The Living Bible (93 page)
Authors: Inc. Tyndale House Publishers
Tags: #BIBLES / Other Translations / Text
After King Saul had finished his conversation with David, David met Jonathan, the king’s son, and there was an immediate bond of love between them. Jonathan swore to be his blood brother,
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and sealed the pact by giving him his robe, sword, bow, and belt.
King Saul now kept David with him and wouldn’t let him return home anymore.
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He was Saul’s special assistant, and he always carried out his assignments successfully. So Saul made him commander of his troops, an appointment that was applauded by the army and general public alike.
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But something had happened when the victorious Israeli army was returning home after David had killed Goliath. Women came out from all the towns along the way to celebrate and to cheer for King Saul, and were singing and dancing for joy with tambourines and cymbals.
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However, this was their song: “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands!”
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Of course Saul was very angry. “What’s this?” he said to himself. “They credit David with ten thousands and me with only thousands. Next they’ll be making him their king!”
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So from that time on King Saul kept a jealous watch on David.
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The very next day, in fact, a tormenting spirit from God overwhelmed Saul, and he began to rave like a madman. David began to soothe him by playing the harp, as he did whenever this happened. But Saul, who was fiddling with his spear,
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suddenly hurled it at David, intending to pin him to the wall. But David jumped aside and escaped. This happened another time, too, for Saul was afraid of him and jealous because the Lord had left him and was now with David.
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Finally Saul banned him from his presence and demoted him to the rank of captain. But the controversy put David more than ever in the public eye.
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David continued to succeed in everything he undertook, for the Lord was with him.
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When King Saul saw this, he became even more afraid of him; but all Israel and Judah loved him, for he was as one of them.
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One day Saul said to David, “I am ready to give you my oldest daughter Merab as your wife. But first you must prove yourself to be a real soldier by fighting the Lord’s battles.” For Saul thought to himself, “I’ll send him out against the Philistines and let them kill him rather than doing it myself.”
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“Who am I that I should be the king’s son-in-law?” David exclaimed. “My father’s family is nothing!”
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But when the time arrived for the wedding, Saul married her to Adriel, a man from Meholath, instead.
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In the meantime Saul’s daughter Michal had fallen in love with David, and Saul was delighted when he heard about it.
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“Here’s another opportunity to see him killed by the Philistines!” Saul said to himself. But to David he said, “You can be my son-in-law after all, for I will give you my youngest daughter.”
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Then Saul instructed his men to say confidentially to David that the king really liked him a lot, and that they all loved him and thought he should accept the king’s proposition and become his son-in-law.
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But David replied, “How can a poor man like me from an unknown family find enough dowry to marry the daughter of a king?”
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When Saul’s men reported this back to him,
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he told them, “Tell David that the only dowry I need is one hundred dead Philistines!
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Vengeance on my enemies is all I want.” But what Saul had in mind was that David would be killed in the fight.
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David was delighted to accept the offer. So, before the time limit expired,
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he and his men went out and killed two hundred Philistines and presented their foreskins to King Saul. So Saul gave Michal to him.
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When the king realized how much the Lord was with David and how immensely popular he was with all the people,
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he became even more afraid of him and grew to hate him more with every passing day.
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Whenever the Philistine army attacked, David was more successful against them than all the rest of Saul’s officers. So David’s name became very famous throughout the land.
Saul now urged his aides and his son Jonathan to assassinate David. But Jonathan, because of his close friendship with David,
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told him what his father was planning. “Tomorrow morning,” he warned him, “you must find a hiding place out in the fields.
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I’ll ask my father to go out there with me, and I’ll talk to him about you; then I’ll tell you everything I can find out.”
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The next morning
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as Jonathan and his father were talking together, he spoke well of David and begged him not to be against David.
“He’s never done anything to harm you,” Jonathan pleaded. “He has always helped you in any way he could.
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Have you forgotten about the time he risked his life to kill Goliath, and how the Lord brought a great victory to Israel as a result? You were certainly happy about it then. Why should you now murder an innocent man? There is no reason for it at all!”
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Finally Saul agreed and vowed, “As the Lord lives, he shall not be killed.”
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Afterwards Jonathan called David and told him what had happened. Then he took David to Saul and everything was as it had been before.
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War broke out shortly after that, and David led his troops against the Philistines and slaughtered many of them, and put to flight their entire army.
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But one day as Saul was sitting at home, listening to David playing the harp, suddenly the tormenting spirit from the Lord attacked him. He had his spear in his hand and hurled it at David in an attempt to kill him. But David dodged out of the way and fled into the night, leaving the spear imbedded in the timber of the wall.
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Saul sent troops to watch David’s house and kill him when he came out in the morning.
“If you don’t get away tonight,” Michal warned him, “you’ll be dead by morning.”
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So she helped him get down to the ground through a window.
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Then she took an idol
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and put it in his bed, and covered it with blankets, with its head on a pillow of goat’s hair.
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When the soldiers came to arrest David and take him to Saul,
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she told them he was sick and couldn’t get out of bed.
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Saul said to bring him in his bed, then, so that he could kill him.
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But when they came to carry him out, they discovered that it was only an idol!
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“Why have you deceived me and let my enemy escape?” Saul demanded of Michal.
“I had to,” Michal replied. “He threatened to kill me if I didn’t help him.”
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In that way David got away and went to Ramah to see Samuel, and told him all that Saul had done to him. So Samuel took David with him to live at Naioth.
