BOOK 9 OF 66 · HISTORY · KING JAMES BIBLE

1 Samuel 19

1 Samuel book home•Chapter 19 of 31•24 verses

Chapter overviewAt a glance + deeper study

REVIEWED OVERVIEW

1 Samuel 19 Overview

Saul openly orders David’s death, but Jonathan warns David and temporarily persuades his father to swear that David will not be killed. After David wins another battle, Saul again tries to pin him to the wall with a javelin. Michal helps David escape through a window, and when Saul’s messengers pursue David to Samuel at Naioth, the Spirit of God comes upon them—and finally upon Saul—so that they prophesy instead of seizing David.

1 SamuelBook

19Chapter

24Verses

HistoryDivision

Before you read 1 Samuel 19

Coming from

Chapter 18 showed Saul moving from jealousy to repeated attempts to destroy David while Jonathan and Michal became tied to David personally.

In this chapter

Saul’s hostility becomes explicit and persistent, but every attempt to trap or kill David is frustrated through human allies and direct divine intervention.

Leads into

Chapter 20 shows David and Jonathan testing Saul’s intentions at the new moon feast and formally confirming their covenant before David becomes a fugitive.

Key understandingExplore deeper

The chapter demonstrates that Saul’s earlier oath not to kill David does not produce lasting change. His murderous purpose quickly returns. The prophetic episodes at Naioth are especially important: people sent to arrest David are overcome by prophetic activity, and even Saul prophesies. Therefore the ability to prophesy in a moment is not proof that a person’s conduct is approved or that his heart is right. God can sovereignly restrain a hostile king through the very kind of manifestation Saul once experienced at the beginning of his reign.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Truth 1

Saul’s sin is no longer hidden behind policy or military assignments; he openly commands murder.

Truth 2

Jonathan acts with courage by confronting his father and defending David’s innocence.

Truth 3

God preserves David through several different means—Jonathan, Michal, escape, Samuel’s refuge, and supernatural restraint.

Truth 4

Religious manifestation by itself is not a reliable measure of moral faithfulness, as Saul prophesies while pursuing murder.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Connection 1

Psalm 59 is traditionally connected with the occasion when Saul sent men to watch David’s house in order to kill him, providing a poetic window into David’s dependence on God during this kind of danger.

Connection 2

1 Samuel 10 recorded Saul prophesying after the Spirit came upon him; chapter 19 repeats the phenomenon in a radically different moral setting and warns against equating the experience with enduring faithfulness.

Connection 3

Acts 9 and other biblical narratives also show God sovereignly stopping persecutors in their tracks, though the circumstances and redemptive setting differ.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Keep this clear 1

Do not treat Saul’s prophesying as proof that his attempt to kill David has somehow become righteous or that prophetic activity automatically validates a person’s character.

Keep this clear 2

Michal’s use of an image and deception to delay Saul’s messengers is reported as part of the escape; the text does not pause to endorse every tactic she uses.

Keep this clear 3

The evil spirit troubling Saul and the Spirit-caused prophetic restraint should both be read in the chapter’s historical kingship context, not forced into simplistic formulas about eternal salvation.

Read 1 Samuel 19 watching for…

Jonathan’s argument for David’s innocence.

How quickly Saul breaks his oath concerning David.

Michal’s method of helping David escape.

Where David goes after leaving his house.

What happens to each group of messengers sent to Naioth.

The irony of Saul himself prophesying while trying to arrest David.

Chapter outline4 sections

1-7Jonathan speaks for David, and Saul briefly promises not to kill him 8-10David defeats the Philistines, and Saul again tries to kill him 11-17Michal helps David escape from Saul’s messengers 18-24David goes to Samuel, and Saul and his messengers prophesy at Naioth

And Saul spake to Jonathan his son, and to all his servants, that they should kill David.

But Jonathan Saul's son delighted much in David: and Jonathan told David, saying, Saul my father seeketh to kill thee: now therefore, I pray thee, take heed to thyself until the morning, and abide in a secret place, and hide thyself:

And I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where thou art, and I will commune with my father of thee; and what I see, that I will tell thee.

And Jonathan spake good of David unto Saul his father, and said unto him, Let not the king sin against his servant, against David; because he hath not sinned against thee, and because his works have been to theeward very good:

For he did put his life in his hand, and slew the Philistine, and the LORD wrought a great salvation for all Israel: thou sawest it, and didst rejoice: wherefore then wilt thou sin against innocent blood, to slay David without a cause?

And Saul hearkened unto the voice of Jonathan: and Saul sware, As the LORD liveth, he shall not be slain.

And Jonathan called David, and Jonathan shewed him all those things. And Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he was in his presence, as in times past.

And there was war again: and David went out, and fought with the Philistines, and slew them with a great slaughter; and they fled from him.

And the evil spirit from the LORD was upon Saul, as he sat in his house with his javelin in his hand: and David played with his hand.

And Saul sought to smite David even to the wall with the javelin; but he slipped away out of Saul's presence, and he smote the javelin into the wall: and David fled, and escaped that night.

Saul also sent messengers unto David's house, to watch him, and to slay him in the morning: and Michal David's wife told him, saying, If thou save not thy life to night, to morrow thou shalt be slain.

So Michal let David down through a window: and he went, and fled, and escaped.

And Michal took an image, and laid it in the bed, and put a pillow of goats' hair for his bolster, and covered it with a cloth.

And when Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, He is sick.

And Saul sent the messengers again to see David, saying, Bring him up to me in the bed, that I may slay him.

And when the messengers were come in, behold, there was an image in the bed, with a pillow of goats' hair for his bolster.

And Saul said unto Michal, Why hast thou deceived me so, and sent away mine enemy, that he is escaped? And Michal answered Saul, He said unto me, Let me go; why should I kill thee?

So David fled, and escaped, and came to Samuel to Ramah, and told him all that Saul had done to him. And he and Samuel went and dwelt in Naioth.

And it was told Saul, saying, Behold, David is at Naioth in Ramah.

And Saul sent messengers to take David: and when they saw the company of the prophets prophesying, and Samuel standing as appointed over them, the Spirit of God was upon the messengers of Saul, and they also prophesied.

And when it was told Saul, he sent other messengers, and they prophesied likewise. And Saul sent messengers again the third time, and they prophesied also.

Then went he also to Ramah, and came to a great well that is in Sechu: and he asked and said, Where are Samuel and David? And one said, Behold, they be at Naioth in Ramah.

And he went thither to Naioth in Ramah: and the Spirit of God was upon him also, and he went on, and prophesied, until he came to Naioth in Ramah.

And he stripped off his clothes also, and prophesied before Samuel in like manner, and lay down naked all that day and all that night. Wherefore they say, Is Saul also among the prophets?

STUDY THIS VERSE

1 Samuel 19:3

Back to verse ↑

Cross References

Cross-reference storage is active. This passage does not yet have curated references loaded.

Related TWBC Resources

The Scripture resource graph is active. Sermons, Bible Overviews, courses, questions, and studies can attach here without changing the Bible text.