1 Samuel 19:8-17

David Driven Out a Second Time. 1 Samuel 19:8-17

8 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.
9 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.

10 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 wail: and David fled, and escaped that night.
11 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 tonight, tomorrow thou shalt be slain.
12 So Michal let David down through a window: and he went, and fled, and escaped.
13 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.

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

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

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

17 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?

4.

Why did Saul have his spear in his hand? 1 Samuel 19:9

Saul probably had the spear as a sceptre. He must have held it in his hand as he presided over his court. This would be in keeping with ancient oriental custom. It is also possible that Saul kept his spear always at hand in order that he might seize upon an opportunity to kill David. The spear that he held was evidently in the form of a javelin which he could throw. On the occasion described in this chapter he threw the javelin, but missed David. The javelin then stuck in the wall as David escaped out of Saul's presence. This is the second incident mentioned in which David escaped from a direct attack on the part of Saul. Since the other occasion mentioned David's escaping twice, this would make at least three times that David escaped out of Saul's presence (1 Samuel 18:10).

5.

Why did Michal have teraphim? 1 Samuel 19:13

Teraphim were little household images. The fact that Michal had these in her house reveals that she was not purely a worshipper of the Lord. Teraphim were found in the house of Laban, and Rachel stole them when she left her father's house (Genesis 31:19). These images were not large, for Rachel was able to hide her father's teraphim in the camel's baggage and sit on them. If Michal had larger images so that only one of the teraphim was put in the bed to look like a human form, they must have been larger than those stolen by Rachel, since it would be hard for Rachel to hide an image of this size. The pillow of goat's hair would resemble human hair quite naturally. It was goat's hair which Jacob put on his hands to feel like the human hair on Esau's hands (Genesis 27:16). Ancient dramatists in Greece and Rome used kid skin for the making of puppets to resemble humans, and they used kid skin with the hair to make wigs and toupees. Kid skin very nearly resembles human skin in its softness and pliability.

6.

Was Michal's answer true? 1 Samuel 19:17

Nothing is said about David's threatening Michal. David may have asked her to let him go and to give him time to escape so that he might protect her. Saul may have been so senseless in his attack on David that he would have killed his own daughter along with David. The inference of her statement is that she could not prevent David's escape. She gives the impression that David forced her to make up the bed so that it appeared that he was in it, even threatening her life if she failed to cooperate with him. If this be the case, there is no reference to it in the narrative. More than likely it is a piece of deceit on the part of Michal, and she is not justified in lying thus about the matter.