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David had finished speaking with Saul, Jonathan became one with David in spirit, and Jonathan loved him like his own self. 2 Saul kept David with him from that day on and would not let him return to his father’s house. 3 Then Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as much as himself. 4 Jonathan took off the robe his was wearing and gave it to David, along with his military tunic, and even his sword, his bow, and his belt.
5 Wherever David was sent, he was successful in every task that Saul sent him to accomplish. So Saul put him in command of the fighting men. This pleased all the people, including Saul’s officers.
6 As they were coming home after David had killed the Philistine, the women came out from all the cities of Israel to meet King Saul. They were singing and dancing joyously with tambourines and other musical instruments. 7 As the women danced, they sang:
“Saul has slain his thousands,
and David his tens of thousands.”
8 Saul was very angry, for this verse sorely displeased him. “They have credited David with tens of thousands,” he complained, “but to me only thousands. What more can he get, but the kingdom itself?” 9 And from that day on Saul kept a jealous eye on David.
10 The next day an evil spirit from God forcefully took control of Saul, and he began raving in his palace. David was playing the lyre, as he usually did, but Saul had a spear in his hand. 11 Saul threw the spear at David, thinking to himself, “I will pin David to the wall.” But David evaded him twice.
12 Saul was afraid of David, for the Lord was with him but He had turned away from Saul. 13 So Saul reassigned David, sending him away in command of one thousand men. David led the troops 14 and had success in all that he did, for the Lord was with him. 15 When Saul saw how successful he was, he was afraid of him. 16 But all Israel and Judah loved David because he was leading the troops.
17 Saul said to David, “Here is my oldest daughter Merab. I wll give her to you as a wife, if you will be courageous for me and fight the Lord’s battles.” For Saul was thinking, “I will not raise my hand against him, for the hand of the Philistines will be against him.”
18 But David said to Saul, “Who am I, and what is my family or my father’s clan in Israel, that I should be a son-in-law to the king?” 19 But when the time came for Merab, Saul’s daughter, to be given to David, she was given to Adriel the Meholathite as a wife.
20 Now Saul’s daughter Merab was in love with David, and when it was reported to Saul, he was pleased. 21 “I will give her to him,” Saul thought, “then she will become a snare for him, and the hand of the Philistines will be against him.” So Saul said to David a second time, “You can now become my son-in-law.”
22 Then Saul ordered his servants, “Speak to David in private and say, ‘Look, the king is pleased with you, and all his servants like you. So you should become the king’s son-in-law’.”
23 And Saul’s servants repeated these words in David’s ears. But David said, “Is it a trivial matter to you to become the king’s son-in-law? I am only a poor man of no consequence.”
24 When Saul’s servants reported back what David had said, 25 Saul told them, “This is what you must say to David, ‘The king does not desire any bridal price except a hundred foreskins from the Philistines, to take revenge on the king’s enemies’.” Saul planned to make David fall by the hand of the Philistines.
26 When his servants told David these words, he was pleased to become the king’s son-in-law. So before the allotted time had expired, 27 David went out with his men and killed two hundred Philistines. He brought their foreskins and presented them as full payment to the king, that he might become the king’s son-in-law. Then Saul gave him his daughter Michal for a wife.
28 But when Saul saw and recognized that the Lord was with David and that his daughter Michal loved David, 29 Saul became still more afraid of David. So Saul became David’s enemy from that time forward.
30 The Philistine commanders continued to go out to battle, and every time they did, David proved more successful than all the rest of Saul’s officers, so his name became renowned.