He heard the women singing who came out to meet him from the cities, after David's slaughter of the giant, and these were the words they sang: "Saul has slain his thousands, but David his ten thousands."
This made the king very angry, and from that day forth, he determined to kill David.
So King Saul hunted David up and down the land. Jonathan was devoted to him, and helped him to escape many times. He endeavoured to be a peacemaker, and assured his father that David had no evil designs against him. But it was all of no use. Jealousy, which the Bible says is "cruel as the grave," had entered into Saul's heart, and it poisoned all his thoughts.
Then David again had a great victory over the Philistines, and Saul was so jealous that he threw his javelin at him. David, however, escaped, and the javelin went into the wall, where he had been sitting playing his harp to Saul.
He fled down to his house, but Saul sent men to watch for him and to kill him in the morning. So Michal, his wife, persuaded him to fly that night, for she was sure he would be slain.
Michal was Saul's daughter, and she loved David. So she let him down through a window, and he escaped.
Then Michal took an image, and laid it in the bed, and put a goat's-hair pillow for a bolster and covered it with a cloth.
And when Saul's messengers came to take David, Michal said: "He is sick."
Then Saul sent back the messengers and ordered them to bring David in his bed!
But when the messengers came in, there was only an image in the bed, and David was far away!