1 Samuel 18

1When he finished speaking to Saul, Jonathan's soul bound itself to David's soul, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.

2Saul took him that day and did not allow him to return to his father's house again.

3Jonathan made a covenant with David because of his love for him as his own soul.

4Jonathan stripped off the robe he was wearing and gave it to David, along with his clothes, his sword, his bow, and his belt.

5David went wherever Saul sent him and succeeded in everything, so Saul set him over the fighting men, and it pleased all the people and also Saul's servants.

6As they came, when David returned from killing the Philistine, the women came out from all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul with timbrels, with joy, and with triangles.

7The women answered one another as they played and said, "Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands."

8Saul burned with great anger, and this saying was evil in his eyes, and he said, "They have given David ten thousands, and to me they have given thousands—what more is left to him but the kingdom?"

9Saul looked jealously at David from that day onward.

10The next day an evil spirit from God rushed upon Saul, and he prophesied in the midst of the house while David played with his hand from day to day, and the spear was in Saul's hand.

11Saul hurled the spear and said, "I will strike David to the wall," but David turned aside from his presence twice.

12Saul feared David because Yahweh was with him and had departed from Saul.

13Saul removed him from his presence and appointed him his commander over a thousand, and he went out and came before the people.

14David prospered in all his ways, and Yahweh was with him.

15When Saul saw that he was exceedingly prudent, he was afraid of him.

16All Israel and Judah loved David because he went out and came in before them.

17Saul said to David, "See, my older daughter Merab—I will give her to you as a wife. Only be a man of valor for me, fighting Yahweh's battles." For Saul said, "Let not my hand be against him, but let the hand of the Philistines be against him."

18David said to Saul, "Who am I, and what is my life, my father's clan in Israel, that I should be son-in-law to the king?"

19When it was time to give Saul's daughter Merab to David, she was given to Adriel the Meholathite as a wife.

20Michal, Saul's daughter, loved David, and they told Saul, and the matter seemed good in his eyes.

21Saul said, "I will give her to him so she becomes a snare to him and the hand of the Philistines turns against him." So Saul said to David, "Today you become my son-in-law for the second time."

22Saul commanded his servants to speak to David privately and say, "See, the king delights in you, and all his servants love you; now therefore become a son-in-law to the king."

23Saul's servants spoke these words in David's ears, and David said, "Does becoming son-in-law to the king seem a small matter in your eyes, since I myself am a poor man, despised?"

24Saul's servants told him, saying, "David spoke according to these words."

25Saul said, "Tell David this: The king wants no dowry except a hundred Philistine foreskins, to take revenge on the king's enemies." Saul plotted to bring David down at Philistine hands.

26His servants reported these matters to David, and it seemed right to David to become the king's son-in-law, but the days were not yet fulfilled.

27David rose and set out with his men, and he struck down two hundred Philistine men. David brought their foreskins, and they presented them complete to the king so he could become a son-in-law to the king. Saul gave him his daughter Michal as a wife.

28Saul saw and knew that Yahweh was with David, and Michal, Saul's daughter, loved him.

29Saul was still more afraid of David, and Saul was David's enemy all his days.

30The Philistine princes went out, and it was that whenever they went out David behaved more wisely than all Saul's servants, so his name became greatly precious.