1 Samuel 19 - Simple English

1Saul spoke to Jonathan his son and to all his servants, telling them that they should kill David.

2But Jonathan, Saul's son, took great delight in David. So Jonathan told David, "My father Saul is trying to kill you. So please be careful in the morning. Stay in a secret place, and hide yourself."

3"I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where you are, and I will talk with my father about you. Whatever I find out, I will tell you."

4Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul his father. He said to him, "Let the king not sin against his servant, against David. He has not sinned against you, and what he has done has been very good for you."

5"He took his life in his hand and killed the Philistine, and the LORD brought a great victory for all Israel. You saw it, and you were glad. Why then will you sin against innocent blood by killing David for no reason?"

6Saul listened to Jonathan's words. Saul swore, "As the LORD lives, he shall not be put to death."

7Jonathan called David and told him all these things. Then Jonathan brought David to Saul, and David was with him as he had been before.

8There was war again. David went out and fought with the Philistines, and killed great numbers of them, and they fled from him.

9The evil spirit from the LORD came upon Saul as he sat in his house with his spear in his hand. And David was playing music with his hand.

10Saul tried to pin David to the wall with the spear, but David slipped away from Saul, and the spear struck the wall. David fled and escaped that night.

11Saul also sent messengers to David's house to watch him and to kill him in the morning. But Michal, David's wife, told him, "If you do not save your life tonight, tomorrow you will be killed."

12So Michal let David down through a window. He went away, and fled, and escaped.

13Michal took an image and laid it in the bed. She put a pillow of goats' hair at its head and covered it with a cloth.

14When Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, "He is sick."

15Then Saul sent the messengers back to see David. He said, "Bring him up to me in the bed, so that I may kill him."

16When the messengers came in, look, there was an image in the bed, with a pillow of goats' hair at its head.

17Saul said to Michal, "Why have you deceived me like this, and sent my enemy away, so that he has escaped?" Michal answered Saul, "He said to me, 'Let me go. Why should I kill you?'"

18So David fled and escaped, and he came to Samuel at Ramah and told him all that Saul had done to him. Then he and Samuel went and stayed at Naioth.

19Saul was told, "Look, David is at Naioth in Ramah."

20Saul sent messengers to take David. When they saw the company of prophets prophesying, with Samuel standing there as their leader, the Spirit of God came upon Saul's messengers, and they also prophesied.

21When Saul was told this, he sent other messengers, and they prophesied too. Saul sent messengers again a third time, and they prophesied as well.

22Then he himself went to Ramah, and came to the great well that is in Sechu. He asked, "Where are Samuel and David?" Someone said, "Look, they are at Naioth in Ramah."

23So he went there, to Naioth in Ramah. And the Spirit of God came upon him too, and he walked on, prophesying, until he came to Naioth in Ramah.

24He also stripped off his clothes and prophesied before Samuel in the same way. He lay down naked all that day and all that night. That is why people say, "Is Saul also among the prophets?"