1 Samuel 19:8-20

New International Version

⁸ Once more war broke out, and David went out and fought the Philistines. He struck them with such force that they fled before him.

⁹ But an evil^[a] spirit^(A) from the Lord came on Saul as he was sitting in his house with his spear in his hand. While David was playing the lyre,^{(B) 10} Saul tried to pin him to the wall with his spear, but David eluded^(C) him as Saul drove the spear into the wall. That night David made good his escape.

¹¹ Saul sent men to David’s house to watch^(D) it and to kill him in the morning.^(E) But Michal, David’s wife, warned him, “If you don’t run for your life tonight, tomorrow you’ll be killed.” ¹² So Michal let David down through a window,^(F) and he fled and escaped. ¹³ Then Michal took an idol^(G) and laid it on the bed, covering it with a garment and putting some goats’ hair at the head.

¹⁴ When Saul sent the men to capture David, Michal said,^(H) “He is ill.”

¹⁵ Then Saul sent the men back to see David and told them, “Bring him up to me in his bed so that I may kill him.” ¹⁶ But when the men entered, there was the idol in the bed, and at the head was some goats’ hair.

¹⁷ Saul said to Michal, “Why did you deceive me like this and send my enemy away so that he escaped?”

Michal told him, “He said to me, ‘Let me get away. Why should I kill you?’”

¹⁸ When David had fled and made his escape, he went to Samuel at Ramah^(I) and told him all that Saul had done to him. Then he and Samuel went to Naioth and stayed there. ¹⁹ Word came to Saul: “David is in Naioth at Ramah”; ²⁰ so he sent men to capture him. But when they saw a group of prophets^(J) prophesying, with Samuel standing there as their leader, the Spirit of God came on^(K) Saul’s men, and they also prophesied.^(L)