CHAPTER SUMMARY

Shaul speaks to Yonatan and all his servants to kill David, which obviously rubs Yonatan the wrong way. He warns David to hide in the field, and he would bring Shaul out to that field, hopefully to reconcile. He then speaks to Shaul on David’s behalf, reminding his father of the various services David has performed, and Shaul swears that David will not die. Yonatan then calls David out of his hiding place, and David returns to his place in Shaul’s life, as if nothing had happened.

Soon after, David goes to war with Plishtim, and defeats them mightily, bringing on a ruah ra`ah in Shaul. As David plays for him, Shaul throws the spear at him (a scenario we have seen before), only this time David flees in the night. Shaul sends people to David’s house to watch him and kill him in the morning, but Michal warns David to run away, and helps him by hiding terafim (statues)in his bed, and covering them with a blanket. Shaul’s messengers come to see David, and Michal tells them that he is sick. Shaul sends them again to bring David in his bed to kill him, and they discover the ruse. Shaul reprimands Michal for misleading him, to allow his enemy to escape, and Michal responds that David had threatened to kill her if she did not.

David runs away to Shmuel in Ramah, tells him all that had happened, and the two of them went to Nayot. Shaul sends messengers to capture David, but—three times in a row—the messengers are overcome by prophecy when they see Shmuel leading a group of prophets in their prophecy. Finally, Shaul himself goes, and as he approaches Nayot is overcome by prophecy. He sheds his clothing (either his royal robes or his actual clothing, depending on which commentator you accept), and spends a day and a night in that state, leading to the repetition and reinforcement of the motto, "hagam Shaul ba-nevi’im?"

THE MOST UNKINDEST CUT

One of the themes of this chapter that I found illuminating was, as I have noted before, the contrast between Shaul’s treatment of David, and that of his kids. We have previously seen that the kids did not share the father’s jealousy of David; in this chapter we see the different ways in which they are willing to stand up to or circumvent their father the king to protect David.

When Shaul begins the chapter by announcing his desire to kill David, Yonatan does not take it particularly seriously. While he urges David to hide, he feels confident that he can convince his father to rescind the order, as indeed he does. That episode, to me, adds more evidence that those surrounding Shaul treated him as if he had a recurring mental illness, so that they still took his position seriously, but also recognized possibilities to change that position.

David, too, seems to share their view, since, even after Shaul has tried to kill him (and even Malbim recognizes that here David had seen Shaul throw the spear at him), he is willing to return and play for him on another occasion of ruah ra`ah. One way of treating mental illness is to, respectfully, manipulate the patient to act in positive ways. This might be all the more true if Shaul’s only significant weakness was David.

In this case, however, Shaul was too far gone for the strategy to work. David’s victory at war sparks a ruah ra`ah. As David plays for him—another proof that he did not take Shaul’s prior threats seriously—Shaul’s rage boils over. David runs away to his house, and stays there, apparently expecting Shaul to leave the matter there (again, only a productive plan if Shaul’s mood would pass quickly). Michal recognizes the seriousness of the current threat, perhaps because she knows her father better. She gets David to run away more fully, and then covers for him with Shaul’s messengers.

DIFFERING METHODS OF THE SIBLINGS

I think Michal’s strategy for dealing with Shaul bears comparison to Yonatan’s. Yonatan confronted his father with the folly of his attitude towards David, and convinces him to take it back (later in the book, he will again speak directly to his father, only there he will completely fail). Michal tries to trick Shaul’s messengers by putting statues in the bed. When that fails, and her father reprimands her, she lies that David forced her.

It is possible that their genders explain these discrepancies. Yonatan, used to having the right to express an opinion, to take an active role in shaping the world around him, attacks problems head on. Michal, used to the official powerlessness of women, had to resort to strategies that circumvented her official helplessness.

