1 Samuel 19:8-18

EasyEnglish Bible

⁸ The war with the Philistines started again. David went out with his soldiers to fight against them. He attacked them so strongly that the Philistine soldiers ran away.

⁹ Then the Lord caused an evil spirit to control Saul. Saul was sitting in his house. He had a spear in his hand. David was making music with his harp. ¹⁰ Saul threw his spear at David. He wanted to fix David to the wall. But David moved out of the way and the spear hit the wall. That night, David ran away to escape from Saul.

¹¹ Saul sent some of his servants to watch David's house. Saul told them to kill David when he came out in the morning. But David's wife Michal warned him. She said, ‘You must run away tonight. If you do not escape, tomorrow you will die!’ ¹² So Michal helped David to leave the house through a window. He ran away and he escaped.

¹³ Then Michal took an idol and she put it on the bed. She covered the idol with a blanket and she put a pillow of goat's hair at its head.

¹⁴ Saul sent some of his men to take hold of David. Michal told them that David was ill. ¹⁵ Saul then told the men to go back to David's house. He said to them, ‘Bring David to me on his bed. Then I will kill him.’ ¹⁶ The men returned to David's house. They found the idol on the bed and the pillow of goat's hair at its head.

¹⁷ Saul said to Michal, ‘You have deceived me! You have helped my enemy to escape!’ Michal said to him, ‘David told me that I must help him to escape. He said that he would kill me if I did not help him.’

¹⁸ David ran away and he escaped from Saul. He went to visit Samuel at Ramah. David told Samuel everything that Saul had done to him. Then David and Samuel went to live in Naioth.^[a]