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Jonathan 1 Samuel

About this book
Chapter 19

1 And Saul spoke with Jonathan his son and with all his servants to kill David, but Jonathan son of Saul delighted much in David. 2 And Jonathan told David, saying, 'Saul my father seeks to kill you; now therefore be on your guard in the morning and stay in a secret place and hide yourself.' 3 'And I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where you are, and I will speak with my father about you; and if I learn anything, I will tell you.' 4 And Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul his father and said to him, 'Let not the king sin against his servant David, because he has not sinned against you, and because his deeds have brought good to you.' 5 'For he took his life in his hand and he struck down the Philistine, and the Lord worked a great salvation for all Israel. You saw it and rejoiced; why then will you sin against innocent blood by killing David without cause?' 6 And Saul listened to the voice of Jonathan; Saul swore, 'As the Lord lives, he shall not be put to death.' 7 And Jonathan called David, and Jonathan reported to him all these things. And Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he was in his presence as before. 8 And there was war again; and David went out and fought with the Philistines and struck them with a great blow, so that they fled before him. 9 Then a harmful spirit from the Lord came upon Saul as he sat in his house with his spear in his hand. And David was playing the lyre. 10 And Saul sought to pin David to the wall with the spear, but he eluded Saul, so that he struck the spear into the wall. And David fled and escaped that night. 11 Saul sent messengers to David's house to watch him, that he might kill him in the morning. But Michal, David's wife, told him, 'If you do not escape with your life tonight, tomorrow you will be killed.' 12 So Michal let David down through the window, and he fled away and escaped. 13 Michal took a saddle of a camel and laid it on the bed⁠ and put a pillow of goats' hair at its head and covered it with clothes. 14 And when Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, 'He is sick.' 15 Then Saul sent the messengers to see David, saying, 'Bring him up to me in the bed, that I may kill him.' 16 And when the messengers came in, behold, the saddle of a camel was in the bed, with the pillow of goats' hair at its head. 17 Saul said to Michal, 'Why have you deceived me thus and let my enemy go, so that he has escaped?' And Michal answered Saul, 'He said to me, 'Let me go. Why should I kill you?'' 18 Now David fled and escaped, and he came to Samuel at Ramah and told him all that Saul had done to him. And he and Samuel went and lived at Naioth. 19 And it was told Saul, 'Behold, David is at Naioth in Ramah.' 20 Then Saul sent messengers to take David, and when they saw the company of the prophets prophesying, and Samuel standing as head over them, the Spirit of God came upon the messengers of Saul, and they also prophesied. 21 When it was told Saul, he sent other messengers, and they also prophesied. And Saul sent messengers again the third time, and they also prophesied. 22 Then he himself went to Ramah and came to the great well that is in Secu. And he asked, 'Where are Samuel and David?' And one said, 'Behold, they are at Naioth in Ramah.' 23 And he went there to Naioth in Ramah. And the Spirit of God came upon him also, and as he went he prophesied until he came to Naioth in Ramah. 24 And he too stripped off his clothes, and he too prophesied before Samuel and lay naked all that day and all that night. Thus it is said, 'Is Saul also among the prophets?'

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Compare 1 Samuel 19:13 and Jonathan 1 Samuel 19:13

Hebrew Bible · Targum

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Summary

1 Samuel 19 says Michal used an idol to disguise David’s absence, tolerating a forbidden object from foreign worship. Some versions of the Aramaic translation in Targum Jonathan replace the idol with the “saddle of a camel” to remove the offending item.

Passages

1 Samuel 19:13

Hebrew Bible
11 Saul sent messengers to David’s house to guard it and to kill him in the morning. Then David’s wife Michal told him, “If you do not save yourself tonight, tomorrow you will be dead!” 12 So Michal lowered David through the window, and he ran away and escaped. 13 Then Michal took a household idol and put it on the bed. She put a quilt made of goats’ hair over its head and then covered the idol with a garment. 14 When Saul sent messengers to arrest David, she said, “He’s sick.”
600–501 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Samuel

Jonathan 1 Samuel 19:13

Targum
11 Saul sent messengers to David's house to watch him, that he might kill him in the morning. But Michal, David's wife, told him, 'If you do not escape with your life tonight, tomorrow you will be killed.' 12 So Michal let David down through the window, and he fled away and escaped. 13 Michal took a saddle of a camel and laid it on the bed and put a pillow of goats' hair at its head and covered it with clothes. 14 And when Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, 'He is sick.'
200–300 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Jonathan 1 Samuel

References

"... At David’s escape, his wife puts Teraphim on his bed in order to deceive the servants of Saul (1 Samuel 19:13, 16). The translator of the Septuagint writes κενοτάφια (cenotaphs; the term is a hapax legomenon in the Septuagint) in order to avoid the notion David would worship foreign deities. The textual tradition of Targum Jonathan 1 Samuel 19:13, 16 is divided: The main tradition reads צלמא (“statues”), a v.l. offers עבטיא (“saddle of a camel”) ..."
Martin Meiser, The Septuagint and Its Reception: Collected Essays (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2022), 77.

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