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When the report reached Saul that David was at Naioth in Ramah,
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he sent soldiers to capture him; but when they arrived and saw Samuel and the other prophets prophesying, the Spirit of God came upon them and they also began to prophesy.
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When Saul heard what had happened, he sent other soldiers, but they too prophesied! The same thing happened a third time!
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Then Saul himself went to Ramah and arrived at the great well in Secu.
“Where are Samuel and David?” he demanded.
Someone told him they were at Naioth.
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But on the way to Naioth the Spirit of God came upon Saul, and he too began to prophesy!
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He tore off his clothes and lay naked all day and all night, prophesying with Samuel’s prophets. Saul’s men were incredulous!
“What!” they exclaimed. “Is Saul a prophet too?”
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David now fled from Naioth in Ramah and found Jonathan.
“What have I done?” he exclaimed. “Why is your father so determined to kill me?”
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“That’s not true!” Jonathan protested. “I’m sure he’s not planning any such thing, for he always tells me everything he’s going to do, even little things, and I know he wouldn’t hide something like this from me. It just isn’t so.”
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“Of course you don’t know about it!” David fumed. “Your father knows perfectly well about our friendship, so he has said to himself, ‘I’ll not tell Jonathan—why should I hurt him?’ But the truth is that I am only a step away from death! I swear it by the Lord and by your own soul!”
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“Tell me what I can do,” Jonathan begged.
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And David replied, “Tomorrow is the beginning of the celebration of the new moon. Always before, I’ve been with your father for this occasion, but tomorrow I’ll hide in the field and stay there until the evening of the third day.
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If your father asks where I am, tell him that I asked permission to go home to Bethlehem for an annual family reunion.
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If he says, ‘Fine!’ then I’ll know that all is well. But if he is angry, then I’ll know that he is planning to kill me.
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Do this for me as my sworn brother. Or else kill me yourself if I have sinned against your father, but don’t betray me to him!”
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“Of course not!” Jonathan exclaimed. “Look, wouldn’t I say so if I knew that my father was planning to kill you?”
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Then David asked, “How will I know whether or not your father is angry?”
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“Come out to the field with me,” Jonathan replied. And they went out there together.
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Then Jonathan told David, “I promise by the Lord God of Israel that about this time tomorrow, or the next day at the latest, I will talk to my father about you and let you know at once how he feels about you.
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If he is angry and wants you killed, then may the Lord kill me if I don’t tell you, so you can escape and live. May the Lord be with you as he used to be with my father.
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And remember, you must demonstrate the love and kindness of the Lord not only to me during my own lifetime,
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but also to my children after the Lord has destroyed all of your enemies.”
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So Jonathan made a covenant with the family of David, and David swore to it with a terrible curse against himself and his descendants, should he be unfaithful to his promise.
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But Jonathan made David swear to it again, this time by his love for him, for he loved him as much as he loved himself.
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Then Jonathan said, “Yes, they will miss you tomorrow when your place at the table is empty.
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By the day after tomorrow, everyone will be asking about you, so be at the hideout where you were before, over by the stone pile.
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I will come out and shoot three arrows in front of the pile as though I were shooting at a target.
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Then I’ll send a lad to bring the arrows back. If you hear me tell him, ‘They’re on this side,’ then you will know that all is well and that there is no trouble.
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But if I tell him, ‘Go farther—the arrows are still ahead of you,’ then it will mean that you must leave immediately.
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And may the Lord make us keep our promises to each other, for he has witnessed them.”
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So David hid himself in the field.
When the new moon celebration began, the king sat down to eat at his usual place against the wall. Jonathan sat opposite him and Abner was sitting beside Saul, but David’s place was empty.
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Saul didn’t say anything about it that day, for he supposed that something had happened so that David was ceremonially impure. Yes, surely that must be it!
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But when his place was still empty the next day, Saul asked Jonathan, “Why hasn’t David been here for dinner either yesterday or today?”
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“He asked me if he could go to Bethlehem to take part in a family celebration,” Jonathan replied. “His brother demanded that he be there, so I told him to go ahead.”
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Saul boiled with rage. “You fool!”
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he yelled at him. “Do you think I don’t know that you want this son of a nobody
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to be king in your place, shaming yourself and your mother?
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As long as that fellow is alive, you’ll never be king. Now go and get him so I can kill him!”
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“But what has he done?” Jonathan demanded. “Why should he be put to death?”
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Then Saul hurled his spear at Jonathan, intending to kill him; so at last Jonathan realized that his father really meant it when he said David must die.
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Jonathan left the table in fierce anger and refused to eat all that day, for he was crushed by his father’s shameful behavior toward David.
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The next morning, as agreed, Jonathan went out into the field and took a young boy with him to gather his arrows.
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“Start running,” he told the boy, “so that you can find the arrows as I shoot them.” So the boy ran and Jonathan shot an arrow beyond him.
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When the boy had almost reached the arrow, Jonathan shouted, “The arrow is still ahead of you.
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Hurry, hurry, don’t wait.” So the boy quickly gathered up the arrows and ran back to his master.
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He, of course, didn’t understand what Jonathan meant; only Jonathan and David knew.
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Then Jonathan gave his bow and arrows to the boy and told him to take them back to the city.
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As soon as he was gone, David came out from where he had been hiding near the south edge of the field. Both of them were crying as they said good-bye, especially David.
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At last Jonathan said to David, “Cheer up, for we have entrusted each other and each other’s children into God’s hands forever.” So they parted, David going away and Jonathan returning to the city.