1 After David finished talking with Saul, he met Saul’s son, Jonathan. Jonathan immediately liked David; in fact, he began to love/like him as much as he loved/liked himself. 2 From that day, Saul kept David with him, and did not let him return home. 3 Because Jonathan loved David so much, he made a solemn agreement with David. They promised each other that they would always be loyal friends. 4 Jonathan took off his own outer robe and gave it to David. He also gave David his soldier’s tunic, his sword, his bow and arrows, and his belt.

5  David went wherever Saul sent him. And whatever Saul told him to do, David did it very successfully. As a result, Saul appointed David to be a commander in the army. All the officers and other men in the army ◄approved of/were very pleased with► that.

6 But, when the men in the army were returning home after David had killed Goliath, the women came out from many [HYP] towns in Israel to meet/greet King Saul. They were singing and dancing very joyfully, playing tambourines and lyres. 7 As they danced, they sang this song to each other:

8  When Saul heard them singing that, he did not like it. He became very angry. He said to himself, “They are saying that David killed 10,000 men, but that I have killed only 1,000. Soon they will want to make him their king!” [RHQ] 9 From that time, Saul watched David very closely because he was suspicious that David would try to become king.

10 The next day, an evil spirit sent by God suddenly took control of Saul. He began to act like a madman, inside his house. David was playing the lyre for him, as he did every day. Saul was holding a spear in his hand, 11 and he hurled it at David, saying to himself, “I will fasten David to the wall with the spear!” He did that two times, but David jumped aside both times.

12 Because it became evident that Yahweh had abandoned Saul but that he was helping David, Saul was afraid of David. 13 So he appointed David as a commander of 1,000 soldiers and sent David away from him, hoping that David would be killed in a battle. But when David led his soldiers in their battles, 14 he always had great success, because Yahweh was helping him. 15 When Saul heard that David and his soldiers were very successful, he became more afraid of David. 16 But all the people of Israel and of Judah loved David, because he led the soldiers very successfully in the battles.

17 One day Saul said to David, “I am ready to give you my oldest daughter, Merab, to be your wife. I will do that if you serve me bravely by fighting battles for Yahweh against the Philistines”. He said that because he thought, “I will not try to get rid of David by myself. I will allow the Philistines to do that.”

18 But David said to Saul, “I am not [RHQ] a very important person, and my family is not very important, and my clan is not a very important Israeli clan. So I do not deserve to become your son-in-law.” [RHQ] 19 So, when it was time for Merab to be given to David to become his wife, instead, Saul gave her to a man named Adriel, from Meholah town.

20 But Saul’s other daughter, Michal, fell in love with David. When they told Saul about that, he was pleased. 21 He thought, “I will let Michal marry him, in order that she may trap him, and the Philistines will be able to kill him.” So he said to David, “You can marry Michal,” and by saying that, he indicated for the second time that David would become his son-in-law.

22 Saul told his servants, “Talk to David privately, and say to him, ‘Listen, the king is pleased with you, and all of us his servants love you. So now we think that you should marry Michal and become the king’s son-in-law.’ ”

23 So they told that to David. But David said, “It would be a great honor [RHQ] to become the king’s son-in-law. But I do not think that I should do that, because I am only a poor and insignificant man.”

24 When the servants told Saul what David had said, 25 Saul replied, “Go and say to David, ‘In order for the king to allow you to marry Michal, he wants you to kill 100 Philistines and cut off their foreskins and bring the foreskins to him to prove that you have killed them. In that way he will get revenge on his enemies.’ ” But what Saul wanted was that the Philistines would kill David while David was trying to kill them.

26 When the servants told that to David, he was very pleased that he could become the king’s son-in-law by doing that. The king had said how many days he would allow for David to do that. But before that time ended, 27 David and his men went and killed, not 100, but 200 Philistines! He brought their foreskins to Saul, and counted them while Saul was watching, in order to prove that he had done what the king required so that he could become Saul’s son-in-law. So then Saul was obligated to allow David to marry his daughter Michal.

28 But when Saul realized that Yahweh was helping David, and that his daughter loved David, 29 he became more afraid of David. So, as long as Saul lived, he was David’s enemy.

30 The Philistine armies repeatedly came to fight the Israelis, but every time they fought, David and his soldiers were more successful than any of Saul’s other army commanders. As a result, David became very famous.