1Saul spoke to Jonathan his son, and to all his servants, that they should kill David. But Jonathan, Saul's son, delighted much in David. 2Jonathan told David, saying, "Saul my father seeks to kill you. Now therefore, please take care of yourself in the morning, and keep hidden in a secret place. 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, "Do not 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 the LORD 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 the LORD lives, he shall not be put to death." 7Jonathan called David, and Jonathan showed him all those things. 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 the LORD 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 even 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. Mikal, David's wife, told him, saying, "If you do not save your life tonight, tomorrow you will be killed." 12So Mikal let David down through the window. He went, fled, and escaped. 13Mikal took the teraphim, and laid it in the bed, and put a pillow of goats' hair at its head, and covered it with the 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, look, the teraphim was in the bed, with the pillow of goats' hair at its head. 17Saul said to Mikal, "Why have you deceived me thus, and let my enemy go, so that he is escaped?" Mikal answered Saul, "He said to me, 'Let me go. Why should I kill you?'"

18Now 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 lived in the dwellings. 19And it was told to Saul, saying, "Look, David is in the dwellings at Ramah." 20And Saul sent messengers to capture David. But when they saw a company of the prophets prophesying, and Samuel standing as head over them, the Spirit of God came upon the messengers of Saul, and they also prophesied. 21When it was told to Saul, he sent other messengers, and they also prophesied. Saul sent messengers again the third time, and they also prophesied. 22And Saul became very angry, and he himself also went to Ramah, and came to the cistern of the threshing floor that is on the bare hill. And he asked, "Where are Samuel and David?" And one said, "Look, they are in the dwellings at Ramah." 23So he went there to the dwellings at Ramah. Then the Spirit of God came on him also, and he went on, and prophesied, until he came to the dwellings 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?"