9. Then an evil spirit from the Lord came upon Saul as he was sitting in his house with spear in hand while David was playing the harp nearby.
10. Saul tried to pin David to the wall with the spear, but David eluded Saul, and the spear struck only the wall, while David got away safely.
11. The same night, Saul sent messengers to David’s house to guard it, planning to kill him in the morning. David’s wife Michal informed him, “Unless you run for your life tonight, tomorrow you will be killed.”
12. Then Michal let David down through a window, and he made his escape in safety.
13. Michal took the teraphim and laid it in the bed, putting a tangle of goat’s hair at its head and covering it with a blanket.
14. When Saul sent officers to arrest David, she said, “He is sick.”
15. Saul, however, sent the officers back to see David and commanded them, “Bring him up to me in his bed, that I may kill him.”
16. But when the messengers entered, they found the teraphim in the bed, with the tangle of goat’s hair at its head.
17. Saul asked Michal: “Why did you lie to me like this? You have helped my enemy to get away!” Michal explained to Saul: “He threatened me, saying ‘Let me go or I will kill you.’”
18. When David got safely away, he went to Samuel in Ramah, informing him of all that Saul had done to him. Then he and Samuel went to stay in Naioth.
19. When Saul was told that David was at Naioth in Ramah,
20. he sent officers to arrest David. But when they saw the band of prophets presided over by Samuel in a prophetic state, the spirit of God came upon them and they too fell into the prophetic ecstasy.
21. Informed of this, Saul sent other messengers, who also fell into the prophetic ecstasy. For the third time Saul sent messengers, but they too fell into a prophetic ecstasy.
22. Finally Saul went to Ramah himself. Arriving at the large cistern in Secu, he asked, “Where are Samuel and David?” Someone answered, “At Naioth in Ramah.”
23. As he walked from there to Naioth in Ramah, the spirit of God came upon him also, and he continued on, acting like a prophet until he reached Naioth in Ramah.