Saul told his son Jonathan and all his attendants to kill David. But Jonathan was very fond of David and loved him deeply. He warned David, saying, "My father Saul is looking for a chance to kill you. Be on your guard tomorrow morning. Go into hiding and stay there. I will go out and stand with my father in the field where you are. I will speak to him about you and tell you what I find out."
Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul his father: "Let not the king do wrong to his servant David. He has not wronged you, and all he has done has benefited you greatly. He risked his life when he killed the Philistine, and the LORD won a great victory for all Israel, which you saw and were glad about. Why, then, would you do wrong to an innocent man like David by killing him for no reason?"
Saul listened to Jonathan and took an oath: "As surely as the LORD lives, David will not be put to death."
Jonathan then called David, told him the whole conversation, and brought him back to Saul. David was with Saul as before.
Once more, war broke out, and David went out to fight the Philistines. He struck them with such force that they fled before him. But an evil spirit from the LORD came upon Saul as he sat in his house with his spear in his hand.
While David played the harp, Saul tried to pin him to the wall with his spear. David eluded him, and the spear struck the wall instead. That night, David made good his escape.
Saul then sent men to David's house to watch it and kill him in the morning. But Michal, David's wife, warned him, "If you don't run for your life tonight, tomorrow you'll be killed." So Michal let David down through a window, and he fled and escaped.
Michal took an idol, laid it on the bed, covered it with a garment, and put some goats' hair at the head. When Saul sent men to capture David, Michal said, "He is ill." Saul sent the men back to see David and told them, "Bring him up to me in his bed so that I may kill him." But when the men entered, they found the idol in the bed with goats' hair at the head.
Saul asked Michal, "Why did you deceive me like this and send my enemy away so that he escaped?" Michal replied, "He said to me, 'Let me get away. Why should I kill you?'"
After David had fled and made his escape, he went to Samuel at Ramah and told him all that Saul had done to him. Then David and Samuel went to Naioth and stayed there.
Word came to Saul, "David is in Naioth at Ramah." So he sent men to capture him. But when they arrived and saw a group of prophets prophesying, with Samuel standing there as their leader, the Spirit of God came upon Saul's men, and they prophesied as well.
Saul was told about it, and he sent more men. They prophesied too. He sent men a third time, and they also prophesied.
Finally, Saul himself left for Ramah and went to the great cistern at Secu. He asked, "Where are Samuel and David?" "Over in Naioth at Ramah," they said.
So Saul went to Naioth at Ramah. But the Spirit of God came upon him as well, and he walked along prophesying until he reached Naioth. He stripped off his robes and prophesied in Samuel's presence, lying there all day and all night. This is why people say, "Is Saul also among the prophets?"