1 Samuel 18 - EasyEnglish Bible 2024（EASY）

Chapter 18Saul becomes jealous of David

1David finished talking with Saul. After that, Saul's son Jonathan became a very good friend of David. Jonathan loved David as much as he loved his own life.

2Saul kept David with him from that day. He did not let David go home to his father's house.

3Jonathan made a special promise to be David's friend, because he loved David as much as he loved his own life.

4Jonathan took off his coat and he gave it to David. He also gave his armour to David, as well as his sword, his bow and his belt.

5David did whatever Saul asked him to do. And he always did it well. So Saul made David an officer to lead his army. That made the soldiers happy, and it also pleased Saul's officers.

6After David had killed the Philistine, Goliath, he and the soldiers returned to their homes. Women came out from all the towns in Israel to meet King Saul. The women were happy as they sang songs and they danced. They made music with tambourines and lyres.

7They sang this song while they danced:

‘Saul has killed thousands of his enemies.

But David has killed tens of thousands of his enemies.’

8Saul did not like this song. He became very angry. He thought, ‘The women say that David has killed tens of thousands of men. But they say that I have only killed thousands of men. They will soon want David to be their king.’

9After that, Saul was jealous of David and he watched David carefully.

10The next day God caused an evil spirit to come and control Saul. Saul started to prophesy in his house. David was making music on his harp as he did every day. Saul had a spear in his hand.

11He threw the spear at David. He thought, ‘I will hit David so that it fixes him to the wall.’ He tried to do this twice, but David moved out of the way.

12The Lord was with David. But the Lord had left Saul. So Saul was afraid of David.

13So Saul sent David away from him. He made David the leader of 1,000 soldiers. David led the soldiers into battles, but he always came back again.

14David won all his fights because the Lord was with him.

15Saul saw that David was a great soldier. So he became more afraid of David.

16All the people in Israel and Judah loved David because he led the army in their battles.

David marries Saul's daughter Michal

17Saul said to David, ‘Here is my oldest daughter Merab. I will let you marry her. But you must be a brave soldier and you must fight battles for the Lord.’ Saul thought to himself, ‘I will not have to kill David myself. The Philistines will do that.’

18But David said to Saul, ‘I am not an important person. My family and my father's clan are not important either. I do not deserve to marry the king's daughter.’

19When the time came for Merab to marry David, Saul told her to marry a different man. He gave her to Adriel from Meholah to be his wife.

20Saul had another daughter, Michal, and she loved David. When somebody told Saul about this, he was very happy.

21He thought, ‘I will let David marry her. I will use her as a trap that will catch him. I will give the Philistines a chance to kill him.’ So Saul said to David, ‘Now you have another chance to marry one of my daughters.’

22Saul told his servants to say secretly to David, ‘The king is pleased with you. His servants all like you. You should now marry the king's daughter.’

23Saul's servants said this to David. But David replied, ‘It is a great honour for someone to marry the king's daughter. But I am poor. I am not important enough.’

24Saul's servants told him what David had said.

25Saul said, ‘Tell David this: The king does not want David to pay money to marry the king's daughter. He can pay for her with the foreskins of 100 dead Philistines. Saul wants David to punish his enemies.’

In this way, Saul thought that he would use the Philistines to kill David.

26Saul's servants told David what Saul wanted. It made David happy to think that he could marry the king's daughter. Before the time for the wedding arrived,

27David and his men left their homes. They went and they killed 200 Philistines. David brought all their foreskins to Saul. David gave them to Saul so that he could marry the king's daughter. So Saul agreed to let David marry his daughter Michal.

28Saul realized that the Lord was with David. He knew that his daughter Michal loved David.

29So Saul became even more afraid of David. Saul was David's enemy for the rest of his life.

30The Philistine army continued to march out and attack the Israelites. Every time that they fought, David won more fights than any of Saul's other officers. So David became very famous.