consistently, and unusually heavy use of rabbinic and Talmudic sources for Jewish context. Where a passage bears on election or the will, Gill will read it in one direction, and knowing that in advance is the point.
Why this voice is here: The strongest Calvinist reading available in the public domain, and the best on Jewish background. Read alongside Clarke, not instead of him — between them you get both sides of the argument.
And Saul spake to Jonathan his son,.... Who was heir to his crown; and though he knew he loved David, and was in strict friendship with him, yet he might hope, that as his succession to the kingdom was in danger, as he thought, and that David was his rival in…
But Jonathan, Saul's son, delighted much in David,.... In his company and conversation; he loved him with a love of complacency, and was constant and steadfast in it, and which was a kind providence to David; for by this means he came to the knowledge of…
And I will go out,.... In the morning, at the same time his father used to take his morning walk: and stand beside my father in the field where thou art; on that side of him next to David, that he might not see him, and yet be so near, that David might hear…
Adam Clarke16
The linguist of this set. Expect Hebrew and Greek word study, oriental custom, and geography — and an Arminian reading of grace and free will where Gill or Henry would read election. Note one real divergence: Clarke denied the eternal sonship of Christ, a position most of the tradition rejects, so read him closely on the person of Christ.
Why this voice is here: Where you want to know what a word actually says, Clarke is the one who will tell you — with the caveat above on Christ’s sonship.
That they should kill David - Nothing less than the especial interposition of God could have saved David's life, when every officer about the king's person, and every soldier, had got positive orders to despatch him.
Take heed to thyself until the morning - Perhaps the order was given to slay him the next day; and therefore Jonathan charges him to be particularly on his guard at that time, and to hide himself.
Jonathan spake good of David - It is evident that Jonathan was satisfied that David was an innocent man; and that his father was most unjustly incensed against him.
Keil & Delitzsch7
The technical one, and Old Testament only. Expect Hebrew grammar, textual argument, and direct engagement with nineteenth-century critical scholarship — closer to a scholarly apparatus than a devotional read. Where a modern critic claims a text is late or composite, this is where the conservative counter-argument was made.
Why this voice is here: Old Testament only, and heavy going — but the place to look when someone asserts a passage cannot mean what it appears to.
Jonathan then endeavoured with all the modesty of a son to point out most earnestly to his father the grievous wickedness involved in his conduct towards David. "Let not the king sin against his servant, against David; for he hath not sinned against thee, and…
These words made an impression upon Saul. He swore, "As Jehovah liveth, he (David) shall not be put to death;" whereupon Jonathan reported these words to David, and brought him to Saul, so that he was with him again as before. But this reconciliation…
Another great defeat which David had inflicted upon the Philistines excited Saul to such an extent, that in a fit of insanity he endeavoured to pierce David with his javelin as he was playing before him. The words Ruach Jehovah describe the attack of madness…
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown7
The concise option. Three authors split the canon, so the voice shifts between sections. Expect brief, sober, conservative notes that resolve difficulties rather than dwelling on them — useful for orientation, thinner than Gill or Clarke where a passage is genuinely contested.
Why this voice is here: The quickest way to see what the mainstream Reformed reading of a passage is. Start here, then go to Gill or Clarke when it matters.
Jonathan spake good of David--He told his father he was committing a great sin to plot against the life of a man who had rendered the most invaluable services to his country and whose loyalty had been uniformly steady and devoted. The strong remonstrances of…
SAUL'S MALICIOUS RAGE BREAKS OUT AGAINST DAVID. (Sa1 19:8-17) David went out, and fought with the Philistines, and slew them with a great slaughter--A brilliant victory was gained over the public enemy. But these fresh laurels of David reawakened in the moody…
Saul sent messengers unto David's house, to watch him, and to slay him--The fear of causing a commotion in the town, or favoring his escape in the darkness, seemed to have influenced the king in ordering them to patrol till the morning. This infatuation was…
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