Alternatively or additionally, Yonatan and Michal might have had different perspectives of Shaul’s state of mind. Yonatan seems to have assumed that Shaul had bouts of insanity, but that once those were overcome life could return to normal. Michal (either because something had changed, or just because she saw Shaul differently) saw this bad mood for what it was, a new resolve to chase and kill David, no matter the consequences. In that situation, it is perhaps useless to try to speak directly to the person who has lost their grip on reality, so she simply avoids a confrontation. Possibly, then, the two strategies are each useful, depending on the kind of person one is facing.

Michal’s use of terafim also reminds of Rachel’s attempt to get her father away from idol worship. There, too, a daughter saw her father on a self-destructive path and tried to avert that self-destruction. While there the terafim were idols, here they were apparently simply statues (as Metsudat Tsiyon says); here, too, however, they were used ineffectually, as the parent in question would not desist from his quixotic quest.

SHAUL TRAPPED IN HIS RAGE

Watching Shaul at this juncture almost arouses sympathy. He is so caught up in his fury at David that he tries to spear him, then to catch him at home, then, when told that he is ill, to bring him in his bed to be killed in the morning.

Parenthetically, let me note the resistance they all seem to have had to killing people at night. Radak thinks that Shaul did not wish to kill David in front of Michal; Malbim thinks that Shaul was trying to get David to run away, as a sign of his (David’s) guilt. It seems possible that people in those times simply did not do anything at night—it was dark and a time for sleep. (Consider how few mitsvot are performed specifically at night, whereas several are only for the daytime). Even in the midst of his murderous rage, when Shaul was willing to reveal himself to his daughter as a murderer, was willing to take a man in his sick-bed to his death, he was not willing to execute that judgement at night.

Aside from the events in Michal’s house, Shaul pursues David here with a tenacity we have not seen before. Hearing that David has fled to Nayot, he sends group after group to apprehend him (we might have thought that one group’s failure would already make him recognize that it was not going to work), finally going himself. For the rest of his life, in fact, Shaul will not be able to shake this obsession.

DAVID, SHMUEL, AND THE PROPHET SHAUL

David runs away to Ramah, where he seeks protection with Shmuel. On one hand, this makes senses, since it was Shmuel’s anointing that had put David into this position. Interestingly, though, this is the only time the two of them will interact after David’s having been anointed. I have previously noted Shaul’s actual personal relationship with Shmuel, and vice verse.

If that is correct, Shmuel here protects David out of duty but not out of deep personal connection. Possibly, though, events at Nayot offer an opportunity for Shmuel- who was not willing to speak to Shaul since having been informed that Shaul’s kingship would not continue—to try to show Shaul where he is erring.

That might explain why we see a repetition of Shaul’s prophecy—if the original experience of prophecy was meant to show him that he could step outside of himself, reinvent himself as a king of the Jewish people, this time might have sought to remind him of that lesson. The repetition of the motto that people said, while possibly a simple report of what happened, nonetheless also reinforces the message that lineage and past actions do not absolutely determine our future. Given all that, Shmuel might have seen this as an opportunity to try to help Shaul (with whom he did have an emotional connection, as we have seen on other occasions) free himself from his spiral into murderous obsession.

Support for that view comes from our seeing—next chapter—that David cannot simply avail himself of the protection of Shmuel until Shaul dies. According to Malbim, David can only rely on Shmuel for this day and night, but then has to flee. If Shmuel could protect him, why should he have to run away? Our analysis here suggests that Shmuel was not primarily protecting David—God can do that—but was offering Shaul a last chance at some sort of redemption. Here, too, Shaul fails to take advantage of the opportunity, and resumes his search for David as soon as the prophetic spirit leaves him.

A last point about prophecy. The verse notes that Shaul shed his clothing when prophesying. If that means his royal robes, as Rashi has it, then this would be a symbol of Shaul’s need to return to the modest person we met in the chapters before he became king; that person would never have been so jealous of David as to contemplate murder. If it means literally all of his clothing (Radak suggests that when one is prophesying, all physical attributes become unimportant, such as clothing), it seems to be a reminder along the same lines as "hagam Shaul," that our previous clothing (whether material or in our actions or character) can be shed, if necessary, and we can instead connect to God, and guide our future actions by His will. Would that we would. Shabbat Shalom.